With all the available flagship phones that are out from various companies, mid range phones often get overlooked in favor of the more flashy phones released each year. This year though, the Pixel 9a is on the scene with an amazing price tag and jam packed features. After using this phone for a few months, is it worthy of the Pixel Moniker? It’s an interesting tale but spoiler, the punch line ends with “The best value in the phone market in 2025”.

Value for Days

The Pixel 9a checks in at $499 or $599 depending on your storage configuration. You get a choice of colors: Iris, Peony, Porcelain, and Obsidian.

The amount of bang for your buck here is unbelievable. While there are other options available to consumers in the Android space like the Galaxy A56 or the OnePlus13R that come in around the same price, the feature stack included in the Pixel 9a in my opinion is what really sets it apart since it offers pretty much the same experience as Pixel 9 Pro or XL. Sure there are trade offs like slower wireless charging, a single screen size, plastic body etc. but the Pixel 9a is a Google Phone. So that means earlier updates like Android 16 which was just released on June 10th. Samsung devices will continue to lag somewhat behind here due to their heavy customization though Samsung has promised to speed things up with Android 16 and beyond.

From a price perspective alone, the Pixel 9a is a serious contender for those who just need a phone without all the whiz bang insanity that can be rolled into a flagship these days. Want a high refresh rate screen. Check. Great camera. Check. Battery Life that won’t have you searching for a charging station? Check. Google Gemini? Check check. There are some tradeoffs which we will get into, but I can’t really find any negative things about this phone based on the value/cost/feature ratio.

Body

The Pixel 9a has a very flagship feel for its price. Aluminum side rails and a plastic back that feels great in the hand. The plastic back makes perfect sense here due to the price point. Most people put a case on their phone anyway, so you probably won’t notice the plastic back and I think it was the right corner to cut for this device along with an additional lens on the rear camera.

I was surprised to see no visor camera housing like other Pixel phones. Granted the Pixel 9 Pro Fold also doesn’t have a visor but for slab phones that has been the staple look. I’m happy to trade the visor though for a bit thicker phone if battery life is an improvement. I also like that it just sits flat. Sweet.

The glass on the display is Gorilla Glass 3 with an ip68 rating so a welcome improvement over the 8a’s ip67 from last year. All of these welcome additions and the corners cut on the Pixel 9a were cut in the right way to give consumers an amazing piece of hardware for less than the price of a very used car.

Specs

The Pixel 9a, for a midrange or budget smart phone has some really great specs. Physical hardware is pretty great:

• Tensor G4 Chip
• 8GB of Ram
• 128/256GB of Storage
• 6.3 Inch Display with 120hz Refresh Rate
• 13MP Ultrawide Lens (f2.2)
• 48MP Wide-angle Lens (f/1.7)
• 13MP Front facing camera
  

These are all amazing specs that say “I’m a flagship phone”, but the icing on the cake, is the battery. This phone, for a non flagship device, has a 5100mah battery. To put that into context, its battery, is bigger than BOTH the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and the Pixel 9 Pro XL.

That’s crazy for a phone with a 6.3 inch display and measures 6.09 inches high x 2.89 inches wide. They achieved this by making the phone thicker. Most people are asking for a slightly thicker phone, with no camera bump and more battery. Google did exactly that and its turned out to be a fantastic idea. I have used this phone across multiple airport trips. Hotspot usage, long Teams calls with Video, Web Browsing, Music playing, and screen at full brightness most of the time. This thing gets all day battery life. I’ve taken it off its charger at 5am to head to the airport, and put it back on the charger at 9pm that night with a hair over 20% battery life left.

One thing of note, the Pixel 9a for all its welcome changes and improvements the replacement process for the battery is quite difficult. The battery is glued to the inside and its a giant pain to replace, It’s really not user serviceable and still using a battery mounting process that others like Nothing/Apple/Samsung are no longer doing. If Serviceability of the battery is a requirement for you, I would not recommend it.

The Pixel 9A also comes with an in screen fingerprint reader as well as Face Unlock. Again adding just the right features for the price. Many phones in this price range give you one or the other in addition to the standard pin/password unlock. Both of these are exceptionally fast. It’s very quick to login and get going quickly with either or both on. Sweet.

