Google Pixel 9a Review: specs and features, camera quality test, gaming benchmark, user opinions and photos

Google Pixel 9A - insufficient progress

Smartphones from the American company Google have turned from camera phones that were once unattainable in terms of photo capabilities into products exclusively for fans of the brand. Competitors from China and South Korea have caught up in cameras and have noticeably outpaced them in functionality and performance. The hero of today's review is trying to reduce the gap, but the abundance of shortcomings still remains.

The appearance of the new product is ambiguous. The signature design of the photo module block, a variety of colors, a metal frame of the case with full moisture protection according to IP68 standards are strangely combined with display frames that are huge by the standards of sub-flagships and flagships. The 6.3-inch AMOLED screen has a built-in fingerprint scanner, the image it displays is smooth (refresh rate of 120 Hz), bright (peak brightness of 2700 nits), clear enough considering the diagonal (2424x1080 pixels), but the color rendition is sometimes wrong, and the PWM effect will upset all buyers sensitive to it.

The Tensor G4 processor, 8 GB of RAM and the Mali G715 video accelerator are a good, but definitely not the most productive combination, noticeably inferior to the latest solutions from Qualcomm and MediaTek. If the optimization of Android 15 plays into the hands of the chipset, the user will not notice any lags, then the gaming capabilities raise questions. The most resource-intensive games like Genshin Impact will require medium-high graphics presets due to the appearance of throttling at maximum settings, coupled with the initial lack of a stable 60 FPS. Autonomy is good, because the battery has been brought up to a capacity of 5100 mAh. You can not think about sockets for one and a half to two days. But the power of both wired (23W) and wireless (7.5W) charging is not particularly impressive. The permanent memory is allocated 128/256 GB, but a slot for MicroSD cards is not provided.

The main 48 and 13-megapixel cameras are flawless, the main sensor received optical stabilization and easily copes with literally any shooting scenarios. The wide-angle lens is weaker, there is no telephoto lens at all, which is definitely disappointing. The stereo sound is loud, rich, there are no complaints about it. Other advantages include 5G networks, NFC contactless payments, and eSIM. Overall, the device is better than its predecessors, but still lags behind its competitors.