Google's Pixel 10a Is the Same Damn Phone As the Pixel 9a (gizmodo.com) 39
Google's Pixel 10a is essentially a flatter version of last year's Pixel 9a, keeping the same Tensor G4 chip, camera hardware, RAM, storage, and $500 price while dropping features like Pixelsnap Qi2 charging and advanced Gemini AI capabilities found in higher-end models. Gizmodo reports: We use words like "candy bar" or "slab" to describe our full-screen smartphones, but Google has designed what is likely the slabbiest phone of the modern era. During an hour-long hands-on with Google's all-new Google Pixel 10a, I slid the phone across a desk and felt oddly satisfied that it could glide as neatly as a figure skater without any hint of a camera bump hindering its path. It's the first thing I need to bring up regarding the Pixel 10a, because there's no other discernible difference between this phone and the previous-gen Pixel 9a.
And that seems to be the point. The Pixel 10a starts at $500, exactly how much the Pixel 9a cost at launch. In a Q&A with journalists, Google told Gizmodo that the company wanted to offer the same price point as before. That apparently required Google to stick with the same Tensor G4 chip as last year. You still have the same storage options of 128GB or 256GB and the minimum of 8GB of RAM. Think of the Pixel 10a as a Pixel 9a with a reduced camera bump. If you're one of the heretics who uses a phone without a case, that fact alone may be enough to pay attention. Otherwise, you'll be scrounging to find any real difference between the Pixel 10a and one of last year's best mid-range phones.
And that seems to be the point. The Pixel 10a starts at $500, exactly how much the Pixel 9a cost at launch. In a Q&A with journalists, Google told Gizmodo that the company wanted to offer the same price point as before. That apparently required Google to stick with the same Tensor G4 chip as last year. You still have the same storage options of 128GB or 256GB and the minimum of 8GB of RAM. Think of the Pixel 10a as a Pixel 9a with a reduced camera bump. If you're one of the heretics who uses a phone without a case, that fact alone may be enough to pay attention. Otherwise, you'll be scrounging to find any real difference between the Pixel 10a and one of last year's best mid-range phones.
Camera bumps are annoying. (Score:5, Informative)
If I press in the middle while it's on the table I am now flexing the case. That's really dumb. It's like these things assume you are going to put a case on it that makes it nearly twice as thick.
Re:Camera bumps are annoying. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's like these things assume you are going to put a case on it that makes it nearly twice as thick.
To be fair, I *am* always going to put a case on it.
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So you pay more because it's thinner, then you put a fat ugly wrapper around it to protect it.
So why be lead down the garden path with the "thin" schtick?
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So why be lead down the garden path with the "thin" schtick?
In order to be the thinnest possible phone either with or without a case is on it? I'm not sure what the "gotcha" is. Maybe reduced cost of the extra case? Either I put a case on it to protect the phone, or they manufacture it with an equally thick layer of rubber around it. Either way, it's going to be roughly the same thickness once protected.
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Bought a new 12" tablet and it's paper thin, but when you sit it flat on the table it rocks because of the camera in the corner. That's just dumb. If I press in the middle while it's on the table I am now flexing the case. That's really dumb. It's like these things assume you are going to put a case on it that makes it nearly twice as thick.
Camera bump: the thing that case designers make an indent, resulting in a 3D rectangle.
It's stupid. The OEMs should fill that area with either more battery or... empty volume.
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>"Camera bump: the thing that case designers make an indent, resulting in a 3D rectangle. It's stupid. The OEMs should fill that area with either more battery or... empty volume."
Is it stupid? Like most people, I am ALWAYS going to use a case that protects the phone (or tablet). The hump in a case is slightly recessed (even with a thin case), maintaining most of the protection of that area. And the rest of the device is fully protected, making it, overall, X thin. If they were to fill the rest of th
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>"Camera bump: the thing that case designers make an indent, resulting in a 3D rectangle. It's stupid. The OEMs should fill that area with either more battery or... empty volume."