Undeniably Google

The software experience is what makes a Pixel unique from the other Android devices on the market. Vanilla Android is just the way I like it and the Pixel delivers. Want Nightsight for the camera to take great low light photos, its there, Hold Assist that’s now coming to iPhone, its there too. Gemini as your assistant? No problem.

The software experience across the Pixel lineup is really great overall. My only issue with the Pixel and that really goes for Android overall, is the web browsing experience. I find the web browsing experience on Android to not be as smooth as say the iPhone. Going to the same sights across both platforms, browsing the web is just more delightful on Apple products than Android.

The only other “issue” was occasional bugs with the keyboard not responding when typing. This happened from time to time, and it always seemed to be when I was using messaging apps like Messages or Teams. Moving to Android 16 on the Pixel 9a did solve that issue for me and I’ve had no problems since.

That’s my only gripe about Android. Having used other phones from both Samsung and Google this year, the Pixel series of phones are still my favorite overall Android phones out there for me.

If I had to rank my Android phone brands for personal use:

1: Google Pixel Series

2: OnePlus Series

3: Samsung Series

4: Nothing Series

If it were corporate use, that would change slightly:

1: Samsung Series

2: Google Pixel Series

It’s not that you can’t use Nothing phones or OnePlus. They are perfectly acceptable. But with Samsung Knox capabilities, it makes that much more valuable in the corporate space in my opinion, and the sheer number of Samsung users in the world today relative to Pixel users, it makes sense to reorg it slightly for business use plus consumer familiarity with the products.

I will say though, that if you are into the Samsung ecosystem with a GalaxyBook Pro, Galaxy Tab, etc. Then Samsung moves up to second on the list since you’re getting close to an Apple like experience across your Samsung devices. More on that topic later this summer.

Google is also providing 7 years of software updates. While many people don’t keep their devices for 7 years, the total cost over that time frame is about $72 per year. By comparison, the Pixel 9 Pro over the same time period would be over double that amount at $157 per year. Further providing more value for consumers who don’t want to break the bank on their wireless device.

If I’m a business evaluating Android phones for users, I’d probably stick with Samsung as my number 1 choice simply because of Samsung Knox and its capabilities. Also more on that in another blog.

My Favorite Pixel Accessories

With any new phone, there’s always accessories to choose. There are 3 accessories I use with my Pixel 9a:

1: Pixel Watch 3 (Non LTE)

2: Pixel Silicon Case

3: Pixel Buds Pro 2

Since this is a review of the phone, we’ll focus on the case, but that said if you are using the Pixel Buds Pro or Pixel Watch today, you can expect the same wonderful pairing and use experience you get with those accessories on the Pixel 9a.

The Silicon case from Google felt great immediately out of the box. It’s a completely different feel than the silicon cases Apple offers. It’s easier to place in and out of your pocket since it doesn’t collect and hold onto pocket dust like Apple silicon cases do. It slides in and out of the pocket with ease and it doesn’t add too much bulk to the phone.

Overall, for the price of $19-$29 for the case, it offers a wonderful value without breaking the bank. Another amazing value proposition. Its held up well to0. Writing this about 6 months after buying it, the case shows some wear, but its what I would consider typical for a silicon soft touch case.

The Pixel Buds Pro 2 are really great. Their fit for me is very ideal. However, for their price, and when compared to the ANC of the AirPods Pro 2/3, they fall a little short. if ANC is your number 1 feature for your headphones, consider the Sony XM5-1000, Beats, or Bose in Ear earphones. Overall though, moving from one Pixel device to another with Pixel Buds Pro is fantastic and works similarly to the AirPods and iPhone.

Wrap Up

Overall I think the Pixel 9a provides consumers with a breath of fresh air for their phone choices. great screen, great battery life, great performance wrapped in 6.3inch package that doesn’t cause you to make questionable food choices to pay for it.

if you just want a phone that’s simple and easy to use, don’t want to pay through the nose for a flagship, and still want that flagship software experience and performance, then look no further than the Pixel 9a. its a great value for the money.