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Daytime photos shot with the primary rear camera at 1x [Tap to expand]
It’s the same story with the ultra-wide camera, which takes detailed and colour-accurate shots in daylight conditions. Photos from the ultra-wide also colour match with the primary camera, but you will notice fewer details around the edges.
Daylight photos shot using the ultrawide camera [Tap to expand]
The Portrait mode on the phone is pretty good, and you get to choose between 1.5x and 2x. You get detailed shots that offer accurate skin colour and good edge detection with pretty realistic bokeh.
Portrait shots: Top at 1.5x, bottom at 2x [Tap to expand]
Pixel 9a also features Macro focus, which lets you take close-up shots of subjects. The phone will automatically enable the macro mode, denoted by a flower icon on the top left corner, when you get close to a subject. In daylight conditions, the macro photos offer plenty of detail and depth of field.
When the sun goes down, the primary rear camera continues to perform well with and without Night Sight. The photos offer a good amount of detail with almost no noise and accurate colour reproduction. The Night Sight mode can automatically activate when the phone detects low light levels. You can also manually enable it, and Night Sight photos are sharper with higher levels of detail.
Lowlight photos with the main rear camera [Tap to expand]
However, the ultra-wide camera doesn’t perform as well as the primary sensor in low-light conditions. You’ll notice some noise and soft details that are mostly blurry.
Ultrawide samples [Tap to expand]
You get 2x digital zoom, and the results are quite good in daylight conditions. I wouldn’t recommend using the 2x zoom in low-light conditions, as the images can appear noisy and soft.
Selfies taken with the Pixel 9a are particularly good during the day or when there’s ample light. Although there’s no autofocus, the images offer plenty of detail, accurate skin tones, and good colours. Lowlight selfies are also decent, provided there’s good lighting. You will see natural skin tones, but also notice that the images can be blurry and lack detail.
The video quality from the main rear camera is good, but not particularly impressive. You can shoot 4K 60fps videos from the primary sensor, as well as 4K 30fps or 1080p 60fps using the ultra-wide and front cameras. Stabilisation is good with three options available – Standard, Locked, and Active. Lowlight video quality is decent from the primary camera.
The ultrawide video performance is average in daylight conditions, with the output being soft and noisy. It gets noisier and softer as the light disappears.
Google Pixel 9a Battery: Pretty good
- Capacity – 5,100mAh
- Charging – 23W wired, 7.5W wireless, Bypass
The 9a has the largest capacity battery of any Pixel phone ever. The phone can easily last a day or even longer with moderate usage. I consistently got around 5 to 6 hours of screen-on time. My usage included texting, voice calls, browsing, streaming on YouTube and Netflix, and about half an hour to 45 minutes of gaming.
In the PC Mark Work 3.0 battery life test that measures the battery life from 100 to 20 percent, the phone lasted 17 hours and 55 minutes, which is pretty good.
The Pixel 9a offers wireless charging support
As for charging, the phone supports 23W wired charging, which is not particularly impressive. The phone takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes to fully charge from 0 to 100 percent, with a 30-minute charge delivering about 45 percent charge. I used a 30W Google adapter for charging the phone, and you’ll need to get one as the phone doesn’t come with a charger.
Google Pixel 9a Verdict
One of the biggest rivals for the Google Pixel 9a is the iPhone 16e (Review), and I’d easily recommend this over the Apple phone, especially if you’re after a versatile camera setup, a better display with a higher refresh rate, and don’t really care about the ecosystem. However, on the Android side, there are some worthy alternatives, such as the Poco X7 Pro (Review), Oppo Reno 13R (Review), Nothing Phone 3a Pro (Review), and the OnePlus 13R (Review).
The Pixel 9a is definitely not a ‘Value for money’ smartphone, but if you want the cleanest Android OS experience and timely updates, a good display, solid cameras, an IP68 rating, and good battery life, then you will not go wrong with what Google has to offer. The phone is a really good buy.
