Google Pixel 9a Reddit Verdict: Great Battery, Real Tradeoffs

For some (like me) the missing some AI features is a Good.

TLDR: The good — Good value at $499, Bright, sharp display, Long battery life, Clean version of Android 15 with seven years of support, Great photo quality. The bad — Doesn't crush benchmarks or run high-end games perfectly, Missing some AI features from more expensive Pixels.

"Its light on AI" say no more! I am interested.

The real headline should be the advertised battery life. It's "30+ hours" for the 9a vs "24+ hours" for the rest of the Pixel 9 series. I know the battery itself is bigger (5,100 mAh), but if you compare it to a Pixel 9, the increase doesn't really correlate. From P9 to P9a there's a 25% increase in advertised battery life, but only a 8% increase in mAh. Even weirder is the fact that the phone uses a less efficient modem than the rest of the 9 series.

Every youtuber was boasting how this pixel got a crazy battery life much better than all the pixels released before. I knew they were influencers and not reviewers already but now I'm wondering if they do more than reading the specsheet and read the marketing script they've been sent. The damn thing need almost 2 hours to charge????

Biggest issue by far with the 9A is it uses the old shit tier modem.

Pros: IP68-rated body with no-nonsense design. Bright OLED with HDR. Solid battery life. Pretty good stereo speaker setup. Clean, stock Android experience, seven years of software updates and timely updates. Very little thermal throttling. Great all-around camera performance. Cons: No charger in the box. Uninspired, kind of retro design with thick screen bezels and plastic back.

It uses the last gen modem, uses an optical sensor. The macro mode uses the main sensor.

Based on the specs and design, 9a should cost $100 less than the listed price. My $270 Edge 50 Neo has some specs which are superior to 9a like 67w charging, ltpo 1.5k display, smaller bezels, 256gb base storage for less than half the price. Pixel a series has lost all value that it used to have with 3a and 4a.

I do like the recessed camera bar on the 9a. I hope they bring that change to the mainline Pixels as well.

It feels like reviewers or influencers give so much leeway to pixels and don't really criticize pixelUI. They just brush off many shortcomings to it being "minimal" or "stock" or that you "don't buy these phones for their hardware".

Buy this phone if you like: Good camera, Pure stock android, Compact phone, Good battery, Good display, Android updates. Don't buy if you care about: Bezel thickness, Slow charging (23 Watts will take around 1Hour 30 min), Surely it gets warm with camera usage but never had any major heating.

So they did in fact gimp this phone with an old modem. When the main complaint of previous phones was bad connectivity it's a pretty crap move. Kinda kills an otherwise decent device.

Lack of telephoto lens. It's the only thing I miss from my previous Pixel 8 Pro.

Not too bad of a phone if you're in the US, absolutely need a brand new Android phone and don't want to break the bank. Anyone that lives in a country where there's actually real competition in the midrange/upper-midrange segment shouldn't touch this thing with a 10 foot pole as it's grossly overpriced for what you get.

Yup, I'm a big fan. But I find it harder to grip than a 6A, for example. I'm a fan of matte finishes but it's slippery.

Pro: more ergonomic, brighter screen. Cons: inferior camera (compared to P9), old modem (call quality could be better), less ram (I cannot feel it tho) lack of some AI features. I'd say — if the price difference is less than 150/125 bucks go for the 9, otherwise you'll be happy with 9a.

If you just got the phone. Give it a few days to learn your usage patterns, and the battery life should stabilize. I have a P9 and it's been great so far.

Pixel 9a is an amazing phone as a daily driver for day to day tasks. If you like to play graphic intensive games on your phone it's not for you (any Pixel really).

I bought one because it was cheap and I am a Pixel addict but there's no denying it does not look good, front or back.

I upgraded from a Pixel 7 to a Pixel 9a and I am not looking back. The lack of camera bump makes it so much easier to slide in/out of my pocket and it generally feels more comfortable in the hand. The battery lasts for more than a day with normal use (no gaming) and everything runs snappier and smoother than on my Pixel 7. My only complaint would be the slow wireless charging.

In france the Pixel 9a is sold 549€ on the Google Store while you can find the Pixel 8 Pro for 599€ on Amazon. The latter is a much better proposition IMHO (better camera, 12GB RAM, same 128GB storage).

I was looking forward to this review but this is disappointing. I was expecting the 9a to be ahead of the Pixel 9 in battery life because it has a larger battery and same soc but the Pixel 9 wins in that category too. The 9a probably uses an inferior oled panel which is not as power efficient. Considering how little the difference of the current price is, the Pixel 9 is a much better buy then the 9a right now.