Is it stupid? Like most people, I am ALWAYS going to use a case that protects the phone (or tablet). The hump in a case is slightly recessed (even with a thin case), maintaining most of the protection of that area. And the rest of the device is fully protected, making it, overall, X thin. If they were to fill the rest of the entire phone (or tablet) frame with stuff to flush away the camera hump, then it will X + Y thick (much thicker) when the case goes on.
I am not in need of an ultra-thin phone (or tablet). I think there really is such a thing as too thin (hard to hold, easier to drop, less battery, more case flex, even more impossible to repair, higher price, etc). But I also don't want a brick.
Kind of what I was hinting at is... why are we adding these cases at all? Aside from appearance? We're doing it to add protection the OEMs should have done in the first place. The obsession with being increasingly thin - and fragile - isn't in our best interests.
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> The OEMs should fill that area with either more battery or... empty volume.
That would make the thickness of your phone + case even thicker. Right now the width of your phone + case is the minimum width of your phone + the width of the case. If you increase the minimum width, you increase the total thickness.
And now you'd have an annoying camera hole. Stuff would get stuck in the hole and scratch your lens.
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> The OEMs should fill that area with either more battery or... empty volume.
That would make the thickness of your phone + case even thicker. Right now the width of your phone + case is the minimum width of your phone + the width of the case. If you increase the minimum width, you increase the total thickness.
Remember like... four generations ago when phones were the thickness of the camera bump and we were amazed how thin they were? Nothing that's happened since has been revolutionary. At no point in - for instance - the iPhone's lifetime has anyone seriously said "this is unworkably thick".
Also, as I've mentioned in another reply, we wouldn't need cases if phones were just made durable.
And now you'd have an annoying camera hole. Stuff would get stuck in the hole and scratch your lens.
Having been around longer than cell phones, no. "Stuff" didn't get stuck anywhere.
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I actually like my camera bump- when I put it my last phone without one on a slightly curved surface (such as the side of my bathtub) it would slide off. With the bump, there's enough friction to prevent that. So while ugly, that's enough of a QOL increase I'd rather have the bump.
Re:Camera bumps are annoying. (Score:5, Interesting)
Remember the old Nokia candybar phones which had replaceable covers? I want that in a modern phone. And an SD card slot which I can plug a $50, 256 GB card into instead of paying $100 for a 128 GB bump in storage.
And yes, camera bumps have always been an idiotic design. Make the phone as thick as needed and fill it with battery. Really, _no one_ is asking for thin phones, except the marketing department. That everyone is willing to put thick cases on to protect them is evidence of that. Same with "bezels". Making them thin just makes the screen more vulnerable to damage, and makes the phone harder to handle without "fat fingering" things.
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well, your view about bezels and thickness are in the minority. Phone reviewers have been pushing on screen size and bezels for ever. and same with glass backs, which afaict are an anti-feature since they are purely aesthetic and as weight and something else that can break and be expensive to fix.
personally I too think that design wise it's been downhill since Samsung Galaxy 5 ... but the physical design has been definitely driven by "oooh
(though it took me a long time to let go of physical qwerty too)
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At least with the pixel series the bump is actually a bar that is the width of the phone, so it doesn't rock when placed on a flat surface. If anything it tilts it slightly up, which may be useful.
So? (Score:3)
So don't buy it. In fact don't buy any phone until yours is 5 or 6 years old.
The new phone every year phase is so 6 years ago.
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also Satellite SOS and BT v6 (Score:4, Funny)
Engadget says it also has
satellite SOS which is kinda neat.
also has Bluetooth v6 which may offer some neat edge improvements for Airtag type stuff. (better range and also distance)
(https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/google-pixel-10a-vs-pixel-9a-whats-changed-and-which-one-should-you-buy-150000786.html )
Also just by virtue of being a new model it'll get 1 year longer support than the old model
(apologies for posting an Engadget link... but as the web dies... well... at least it's not a FB post ...)
