T-Mobile Google Pixel 9a REVIEW (128GB~256GB Storage / 8GB RAM)

If your current phone is starting to feel slow, it’s probably time to upgrade to a new one. When looking for a new smartphone, there are a few things to consider. While display quality, performance, storage capacity, and battery life are normally the main specs to look out for when purchasing a new phone, the biggest deciding factor usually comes down to price. Today’s flagship phones from top brands offer fast performance, high-quality cameras, long battery life, and 5G connectivity. Most newer models also integrate smart AI features that enhance your daily experience. For a budget-friendly option that offers all that, we recommend the Google Pixel 9a.

The Google Pixel 9a is a mid-range Android 5G smartphone that features a IP68 Water Resistance Rating, a 6.3″ P-OLED display, a 48MP dual rear camera system and a 13MP selfie cam, a Google Tensor G4 chipset that ensures fast performance, either 128GB or 256GB of storage and 8GB RAM. It also leverages advanced AI tools such as Magic Editor and Best Take for shooting stunning photos and videos, Google’s Pixel Studio text-to-image AI generator, Pixel Call Assist for hearing callers more clearly, avoid unwanted calls, and speed through menus, Google’s Gemini Nano AI assistant, which helps you find info and complete tasks across your Google apps, along with smart safety features like Car Crash Detection, Emergency SOS, and more.

The phone integrates dual SIM slots and boasts Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 6E, and 5G connectivity, and offers over 30 hours battery life or up to 100 hours with Extreme Battery Saver mode, along with USB-C charging, 23W Fast Charging, and support for QI Wireless Charging.

This is Google’s latest mid-range phone, which has great specs and comes packed with multiple helpful AI-powered features, not to mention it’s available at a fairly affordable price.

Our review unit of the Google Pixel 9a was kindly provided to us by T-Mobile, one the biggest phone carriers in the U.S. known for its fast 5G network, competitive pricing, and nationwide coverage.

Below is our review of the Google Pixel 9a, where we discuss in detail all the specs and features this mid-range 5G smartphone has to offer you.

DESIGN & SPECS

Starting with the phone’s size, the Pixel 9a has a relatively normal size for a modern 5G phone. It measures 6.1 in long by 2.9 inches wide by 0.4 inches thick. Despite its somewhat large size, the phone is still noticeably lightweight, weighing only 6.6 oz. (187 g).

Design-wise, Google has made a welcome change to the usual design seen in its previous Pixel flagship phones. The Pixel 9a now sports an all-new look with a fully-flat design. The company has dropped the chunky camera bar its previous Pixel smartphones where known for, now replacing it with a sleek, flat rear panel that houses its main camera system and flat sides, as opposed to curved edges and slightly curved back from previous Pixel lineups.

This design change makes it possible to hold the phone much more freely, while also helping reduce dust accumulation.

As for the phone’s appearance, the Google Pixel 9a sports a stylish design, with the phone coming in a solid flat color. For our review unit, T-Mobile provided us with the Iris (Light Blue) color model, which looks great all around.

Moreover, the phone also packs a durable, high-quality construction. It combines a satin metal frame with a composite matte back panel and an aluminum housing, plus a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 screen cover that provides scratch-resistance protection for its display.

The phone is also rated to have a IP68 Water Resistance Rating, meaning the device is protected against dust, dirt, and sand, and can be submerged underwater up to a maximum depth of 1.5 meters for 30 minutes.

Moving on to the smartphone’s main components. For its display, the Google Pixel 9a comes equipped with a 6.3-inch P-OLED Actua display, which boasts a FHD 1080p resolution (1080 x 2424 pixels) with a 422.2 ppi density, 20:9 aspect ratio, up to 2700 nits brightness (1800 nits with HDR), and an adjustable refresh rate from 60Hz up to 120Hz for a smooth user experience.

The phone’s display offers 700 additional nits of brightness over its predecessor’s (the Pixel 8a) 2,000 nits.

At its core, the Pixel 9a integrates a Google Tensor G4 chipset, which delivers a fast performance and is also responsible for powering Gemini Nano (Google’s built-in AI assistant) plus all its other AI-powered functions (discussed further ahead).

According to the company, this new Tensor G4 chipset — which is used across all smartphones from its Pixel 9 series — offers a 30% speed bump in web browsing over the Tensor G3 chipset found in Google’s previous Pixel 8 lineup, allowing for noticeably faster load times for web links, images, and even videos.

As for the phone’s remaining hardware specs, the Google Pixel 9a can come with either 128GB or 256GB of storage space, along with 8GB of RAM.

Finally, for its operating system, the smartphone comes running on Android 15, for which Google guarantees seven years of OS and security updates.

