Google’s only made the slightest of changes for the Pixel 10a, and while it’s still a decent mid-range phone, it’s a harder phone to recommend this year.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Brighter and theoretically tougher display | No interior hardware changes from Pixel 9a |
| 7 Years of OS and Security Updates | No camera hardware changes from Pixel 9a |
| Decent battery life | No Pixelsnap or battery capacity changes from Pixel 9a |
Score: 3/5
In this review
Google Pixel 10a Specifications
Google Pixel 10a Design
Google Pixel 10a Camera
Google Pixel 10a Performance
Google Pixel 10a Battery
Google Pixel 10a Verdict
Ethical disclaimer:
The Google Pixel 10a used in this review was sent to me by Google for the purposes of review. Typically Google doesn’t ask for hardware to be returned, but as always this makes absolutely zero difference to my review process, which remains proudly independent. Indeed, given Google stopped using it years ago, I’m actively tempted to pick up “Don’t be Evil” as a motto around here. I wish more phone reviewers did the same.
For more on ART’s Ethics position, see here.
Design
I’ll get the elephant out of the room here early. I really rather loved the Pixel 9a in 2025, scoring it as highly as any other phone released last year. It was an easy recommendation for those looking for a high mid-range handset.
For most people, the Pixel 10a may as well be the Pixel 9a with a search and replace for “9” in all of its software, because the changes are truly minimal.
At the design level, we’re talking the exact same screen size and resolution and refresh rate, though the Pixel 10a does boast a slightly higher screen brightness, which does have some utility if you’re going to be using it in direct sunlight a lot, or if for some strange reason you like blinding yourself in the middle of the night by turning it up to maximum settings.
It is an upgrade, but if you’ve got it set on automatic brightness, it’s not one you’d likely notice side by side.
Not that the upgrade market for the Pixel 10a should be those who purchased a Pixel 9a last year anyway, though it’s worth keeping in mind as the newer Pixel comes to market, as there’s decent odds of scoring a bargain on the older handset now that the newer one is out.
The differences beyond some slightly changed colours and the fact that the camera bump is now flat are quite small.
Don’t believe me? Let’s put them side by side:
Yeah, I struggle to pick them either, but what I really meant was at a specifications level:
See?
Also read:
Now, if you’re coming from a much older Pixel a series phone – a Pixel 6a or 7a or something like that – then yes, the changes would be more profound for sure.
You’re getting a much tougher phone with a larger faster and brighter display. That upgrade may make sense, but again, I’d suggest shopping around for a Pixel 9a – because again, they’re essentially the same phone!
You do get slightly different colour choices with the Pixel 10a, as well as its single signature design change, being a flat camera back. I guess that’s meant to give it a slim profile in the style of phones like the iPhone Air or Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge.
It does that, though as always I’d advise buying a case to drop the Pixel 10a into for its own protection, at which point all the engineering put into getting the camera to sit flush within the body of the phone is entirely moot.
Camera
The cameras on the Pixel 10a are identical to those on the Pixel 9a, which means that you’re shooting with a 48MP f/1.7 primary wide sensor alongside a 13MP f/2.2 ultrawide, while selfies are handled by a front-facing 13MP f/2.2 sensor.
One of the big tradeoffs for the Pixel a series phones is that while the prices have crept up a little over time – though notably, to be fair to Google, the Pixel 10a is priced the same as the Pixel 9a was at launch – there’s never been an option in this price space for a telephoto lens of any style.
At this price, I think that’s a missed opportunity; while I get that Google probably doesn’t want to cannibalise sales of its higher-end Pixel 10 phones for the 10a’s sake, the reality is that competitors such as Nothing are doing telephoto at prices much lower than Google’s asking price, and getting decent results from them too.
Still, I wasn’t surprised to find the Pixel 10a shooting well enough within this price space for what it’s got, shooting reasonably natural colour tones for most of its scene types, helped along of course by Google’s computational photography smarts.
You do get some of Google’s AI-led camera smarts, but not all of them, and the most obvious “missing” feature at this price point that would have been nice to see, some level of telephoto lens is notably absent.
Without it, zoom tops out at just 8x, and even then the results often struggle to be worthwhile.
Here’s a standard wide shot taken with the primary lens:
The same shot at the default 2x digital zoom (which is of course just a crop)
Bump it up to 8x and the results do start to struggle.
Wise of Google not to push it further, but still not great.
The practical reality for most users is that the Pixel 10a is a mostly serviceable camera phone for everyday shots, just like the Pixel 9a was.
Hmm. There’s a reason for that, but I just can’t put my finger on it.
Pixel 10a Sample Photos
Performance
Under the hood of the Pixel 10a you’ll find the Google Tensor G4, paired up with 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage; the model Google sent my way was the 128GB variant.
Update 18/03/2026: Google has (as predicted) lifted the block on benchmarks on the Pixel 10a, so I’ve run those and included them below. The following doesn’t apply any more, but I’m leaving it here because blocking them in the first place is still hugely anti-consumer behaviour on Google’s part, and deleting that criticism would be letting Google off the hook, which I’m not inclined to do.