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My initial thought was that if the 9a is fine, no major flaws for the price range, why not keep that design? Bump to the latest chip because then you don't have to keep manufacturing the old one, but otherwise it doesn't need to change.
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I was hoping they would bring back the fingerprint reader on the back. That was such a nice convivence to read you index finger without having to move the phone around in your grip.
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Heh. me too. it's one reason I'm hanging on to my Pixel 5 ... last one with that feature. (other reason is that all the newer ones are both bigger and heavier ... )
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I just had to get rid of my old 5 last year, it just started giving up the ghost on me. Replaced it with a second hand s22, I hate having to twist it all around with one hand trying to get the fingerprint reader to work. IMHO, the best implementation of a bio reader yet.
Not much but there are upgrades... (Score:2)
Faster wired charging, faster wireless charging, bluetooth 6, and a few other bits.
while dropping features like Pixelsnap Qi2 charging and advanced Gemini AI capabilities found in higher-end models
Can't drop something you never had. The 9a definitely did not have Pixelsnap, so I'm not sure why it's even mentioned. It's an easy thing to omit from the "budget" device in the lineup.
The real question would be what the new price point for the 9a would be - if they drop it at all. I'd normally expect the previous gen to see a price drop, but these are overall so close in spec, I'm not sure if they'll bother.
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I was going by this: https://arstechnica.com/gadget... [arstechnica.com]
Also here: https://9to5google.com/2026/02... [9to5google.com]
Gizmodo is trash anyway.
Why do they make "slick phones"? (Score:2)
I have a pixel 8,
And god, do I have a beef against it !!!
>I slid the phone across a desk and felt oddly satisfied that it could
> glide as neatly as a figure skater
This is just plain stupid, when I take my phone in my hand it feels so sleepery and insecure that I had to purchase a protection to put around it.
That protection is to make it "stick in my hand" more than to protect it from the fall...
Why would the make fragile, handheld devices easy to drop?
Grrrrrrrr
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Thanks Sam (Score:2)
The AI revolution is going great.
Buy a 9a then (Score:2)
Support (Score:2)
I wonder if the 10a will have an extra year of support over the 9a.
2026 tech "shrinkflation" (Score:3)
Broadly we are going to see this across the board. Tech companies releasing new models that for a change are not appreciably better or even reduced specs compared to predecessors. The tech supply chain is fubar thanks to the data center black hole and companies are doing this to try to keep product on the shelves.
Pixel has run its course for me... (Score:2)
When my current Pixel 9 reaches EOL, I likely won't be purchasing another Google device. I'll probably just throw in the towel and get an iPhone and call it a day.
The Pixel 9 and my previous Pixel 6 Pro have always been a bit quirky and haven't had the best signal reception with them when friends and colleagues were getting usable signal at the same location with other devices. I had been doing the Pixel thing because they're straightforward to root if you're into that sort of thing and you've got lineage
Pixel2 (Score:2)
Am I the only one who misses the pixel 2? It felt like the best phone. I was/am a huge fan of the rear finger print reader, and I must have been one of the few that used the squeeze functionality.
Every later version of the pixel is fine, but has felt like a step down from the 2.
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cases (Score:2)
I stopped using cases years ago
ohhh, the innovation (Score:2)
The innovation happened years ago. It's a keyboardless touch screen, about 6 inches on the diagonal. That's it. That's all.
Since then? it's just engineering, more pixels, more battery, more storage, supposedly faster chips...
I don't know what you do with your phone, but I never needed any "innovation" in my phone, since the soapbar came out.
Don't be a rat in the maze.
Too damn slick (Score:2)
"I slid the phone across a desk and felt oddly satisfied that it could glide as neatly as a figure skater without any hint of a camera bump hindering its path"
Yeah, that's my biggest gripe about my Pixel - the damn thing is so slick, the slightest slope will cause it, or something that's sitting on it, to slide off, even though it does have the camera bump (10 pro). I tried a couple of cases, but they have their own problems, so I'm just careful where I set it.