Google Pixel 9A Review: Best Budget Smartphone of 2025? The Camera, Performance & Features Tested!
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00:00when the pixel 8a was launched we were very harsh with our comments around the phone because yes
00:08the phone deserved it there was not a lot of x-factor in terms of the design the bezels
00:14were chunky battery life was terrible and to make it worse the phone was priced over 50,000 rupees
00:21and in India didn't receive a lot of lot of accolades at rest assured wasn't a good sign
00:28for google however now the company has kind of made men's and now launched the 9a which looks
00:36more refined which looks much more better than the last iteration however the big headline maker is
00:43the price under 50,000 rupees but riding high on ai does the pixel 9a really make it worth your money
00:51should you buy this phone if you're looking for a true ai experience with the hardware to complement
00:56because remember this is a google device and google offers you almost flagship level experience
01:02but at this price range can the pixel 9a do it let's find out in our review
01:08right off the bat the design has taken a complete overhaul because of the reason
01:17the uh metal strip on the rear it's gone right and i like that because the 9 pro and the 9 pro xl
01:25flagship series you saw the camera island having that metal strip and with that gone i can put the
01:30phone on the table it lies flat and doesn't wobble which is a good thing but if the people are asking
01:36whatever happened to that strip why did google remove it i'll tell you later in the video rest the
01:41phone sits very comfortably in the hand 6.3 inches yes the back is plastic but the sides are metal
01:48glass protection on the front overall hands feel i think is pretty good so i'm not complaining about
01:54the design of the phone it looks good despite the fact they made changes at the back it's it's a compact
01:59good phone to have in your hands the one thing that google has continued even in 2025 is the chunky
02:05bezels that you see on the phone yes the 8a had it the 9a also has it and i don't know why
02:11google is doing that maybe there's some kind of a strategy around it but i personally do not like
02:16these fat bezels on my display not that it kills your content viewing experience i mean games or
02:23movies whatever you're consuming on this phone it'll be fine but the problem is if you look at
02:27the competition they are doing away with bezels and google is still sticking there in 2023-24 why
02:34rest assured a 6.3 inch p oled display 120 hertz of refresh rate overall 2700s of peak brightness that
02:43you get the phone is comfortable to use even outdoors i've been using it for at least a couple
02:49of weeks i've been gaming watching a lot of content using it for general instagram content
02:54no problems at all so it's a good display however for all those people who do not like bezels on their
03:02displays stay away from this one rest you do get ip68 certification which means even if you drop the
03:07phone in the water it won't be a problem gorilla glass on the front overall a robust package right
03:12here and the button placement yes it's a bit irritating because having the power button on the top
03:20above the volume rocker will make you prone to a lot of these accidental touches because i kept
03:26tapping the volume button to activate the device it's just irritating and everything at the bottom looks
03:31pretty fine you have the speaker grill usbc also the sim card slot so i think it's a good placement
03:38good setup overall the speaker quality is decent enough i won't say is as good as you get on the
03:43flagships but even if you're not using the headphones you should be fine the one thing i did notice when i
03:49was using the phone is the plastic back i mean i could almost push the phones back into the chassis
03:55and i could feel there's a certain gap behind it probably something that the engineering department
04:01missed out i mean it's just something that i noticed maybe you could as well when you buy the phone
04:06but yeah that should not happen moving on to the performance it's powered by the g4 chipset which is
04:13also powering the flagships the 9 pro and the 9 pro excel and that is a big move by google putting
04:18flagship level hardware in this mid-range up to top it off you are getting a lot of the ai features the
04:24advanced ai features with gemini on the 9a and i think that could be one of the biggest reasons for
04:31you to buy this phone because you talk about object erasers in your photos and also the auto summaries
04:37the ai summaries everything being packed into this one not to mention the pixel studio where you can
04:43create some of these animated ai images everything is available on the pixel 9a and also gemini's
04:51assistant you can talk to it and it will give you answers queries to whatever you want all of this
04:57is packed into this device and i think that is the biggest reason to consider the 9a rest you get 8 gb
05:03of ram 128 gb of storage there's also a 256 gb version so hardware wise i think the pixel is pretty
05:11sorted you won't have any problem but the best part is android 15 and also seven years of updates
05:17with i mean google's regularity is incredible so google is pretty much saying that if you buy this
05:23phone rest assured you are getting seven years of support by google and for people who want to make
05:30sure that they keep this one device and not keep changing their phones again and again the pixel 9a
05:35is a good option now the pixel cameras are the quintessential headline makers whenever you talk about
05:40a pixel device and the dual camera setup on the 9a did impress me yes i did not think that the low light
