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What's up guys, and welcome back to our head-to-head series. Today, we're comparing a new mid-ranger from Google, the Pixel 10a, with last year's model, the Google Pixel 9a. Is the Pixel 10a a meaningful upgrade to get, or should you go for the cheaper Pixel 9a? Let's go through all of our test results and find out. These two Pixels are very, very similar. If you're not careful, they're easy to get mixed up. But actually, the Pixel 10a uses higher-tier Gorilla Glass 7i, compared to Gorilla Glass 3 on the 9a. And the size isn't perfectly identical.
The Pixel 10a is slightly thicker, and that means the camera bump doesn't stick out at all. It's a small change, but it means the phone can sit absolutely flush on a desk or table. Either way, you get IP68 rated wrist protection against dust and water. The displays of these Pixels are the same either way, a 6.3-in OLED panel. The bezels remain rather thick even on the new model, but both displays perform well. We did measure an increase in maximum brightness with the Pixel 10a, but the brightness of the 9a is still more than plenty for comfy outdoor use.
And you can wake up and unlock either phone with an optical under-display fingerprint reader. The two phones have stereo speakers, which are in the same loudness rating of good. The sound quality is different though, with the new model having richer bass, but the 9a sounding a bit more clear overall. Let's have a listen to compare. The interface of these two phones is the same, Android 16 as Google intended, using the new Material 3 expressive design with its dynamic animations. And Google is once again promising 7 years of software updates. Something you'd usually expect with a new model is an upgraded chipset, but Google has stuck to the same silicon for the second year in a row. With either of these Pixel phones, you
get a Google-made Tensor G4, which is actually 2 years old at this point. In benchmarks, they earn the same scores, which are definitely not chart-topping. Still, we wouldn't call either of these phones slow. They have adequate performance. And while we did see some thermal throttling in our prolonged stress test, it wasn't dramatic. The battery capacity is another thing these two phones share at 5,100 mA hours. But for some reason, the battery life isn't the same here. The new model is better with an overall active use score of over 15 hours in our tests. That's compared to less than 13 hours on the old one.
The Pixel 10a supports up to 30 W wired charging, up from 23 W on the Pixel 9a. In our testing, the Pixel 10a did show a minor improvement in charging speeds. But either way, the charging of these phones isn't fast by any means. And for what it's worth, the new model has 10 W wireless charging, as opposed to 7.5 W on the previous model. And now the cameras, which are indeed identical. These phones pack the exact same cameras. On the back, that's a 48 MP main cam and a 13 MP ultrawide. Starting off with the main camera, both phones produce respectable results with the same familiar Pixel look and a reasonable amount of detail.
The ultrawide camera produces usable, if a bit underwhelming, results on both phones. Selfies are very good either way, as long as you get the focus distance right, as this camera doesn't have autofocus. And here's a look at a selfie video from either phone. Video quality on both phones is decent from the main camera. But it can be quite soft on the ultrawide. So, there you have it. The Google Pixel 10a and the Pixel 9a. Let's do a quick recap of what you get with either phone. Both phones have basically the same design. The same display, an identical interface and features, the same chipset, and you get the same camera experience as well.
However, the Pixel 10a has a build made of higher tier glass. Its screen is slightly brighter. It also has better battery life and slightly faster charging. The Pixel 9a doesn't offer specific benefits, except that it's basically the same phone and user experience for less money. In the end, the upgrades that the Pixel 10a provides are hard to notice, besides the better battery life. So, unless that's important to you, it's probably a better choice to go for the Pixel 9a and save some cash. Thanks for watching and I'll see you on the next one.
