I own a Pixel 9a. It's the first phone I used that made me question how many of the pixels going out of the camera app are actually coming the sensor and how many from some AI model.
Don't get me wrong. It will take front-cover magazine quality pics of that favorite turist hot spot, even in terrible light.
But as soon as there's something in the frame that your average insta influencer won't typically shoot the results are weird.
A green PCB on my workbench I want to document? Colors all wrong, can hardly pick out the traces. My 20 year Canon does a better job.
A black-and-white hand drawn charcoal portrait? The face on the jpeg will have tan skin and pinkish cheeks.
And there's no setting to turn this sort of processing off, unless you want to deal with the hassle of raw files.
> Upgrading today should save more money vs. upgrading down the road.
Ehh, I’m not sure about that. It depends what trend the resale value follows. Generally, if you’re upgrading every 3 years instead of every 6 years, you’re going to be spending twice as much on new phones, but it’s not always the case that you’re getting twice as much resale value.
So compared to the 9a: slight weight reduction, lightly better screen (better brightness and contrast, newer iteration of Gorilla Glass), Android 16 instead of 15, some slight battery life and camera improvements that are probably from shipping with a newer Android version (and that the 9a therefore probably already has, since upgrading to Android 16 is an option). Seems to be using the same Tensor G4 CPU as the 9a, instead of the newer Tensor G5 of the rest of its generation.
Unless I'm missing something, 9a→10a seems even more incremental than 8a→9a was. The price reduction is the most interesting thing about the 10a to me; if that ends up being permanent (instead of just a pre-order promotion), then once GrapheneOS support lands I could see this being handy with a prepaid SIM as a burner phone for international travel or music festivals or attending/documenting protests or something else where if it gets lost or stolen or confiscated as “evidence” or whatever then it wouldn't hurt quite as bad if I never saw it again. Otherwise, at the “normal” $499 pricetag I'm struggling to see much of a point v. its predecessor (or even its predecessor's predecessor).
The other Pixel 10* devices seem to already be GrapheneOS-ready, so I wouldn't be surprised if the 10a follows suit as soon as the GrapheneOS devs get their hands on one.
I love the lack of a camera bump. I hope there is a large enough market for that to keep the design around; I'm not the target audience but I hear laments for the days when a phone would lie flat all the time.
I'm a fan of the 'a' series - not least because of the composite back, which makes so much more sense than glass.
But it's a pity that they've stopped making them smaller than the base model. I believe that ended with the 7/7a and, in this case, the 10a is actually 1 mm taller and wider than the 10, and 0.4 mm deeper. Hardly noticeable, but I'd still rather they produced a more compact variant.
then I upgraded to a 6a - overheating, battery exploded - google refused to change it coz it was bought in the uk - while I'm now in the US - as if I didn't trade my US bought 3a for a pixel 6a in the UK - some android version brought 2 photo apps - so I recovered some via the cloud - lost others
finally gave up and moved back to using an iPhone - transition was easy - I recovered everything that was left intact on my iPhone SE before switching to a Pixel 3a
Funny to see that on their marketing page. The fact that they decided to drop support for the pixel 3a ~3 years after its release was fucked up. One of the reasons I stopped buying android devices.
> Best-in-class camera
I own a Pixel 9a. It's the first phone I used that made me question how many of the pixels going out of the camera app are actually coming the sensor and how many from some AI model.
Don't get me wrong. It will take front-cover magazine quality pics of that favorite turist hot spot, even in terrible light.
But as soon as there's something in the frame that your average insta influencer won't typically shoot the results are weird.
A green PCB on my workbench I want to document? Colors all wrong, can hardly pick out the traces. My 20 year Canon does a better job.
A black-and-white hand drawn charcoal portrait? The face on the jpeg will have tan skin and pinkish cheeks.
And there's no setting to turn this sort of processing off, unless you want to deal with the hassle of raw files.
Uhhhhhh no?
This does not happen at all. Are you using the built in Camera app?
I just tried to take a picture of a black and white, outline only portrait right now and there is no added color.
I appreciate the Google store making it relatively easy to compare the specs between current phones and end-of-sale phones.
Here’s a comparison between the Pixel 10a and the Pixel 7: https://store.google.com/us/magazine/compare_pixel?hl=en-US&...