CAMERAS

We’ll now have a closer look at the Pixel 9a’s two camera setups. Integrated at the back, the phone features a 48MP dual rear camera system combining a 48 MP wide camera lens with a 13 MP ultrawide camera lens, which offers Super Res Zoom up to 8x and Optical Quality Zoom at 0.5 or 1x.

Then, at the front side of the phone, there’s a 13MP punch-hole selfie camera slotted at the top center of the phone’s 6.3″ display.

Both the phone’s 48MP rear camera and its 13MP selfie cam can shoot 4K video, respectively at 60fps for its rear camera and at 30fps for its selfie cam.

In particular, the phone’s 48MP dual rear camera system also features Optical- and Gyro-EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization).

NOTABLE SMART FEATURES

AI Tools for Photos & Videos

In addition to its rear and front cameras, the Google Pixel 9a also features advanced AI-powered tools for shooting photos and videos.

Those AI tools include including Macro Focus (helps reveal details like vivid color and striking contrast in small objects when capturing photos with Zoom), Add Me (makes sure no one is left out of a photo), Magic Editor (helps make complex photo edits effortless), Best Take (lets you combine sections of similar photos together to get the best possible group photo), and more.

Google Pixel Studio

The phone also features Google’s Pixel Studio, a built-in text-to-image AI generator that helps you easily create, edit, and share emojis, memes, and more right from your phone.

Pixel Call Assist

Another great quality-of-life feature is Google’s Pixel Call Assist, which brings you a set of AI-powered functionalities that enable you to hear callers more clearly over crowds, noise, and wind, help you avoid unwanted calls like spam calls and unknown numbers, speed through call menus so you can get to the right department faster when calling a business, along with automatic call recording, and more.

Google Gemini Nano

The phone also comes with Google’s Gemini Nano AI assistant built-in, which helps you plan things, find info, and complete tasks across your Google apps by simply asking for help through voice, including multimodal and vision-based assistance.

Multiple Smart Safety Features

What’s more is that the Google Pixel 9a also offers multiple smart safety features like Car Crash Detection, Emergency SOS for automatically calling emergency services, and even sharing your location with emergency contacts and respective emergency authorities if you aren’t able to, among several other safety functions.

Additionally, if you lose your phone or if a theft is detected, the phone automatically locks itself, giving you peace of mind that your personal information will remain private.

The phone also includes other helpful features like school time to silence notifications during class and Google Wallet with parental controls.

INTERFACE

When it comes to the phone’s interface, the Pixel 9a sports that same two-button layout we’re all used to seeing by now in Google’s Pixel phones.

Its power button is located far at the top, and directly below it we have its volume switch. The phone’s power button is also used to bring up Google’s Gemini Nano AI assistant.

The phone can be unlocked by using either Fingerprint Unlock, Face Unlock, a swipe pattern, a PIN code, or a password.

The phone also integrates a dual SIM card tray, for which it supports the use of a Nano-SIM card and an eSIM card, along with a set of stereo speakers, two microphones, and a USB-C 3.2 connection port at the bottom.

CONNECTIVITY

For its connectivity methods, the Google Pixel 9a features Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E connectivity (supports 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz networks), as well as 5G connectivity.

It also features GPS Connectivity (including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and DUal Band GNSS), and supports Near Field Communication (NFC), meaning it can be used for contactless payments.

The phone also integrates multiple sensors, including an accelerometer, a barometer, a gyrometer, a magnetometer, a proximity sensor, and an ambient light sensor (helps the phone’s screen to automatically adjust its brightness settings for saving battery when possible).

BATTERY & BATTERY LIFE

For its power, the phone utilizes an adaptive 5100mAh Li-Po (the largest battery of any Pixel phone), which offers you over 30 hours of battery life on average, or up to 100 hours with Extreme Battery Saver mode enabled.

The Pixel 9a’s battery can be charged via USB-C charging, for which it supports 23W Fast Charging.

In addition, it also supports QI Wireless Charging, enabling you to charge its battery wirelessly with any compatible wireless charger with a wireless charging rate up to 7.5W.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Google Pixel 9a is an excellent mid-range Android 5G smartphone, featuring a large 6.3″ display with sharp, crystal-clear resolution, advanced rear and front cameras, fast processing power, decent storage, and all-day battery, along with a wide range of helpful AI tools that improve its user experience on a daily basis.

The Pixel 9a is available in 4 stylish colors options, including: Obsidian, Porcelain, Peony, and Iris.

If you’re interested in purchasing it, know that the 128GB / 8GB RAM version is priced at $499, while the 256GB / 8 RAM version goes for $599.

You can order it online, either from T-Mobile’s online store (only 128GB model available) or from Google’s official shopping page (both versions available).