About a year ago, poll results for the Pixel 9a showed that the hardware was pretty good, but people had an issue with the price. Well, we have been seeing 9a deals for months so that issue is essentially solved.
Now we turn our attention to the new Google Pixel 10a, which launches at the same price as the 9a – $500/£500/€550/₹50,000 for an 8/128GB unit, available March 6. And that isn’t the only thing that is the same on the 10a.
Let’s quickly go over the upgrades. The new 10a has a more durable Gorilla Glass 7i (up from GG3) and the same IP68 rating with an aluminum frame and plastic back. The battery is the same 5,100mAh cell but now with faster charging – 30W wired (up from 23W) and 10W wireless (up from 7.5W). However, the 10a does not feature Pixelsnap magnets like the other Pixel 10 models.
Google Pixel 10a color options
The OLED display remains at 6.3”, though it did get its peak brightness boosted to 3,000 nits (up from 2,700 nits). It’s still an LTPS panel and still uses an optical fingerprint reader, though. Some will see the added support for satellite SOS messaging as a must-have upgrade over the 9a (note: it’s only available in select regions).
That concludes the list of upgrades – the Pixel 10a uses the same Samsung-made Tensor G4 as last year’s model, which is paired with the same 8GB of RAM and 128/256GB storage. The camera setup hasn’t changed either, you get a 48MP main and a 13MP ultra-wide, plus a 13MP selfie.
Google Pixel 10a: same 48+13MP cameras • Gemini is a key player
The 10a launches with Android 16 out of the box, so it will receive an additional OS update compared to the 9a – but both phones will get 7 years of updates from their respective launches, which may be longer than the hardware is good for, anyway (Android 23 on a G4 chip with 8GB of RAM? Yeah…).
If you have a Pixel 9a, there is little incentive to upgrade to the 10a. What if you have an 8a? Or indeed any other phone – do you see yourself buying a Pixel 10a?
Google Pixel 10a 5G
| 128GB 8GB RAM | $ 499.00 |
C$ 679.00 |
| 256GB 8GB RAM | $ 599.00 |
C$ 809.00 |
| Show all prices | ||