The one thing that wasn’t clear from the comparison was if USB display output is supported on the Pixel 10a. If it is, then I’m sold.
I can't really see much that stands out, as a Pixel 7 owner; just a faster CPU and slightly tweaked cameras?
Overall I agree. It's not the most amazing option compared to the Pixel 7.
There are three reasons why I'd get this:
1. The trade-in value on the Pixel 7 is depreciating with time. Upgrading today should save more money vs. upgrading down the road.
2. It's on-par with Pixel 7 and significantly less expensive than the standard Pixel 10.
3. My goal is to replace the Pixel 7 with something that has USB-C display output so I can finally use my AR glasses with my phone.
All of these points are my initial impressions of the phone. Hopefully they turn out to be true of anyone who decides to go this route.
> Upgrading today should save more money vs. upgrading down the road.
Ehh, I’m not sure about that. It depends what trend the resale value follows. Generally, if you’re upgrading every 3 years instead of every 6 years, you’re going to be spending twice as much on new phones, but it’s not always the case that you’re getting twice as much resale value.
So compared to the 9a: slight weight reduction, lightly better screen (better brightness and contrast, newer iteration of Gorilla Glass), Android 16 instead of 15, some slight battery life and camera improvements that are probably from shipping with a newer Android version (and that the 9a therefore probably already has, since upgrading to Android 16 is an option). Seems to be using the same Tensor G4 CPU as the 9a, instead of the newer Tensor G5 of the rest of its generation.
Unless I'm missing something, 9a→10a seems even more incremental than 8a→9a was. The price reduction is the most interesting thing about the 10a to me; if that ends up being permanent (instead of just a pre-order promotion), then once GrapheneOS support lands I could see this being handy with a prepaid SIM as a burner phone for international travel or music festivals or attending/documenting protests or something else where if it gets lost or stolen or confiscated as “evidence” or whatever then it wouldn't hurt quite as bad if I never saw it again. Otherwise, at the “normal” $499 pricetag I'm struggling to see much of a point v. its predecessor (or even its predecessor's predecessor).
I'll only look at a 10a seriously when GrapheneOS is ready for it:
https://grapheneos.org/releases
The other Pixel 10* devices seem to already be GrapheneOS-ready, so I wouldn't be surprised if the 10a follows suit as soon as the GrapheneOS devs get their hands on one.
I love the lack of a camera bump. I hope there is a large enough market for that to keep the design around; I'm not the target audience but I hear laments for the days when a phone would lie flat all the time.
I'm a fan of the 'a' series - not least because of the composite back, which makes so much more sense than glass.
But it's a pity that they've stopped making them smaller than the base model. I believe that ended with the 7/7a and, in this case, the 10a is actually 1 mm taller and wider than the 10, and 0.4 mm deeper. Hardly noticeable, but I'd still rather they produced a more compact variant.
I loved my pixel 3a - it did the work
then I upgraded to a 6a - overheating, battery exploded - google refused to change it coz it was bought in the uk - while I'm now in the US - as if I didn't trade my US bought 3a for a pixel 6a in the UK - some android version brought 2 photo apps - so I recovered some via the cloud - lost others
finally gave up and moved back to using an iPhone - transition was easy - I recovered everything that was left intact on my iPhone SE before switching to a Pixel 3a
so yeah f*k google phones
No matter the manufacturer or OS, that's what happens when you don't bother backing up the valuable data on some hardware and then the hardware fails.
Blog post: https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/devices/pixel/goo...
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> 7 year support
Funny to see that on their marketing page. The fact that they decided to drop support for the pixel 3a ~3 years after its release was fucked up. One of the reasons I stopped buying android devices.
I think you can take Google at their word for software support though. They promised 3 years for their phones at the time, and they delivered no less.
Also, Pixel devices are very well supported by third-party ROMs after EOL: https://xdaforums.com/f/google-pixel-3a-roms-kernels-recover...
I had a Pixel 4a until I got a 10 a few months ago... they had a couple updates even after support officially ended.
A software update killed my friend's 4a and rendered my 5 suddenly unpleasant to own. It felt almost like sabotage.
It was my last android phone
Remember when they launched the Pixel Pass? Get a new Pixel every 24 months!
… then they killed the Pixel Pass at month 22.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/08/google-kills-two-yea...