Google Pixel 10A review: refreshing
This 'Berry' colour might be the biggest upgrade
When I reviewed the Pixel 10 back in September, I wondered how it’d fare against the presumptive Pixel 10A that I expected to release around about now. The 10 felt like Google was trying to give the 10 Pro a little separation; the cheaper phone gained a telephoto lens, sure, but the rest of its camera system was cut down to match the cheaper A-series line.
At the time, I was imagining that it might be difficult for the Pixel 10 to compete with an upgraded 10A six months down the line. Well, now that that phone is here — belatedly so in Japan — I have to assume that Google agreed with my premise, because the 10A has very few upgrades at all.
That’s not to say it’s a bad phone — the Pixel 9A was a major upgrade in terms of technology and design for the A-series, and none of that has regressed here. But it’s clear that certain updates were left on the table, meaning the Pixel 10 remains relevant and an obvious step above.
The design is very similar to the 9A but features a couple of notable tweaks. While the 9A had an unusually tiny camera bump that almost felt like it had been laminated onto the back of the phone, the 10A’s is even less protrusive — in fact, it’s actually slightly recessed.
Google seems to have achieved this by making the phone a tenth of a millimetre thicker, which is less noticeable in the hand than the difference in the camera design. It does make for a phone that feels refreshingly different to use, even if it’s only possible due to the modest camera hardware.
The plastic back panel still feels a little cheap, but I can at least vouch for the new “Berry” colourway that my review unit comes in. It’s honestly quite unlike any other phone colour I’ve ever seen — kind of a vibrant red with hot pink undertones. I think it’s a great look, and together with the minimalist camera bump and lack of glass on the back, it makes the 10A the perfect phone to use without a case.
Unfortunately, this also means it’s all the more disappointing that Google didn’t bring over the MagSafe-compatible Pixelsnap magnetic wireless charging feature that it introduced with the other Pixel 10 phones. Apple made the same mistake with its entry-level iPhone 16E last year and rectified it with the 17E; Google should really do the same. Those magnets can’t be that expensive and they do make a huge difference in usability.
The screen is very similar to last year’s model, keeping the same 6.3” size and 1080p resolution but upgrading to Gorilla Glass 7i and boosting the outdoor brightness by a couple of hundred nits to 2,000. The bezels have been slimmed down due to imperceptibly smaller dimensions in the phone itself, but the difference is quite noticeable when you look at the two screens side-by-side — they’re thinner and now fully symmetrical, giving a more refined look.
But the 10A is still noticeably bigger in the hand than the regular Pixel 10, despite having the same size screen. Clearly there is a point at which Google is unwilling or unable to further shrink dimensions while meeting a certain price.
That’s about it for visible changes. The battery is still a solid 5,100mAh, close to the 5,200mAh capacity in the much larger Pixel 10 Pro XL, and it’s performed well in general use for me; it also now charges at 30W, up from 23W in the 9A.
The camera system is unchanged, using a 48-megapixel 1/2” sensor and an f/1.7 lens for the main shooter and a 13-megapixel 1/3.1” sensor with an f/2.2 lens on the ultrawide. Google did add some new software features from the other Pixel 10 phones, like the AI-powered Camera Coach and Auto Best Take, but otherwise I know what to expect from this camera setup at this point. The hardware isn’t great but it does the job at recreating the punchy, slightly artificial Pixel look.
Beyond the camera, the Pixel 10A also solidly delivers on the general Pixel software experience, which I continue to be even more of a fan of since Google’s Material 3 Expressive overhaul based on Android 16. This is just a fun phone to use, with quirky, appealing visual design and animations throughout, as well as trademark system-level features like Circle to Search and various real-time language capabilities.
But the most contentious decision on the Pixel 10A risks it getting left behind in that regard. Google has chosen to stick with the Tensor G4 chip from the Pixel 9 generation of phones, rather than moving to the 10-series’ G5. The 10A also still tops out at 256GB of storage and, critically, 8GB of RAM, which means it doesn’t run the latest Gemini Nano models that enable features like Magic Cue, the Pixel Screenshots app and notification summaries.
I do think the 10A is a good phone for $499, and the Pixel 10 lineup is now solidly differentiated at a range of price points. The upgrade to the 10 makes sense for $300, or if you can find it at a discount: you get better build quality, a telephoto camera, thinner bezels, a faster chip with all the features it enables and — maybe most importantly — Pixelsnap.
But that’s also what you’d get over the Pixel 9A, which you can probably find for even cheaper than the 10A, and you won’t be missing out on much. It feels like the 10A only exists to help straighten out the lineup and provide an updated offering for anyone who does need an upgrade this year.
The 10A itself will also be upgraded as time goes on, of course. To its credit, Google has now assembled a coherent range of phones that all work in their own way for various budgets.
Still, the 10A ends a run of increasingly impressive A-series upgrades, where each year erased a particular pain point and left you wondering what would even be left to keep for the higher-end models next time around. This time, the difference is a lot more obvious.