It is, as already stated, the exact same internals as the Pixel 9a, so in theory it should benchmark the same. I have to say “in theory” because Google’s playing the same insulting and stupid games it always plays with Pixel phones around the time they release, blocking popular benchmark apps from running until about a month after they launch.
For such an otherwise open platform as Android, and especially for what’s meant to be the literal “benchmark” devices, it’s nothing short of platform abuse for Google to do this… but yet it does.
Seriously Google, this is STUPID behaviour, especially for a processor that’s already a year old.
And yet here we are, again.
What’s really daft here is that Google’s hiding precisely nothing with this strategy, because with identical internals to the Pixel 9a, it doesn’t take Nostradamus to predict that they’ll benchmark within the same essential range; the minor hardware changes to accommodate that flat back on the Pixel 10a might make a point or two’s difference for cooling reasons at a stretch, but that’s about it.
As such, I’m going with the Pixel 9a’s figures as though they were the Pixel 10a’s figures, because they very much will be near-identical once Google drops its nonsensical app block anyway.
The reality here is that you can get quite a few nice phones for the $849 asking price of the Pixel 10a. Here’s a comparison of phones around that price point at the time of writing using Geekbench 6’s CPU test:
Not everyone will want a competing brand phone, however. How does that comparison look against prior Pixel generations?
If you’re coming from a much older Pixel A series phone then, you should see a level of performance uptick, though again the spectre of the Pixel 9a being identical does rear its head.
What about at the GPU level? Here’s how the cross-brand comparison looks using 3Dmark’s Wild Life Extreme Test:
What about historical Pixel A series phones if you’re upgrading from those?
Google’s Tensor chips have never been powerhouses within their relative spaces, and that trend continues here, though it’s not at all surprising.
Google’s contention is that they’re more finely tuned for AI applications than everyday ones, and maybe that has merit, though I’m still left waiting for the “killer” AI feature that makes the Pixels stand out in this regard. You’ll most likely see new Gemini features on Pixel phones first, and you do get 7 years of OS upgrades and security updates thrown into the mix, though this gives me pause for thought about the Pixel 9a. Yes, again.
The Pixel 9a shipped with the same 7 year promise as the Pixel 10a, but the underlying hardware is practically identical, though the 9a has “had” one of its years of updates. What happens in six years time when the Pixel 10a is due another year’s updates? There’s not a strong hardware argument not to offer those updates to Pixel 9a users as well… but something tells me Google isn’t likely to be that generous.
You do get access to Google’s satellite SOS service with the Pixel 10a, which could conceivably get you out of a pickle if you end up stranded in an area with no other mobile service – like, say, a lot of the more remote parts of Australia but also some of the roads between major regional centres as well.
It’s free under what Google calls a “two year trial”, though the company won’t say what kind of charges it might incur after that period.
This is one area where the Pixel 10a is an improvement over the Pixel 9a, because that phone notably didn’t have Satellite SOS built in. Before you ask, no, I haven’t tested it out; making false calls to emergency services is illegal (and for good reason) and I’m not some daft YouTube Influencer. I kind of feel like there’s more than enough of those idiots already, but I digress…
Battery
The Pixel 10a features a 5100mAh battery, the exact same size as last year’s phone.
That should put it in good company, because while Tensor processors have long lagged behind the industry’s best in CPU/GPU performance terms, where they’ve excelled has been in battery life.
As always, battery testing is relative (you can read about how I test batteries and the problems with battery tests here), but to give it some comparative context, I ran the Pixel 10a through my standard YouTube battery test.
Here’s how it compares against the other flagships in its price range:
The Pixel 10a does well, but it’s notable that it actually came second to… the Pixel 9a. Either phone should be good for a day’s usage for all but the heaviest users, which is pleasing to see.
If you’re upgrading from an older Pixel phones, while my test scores are limited by the way I used to run this test, the Pixel 10a still compares nicely:
One feature that was a highlight of the Pixel 10 series was the inclusion of proper Qi2 compliant wireless charging (“PixelSnap” in Google-speak), including magnetic attachment, so my hopes were high that Google would include it on the Pixel 10a as well.
Nope. Google, it seems, doesn’t like giving me nice things, because while the Pixel 10a does support wireless charging, it doesn’t do so with magnetic attachment in any way at all.
Google Pixel 10a: Alex’s Verdict
At one level, the Pixel 10a is a pretty decent phone; it’s fast enough, its battery life is quite good and Google’s AI features (if you’re keen on those) are built in, with a guarantee of seven years of security updates and OS upgrades to sweeten the deal.
The problem however is that the Pixel 10a does not exist in a vacuum, and the phone it replaces, the Pixel 9a is so very similar on most of the levels that consumers are likely to care about. I’m not in any way advocating for year-on-year replacements, but it does mean that if you can score a “cheap” Pixel 9a — and there are some nice deals around at the time of writing — then that’s a much better phone.
Sticking with the basics also leaves Google in the tricky position where competitors in the Android space overtake it in areas such as performance, because Tensor isn’t some processing powerhouse processor, and especially camera performance. If you’re dedicated to the Pixel line of phones and you’re upgrading from a Pixel phone with at least 3-4 years of use on the clock then this is a totally solid upgrade option — but consider your alternatives, too.
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