The Google Pixel 9a Smartphone Is on Sale for Just $399 As Part of the Amazon Big Spring Sale.
When choosing a new smartphone, it’s tempting to stick with the latest and greatest. Google has the Pixel 10 series, including the all-new Pixel 10a . But technology has advanced significantly in recent years, and now the price-performance ratio of previous-generation smartphones is often just as good, if not better, than the latest models. Take the Pixel 9a , for example. You can pick up the predecessor to the Pixel 10a right now for just $399, $100 off the suggested retail price, during Amazon’s Spring Sale .
The Pixel 9a is a capable Android smartphone priced below $1,000, as has often been the case with flagship models in recent years. It features a 6.3-inch 1080p OLED display with a variable refresh rate of 60-120Hz; a Google Tensor G3 chip with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage; a single 48-megapixel rear camera and a 13-megapixel front camera; support for 5G, Wi-Fi 6e, and Bluetooth 5; and an average battery life of just over 12 hours (30 hours of talk time). In her review of the Pixel 9a, published in August , former Lifehacker tech editor Michelle Ehrhardt called the device “arguably Google’s best phone to date.” She praised the absence of a “camera bar”—a hallmark of the Pixel series for years—the long battery life, the brighter screen, and the phone’s lightweight design.
Of course, the Pixel 9a isn’t perfect. It’s Google’s “affordable” phone, meaning there are some compromises compared to the main Pixel line. Specifically, Michelle found the camera “just okay” and expressed concern that Google’s battery upgrades would degrade its battery life over time. She also found flaws in the 9a’s Tensor chip, though this isn’t a problem unique to the phone itself. Google uses its own Tensor chip in all its smartphones, and it’s simply not as powerful as some others on the market, such as the Snapdragon processors found in the Samsung Galaxy series.
You’d think the Pixel 10a would only push prices higher, but Michelle disagreed. In her review , she noted that the 10a is more of a remake of the Pixel 9a than a sequel, retaining many of the phone’s strengths but offering little in the way of improvements over its predecessor. If you’re looking for a new Android phone, especially one running pure Android (it is Google, after all), at a reasonable price, this is a great deal. However, while this is a great price for the 9a, it’s not the lowest it’s ever been. According to Keepa, Amazon sold the phone for $349 for about a week in early February before raising the price to $399. However, the price has been above $400 for over a month now, reaching $470, so it’s still a great deal.