The Pixel 10a doesn’t have a camera bump, and that’s great

For years now, smartphone manufacturers have been pushing the camera bump on their devices to keep up with camera improvements. Even if this kind of design makes cameras better, it sometimes creates usability issues. With the Pixel 10a, Google took a new approach to completely eliminate the camera bump and make a flat phone that lies entirely on surfaces.

While this is a welcome change in the world of big camera bangers, Google hasn’t made any other major design changes with its latest budget smartphone. The Pixel 9a looked largely the same, with a much smaller camera bump.

I have an old black device, but Google offers the phone in Lavender (a mix of bright blue and purple), Berry (coral), and Smoke (a grey-green tone).

The 6.3-inch screen size is the same as last year’s device, but the display is now brighter at 3,000 nits. Google is using the Actua series that it uses with other Pixel 10 series devices to make it more usable in bright conditions. The display is capable of a 120Hz refresh rate, but the device is set to 60Hz with it, so you’ll have to manually change that through the phone’s settings.

In terms of build and specifications, the Pixel 10a goes toe-to-toe with the Pixel 10 with a few differences. For example, the Pixel 10 has Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the front and back. The cheaper 10a has a plastic back and Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protection on the front. The budget device also has a larger battery of 5100mAh compared to 4970mAh in the base Pixel 10. The Pixel 10 Pro XL has a 5200 mAh battery.

There are only minor differences between the Pixel 9a, Pixel 10a, and Pixel 10, most of which have to do with performance and computing power. The obvious hardware difference is that the budget series phones use the Google Tensor G4 CPU compared to the Pixel 10’s Tensor G5. The Pixel 10 Series phones charge at 30W via USB-C, rather than the Pixel 9a’s 23W charging capability. Wireless charging is supported at 7.5W for Pixel 9a, 10W for Pixel 10a and 15W (magnetic) for Pixel 10.

The battery bulge and new charge capacity are useful as the battery easily lasts through the day, including using your usual apps, watching videos for a few hours and light gaming. Moreover, the brighter display makes the device better for an all-round experience in different lighting conditions. Yes, the 10a has smaller bezels than its more expensive cousins, but that doesn’t make much of a difference in day-to-day use. After all, you are getting the device at a lower price than the flagship.

The Pixel 10a uses the Tensor G4 chip, which is also used in the Pixel 9a. This means no performance gains this year, which you can see if you switch between multiple apps. Due to the combination of the chip and 8GB of RAM, the Pixel 10a can’t run the updated Gemini Nano model, meaning it has fewer AI features than the Pixel 10a series.

The list of features not available on the Pixel 10a include notification summaries, the Pixel screenshot app, Magi Cue (which gives you suggestions in apps like Gmail, Messages and Maps), call logs and on-device call translation.

The phone has a 48-megapixel primary camera and a 13-megapixel wide-angle camera, the same as last year’s device. The main camera is good for most conditions, even in low light. But given the older and smaller sensor on the ultrawide, it tends to lose some detail. Moreover, there is no autofocus.

There is a Pixel 10a camera trainer AI feature can help you take a picture of the object. This function guides the shooting frame to make sure the subject is better positioned in the photo. There’s also an Auto Best Take feature that combines photos to create the best shot from shots, which is useful when taking pictures of a group. The phone also supports up to 8x super-res zoom, but the processing and quality isn’t as good as the Pixel 10, which offers up to 100x zoom through this feature.

Note that some AI features may make their way to the Pixel 10a via Pixel Drop, as Google often manages to make them work on older models.

Google offers seven years of software updates with this device, which is crucial for getting both operating system updates and feature reductions and security updates. While this isn’t exclusive to the Pixel 10a, the phone now has a quick share feature that works with AirDrop. This means I can transfer photos to my MacBook with just a few taps, as I did for this story. Previously, I had to connect the Pixel 10a to my MacBook with a USB-C cable.

For $499, good battery life, a bright display, and faster charging are things that go in the Pixel 10a’s favor. At this price, the phone offers good value for money in a light and flat design. But if you own last year’s Pixel 9a, there’s no reason to switch. Plus, the $499 Nothing 4a Pro offers tough competition to Google’s budget device, with better specs like a bigger and brighter screen, a more capable Qualcomm processor, a dedicated telephoto lens, and 50W faster charging speed.