05:50performance was as exemplary as what you get on the flagships but despite that i wasn't disappointed
05:58you're getting a 48 megapixel primary sensor complemented by a 13 megapixel ultra wide sensor on this
06:05one so your photography needs even if you want a variety because a lot of people like clicking ultra
06:11wide shots will be taken care of by the 9a the advantage is you can always tweak your images with ai
06:17and the number of settings and options that you get with the camera is incredible you could be playing
06:25with the photography that you want with the pixel 9a and you won't get tired it's incredible you can have
06:32fun and the front also has the right amount of megapixels that you would need for your selfies
06:39because the 13 megapixel camera adds ultra wide option so you can squeeze in more people in your
06:45selfies and you would not have a problem here are some of the samples that i clicked with the camera and
06:51you'll get an idea of what the camera capabilities are of this device i was impressed and hopefully these
06:57samples will impress you
07:27rest for content creators i think this camera setup is good enough what i'll do just let me show you
07:32the video samples i've taken from both the front and the back which will give you an idea of what
07:38people can expect so let's go all right so this is the pixel 90 rear camera 4k 60 fps is what we are
07:45recording in terms of stabilization we are moving around and despite that you're getting a solid frame
07:50my quality also planes passing the ambient noise the wind everything it's able to isolate and you're
07:57getting to hear the anchors voice but overall i think the quality is pretty nice especially when
08:02you consider that the dynamic range the exposure because this is the uh only today the light is
08:07almost dying on us and it's so that you are getting a clear picture here with absolute quality so i think
08:13for content creators people who like creating a lot of video content on their phones the pixel 9a camera
08:18is a good option so this is the front camera of the pixel 9a 4k 30 fps is what i'm recording
08:26looks pretty decent and what i'm really impressed with is the dynamic range and the contrast that we
08:33are getting right now it's evening the sun is setting but still it's able to match and balance
08:37the colors and overall exposure as well but the good thing is you are getting this wider perspective
08:42this is the close perspective although my head is getting chopped but if you want to add more people
08:48in your frame you can use this perspective this wide angle uh field of view as well but my quality
08:54i hope you like it it is in the sub 50k category so uh i mean overall this is giving you flagship
09:02experience but let us know in the comment section what you feel about the camera on the 9a so overall
09:08it's a good camera setup no complaints at all just make sure one thing that it has its limitations
09:15because a lot of people think of getting the flagship level camera experience in the mid-range
09:20won't happen you will have certain restrictions low-light photography might not be great so if
09:26you want flagship level pay for the flagship but in the mid-range i think this is a good option
09:31moving on to the battery now remember when we started the video i posted a question why google made
09:37this change when they removed that metallic strip that's because they wanted to increase the battery
09:43capacity because with the compressed camera module they have more space for the battery and a 5100
09:50mAh battery has been put into this device and the backup that i'm getting from this one is crazy so i
09:57charged my phone 100 and i was able to use it almost for three days which is excellent and this is
10:03general use you're using whatsapp instagram basic mails and a couple of games here and there and i was
10:09sorted for three days then i charged it back and that's where the bad news kind of hit me 23 watt
10:14charging is slow in 2025 where you have devices that are much lesser price offering you almost 8200
10:21watt charging so i think google is missing the game over there so if they would have given 45 watt i would
10:29have been impressed and no minus points here but yeah i'll deduct points for the slow charging rest the
10:36price is really something that people should consider under 50 000 rupees if you're getting
10:41this phone i think it's a sweet deal because remember let me just talk about the pros and the
10:46cons the pros are you're getting the g4 chipset with all of the ai capabilities in here the camera
10:52is good enough also versatile compared to the competition because remember the 16e also being more
10:58expensive has only a single lens so a dual lens gives you that advantage and the battery life of this
11:04phone is incredible so pros yes cons slow charging doesn't really work for me the battery placement
11:12nothing x factor available on the pixel i mean a lot of the phones are adding an action button where
11:17is my action button no extra button on the 9a so it misses out there and also i think uh the bezels
11:25it's just disappointing to see in 2025. despite all the cons i will still give the pixel 9a a solid
11:338.5 in our fiber view and i think google has really worked hard on this one and uh people
11:40should be happy if they buy this device that's it for this review of the pixel 9a remember you can go
11:45into the comments and let us know what you feel about this device and remember a comparison is
11:51coming soon between this and the 16e so that would be interesting as well stay tuned for that as
11:57for this video hope to see you again and uh yeah i don't have anything else to say take care guys i'll
12:04see you next time