My daughter has it. Fantastic battery, smooth operating phone if you don't need anything too intensive. We've never had an issue. The camera is meh, good for the price, fine if you don't use/need zoom.

The Modem

Grabbed a 9a the day of release here in the US. Came from the Pixel 6 Pro and iPhone 12. This phone is easily one of, if not the best phones for the price point. I've been using it for over half a year now, and it's as smooth and quick as the day I turned it on.

I'm in love, the battery is awesome coming from an iPhone 11 which I used for 5 years or so. The pixel experience is worth it. I have always loved stock android. The macro mode of the camera is sooooo good. You'll love to see that you have 40% battery left after all day use which for me is about 4-5 hours of SOT.

I don't have any complaints. Battery life, performance and camera are all decent. Bezels you get used to after a while and charging isn't very slow for me because I don't drain the battery. Call quality is fine too and haven't noticed issues with the modem. All in all very good for the price.

I've been using the 9a since a bit after its release. I paid $300 for the 256gb model. It doesn't charge fast and I wish it had pixelsnap, but other than that, I don't know if there's a better phone for $300.

I ended up with a 9A and think the same, it is a great phone for the money. I was using a budget backup and the S24 was a paperweight I wanted a better phone right away. I don't regret it one bit.

I have pixel 9a. I downgraded from pixel 10. Its more than enough for my daily usage. And the battery is good. I downgraded because I can't justify using a phone that is expensive.

It's a great phone. I came from a Pixel 7. I love that it does not have a camera bar and the battery is excellent.

I have the pixel 9A. It's the fourth pixel iteration that I have and it's excellent. I haven't found any minor or major drawbacks so that's a plus. It works great and they constantly update it to make it even better. I only paid $499 for it when it originally came out.

What I don't like the most is the painfully slow wireless charging. On the other hand it feels like a pretty solid device IMO if you're not into wireless charging.

For the price, I think it's pretty decent! Purchased one for my wife a little while ago and she loves it! The downsides are slow charging, no telephoto lens and video quality. If you can get it on sale, I would thoroughly recommend it.

It uses a previous model modem for cellular reception, so 5G will be a bit iffy in more rural areas and could be prone to overheating due to that. And it still solders the usb-c port to the motherboard, making repairs for it later on more expensive and troublesome. For a device with 7 years of promised shelf life that can be an issue.

I bought mine a week ago. The feeling in my hand is a little off since it's not very round and it's slippery. As for the bezels... let's just say they are bothering me more than I thought they would. Overall, it's a good phone. The camera is amazing, the screen is fantastic, the glass has such a nice feel, the battery lasts me 2 days.

I bought the Pixel 9a a few weeks ago after using the Sony XZ2 Compact for about seven years, and I am extremely disappointed. The phone is huge, uncomfortable to hold, and even worse to use. On top of that, the surface is slippery, especially now in winter when it is freezing outside and my hands are dry. Compared to Sony, which had a reliable rear fingerprint sensor, the Pixel's optical reader barely works in low-light or dim conditions.

I'm very happy. Transfer from another brand of android was painless. Battery life is 40-50% at the end of the day. Wireless charging is nice. 5G and wifi work fine.

Pixel phones are notoriously known for being the worst out of any flagship in terms of battery life. Depending on how recently you bought it, it typically takes upwards of a week for the battery to adapt, and it will get marginally better.

In the first 2 weeks I was disappointed by reported 9a battery life, but it gradually improved to >48 hours of mixed usage on an 80% charge.

I like my 9a a lot. I have great 5G reception. I use Android Auto to stream music in my car along with maps and have had a seamless experience. Battery life is pretty good. Gets me through the day even with lots of browsing, reading articles and checking in on social media.

Things I like: Camera is just as good as iPhone 13. Speakers are super loud on full blast, almost deafening near your ear. The alarm will 100% wake you up. Battery life is on par with a new battery in the 13. At the end of the day from 100%, I would maybe get down to around 40 or so.

If you don't use AI, disable AICore. I disabled it and my battery life got a lot better.

Before the launch of Pixel 10, I was thinking of buying one. Once Google showed that 10 is basically 9 with AI whistles, I went with 9a. Great phone so far. The wireless charging speed for Pixel 9a peaks at 7.5w, and due to using a case it's even lower, so a 5-100% on wireless I think should take like 4h.

Love my 9a. Did the 6a battery credit upgrade, well worth it! Battery SOT doubled (getting above 12 hour SOT)! Better camera. Charges faster and cooler. Good for another 4 or 5 years!