Review: Google Pixel 10a

I spent four hours on the phone with Delta after my flight was canceled during the most recent snowstorm in New York City. But guess what? I barely heard a lick of the airline's awful hold music because I used Google's Hold for Me feature on the Pixel 10a, where the assistant does the job instead, alerting me only when a real human finally picked up on the other end.

There's a reason why I've long liked Google's price-friendly A-series. You get a very similar software experience—sometimes nearly identical!—as phones twice the price. It's a great showcase of how smart, helpful software can make a huge difference in your day-to-day.

That's especially important here for Google's latest iteration, the Pixel 10a, which hardly introduces anything new on the hardware front. It has the same processor as last year's Pixel 9a, the same design, and even the same battery capacity. Its existence feels like Google had to check off a box of launching a smartphone that would feel relevant and competitive alongside its peers like the recently announced iPhone 17e.

Even with minimal changes, the $499 Pixel 10a is a great pick for anyone hunting for a well-rounded smartphone while keeping price in mind. It does nearly everything well, while offering some of the longest software support you'll find for the money. But I also think you should strongly consider the Pixel 9a if you can find it on sale (it has dipped as low as $349).

Just the Same

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

The one big visual change between the Pixel 9a and Pixel 10a is the lack of a plastic ring around the cameras. That makes it even flatter than before. Google says the flush design was a big hit with customers last year, and I think it is an underrated perk after years and years of ever-thickening camera bumps. The 10a doesn't rock on a table, and it neatly glides into my pocket. I also like the new Berry color—a bright jolt that makes this phone stand out, though you have Obsidian, Fog, and Lavender options for something more subtle.

The screen is brighter now, reaching a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, and I haven't had any trouble reading it in sunny conditions (though it hasn't been as sunny as I'd like it to be these past few weeks). I appreciate the glass upgrade from Gorilla Glass 3 to Gorilla Glass 7i. It should be more protective, and anecdotally, I don't see a single scratch on the Pixel 10a's screen after two weeks of use. (I'd still snag a screen protector to be safe.)

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Another notable upgrade is in charging speeds—30-watt wired charging and 10-watt wireless charging. I'll admit I haven't noticed the benefits of this yet, since I'm often recharging the phone overnight. You can get up to 50 percent in 30 minutes of charging with a compatible adapter, and that has lined up with my testing.

My biggest gripe? Google should have taken this opportunity to add its Pixelsnap wireless charging magnets to the back of this phone. That would help align the Pixel 10a even more with the Pixel 10 series and bring Qi2 wireless charging into a more affordable realm—actually raising the bar, which wouldn't be a first for the A-series. After all, Apple did exactly that with the new iPhone 17e, adding MagSafe to the table. Or heck, at least make the Pixel 10a Qi2 Ready like Samsung's smartphones, so people who use a magnetic case can take advantage of faster wireless charging speeds.

Battery life has been OK. With average use, the Pixel 10a comfortably lasts me a full day, but it still requires daily charging. With heavier use, like when I'm traveling, I've had to charge the phone in the afternoon a few times to make sure it didn't die before I got into bed. This is a fairly big battery for its size, but I think there's more Google could do to extend juice, akin to Motorola's Moto G Power 2026.

I won't harp on performance much. This phone has the same Tensor G4 as its predecessor with 8 GB of RAM, and it still handles everything I throw at it with ease. If you're an avid mobile gamer who plays demanding titles multiple times a day, you may find performance lackluster, but it shouldn't have issues with your average mobile titles. I also didn't have issues with AI tasks, though it is easy to notice how much slower it can be versus the Tensor G5 in the Pixel 10 Pro.

I also don't have much to complain about with the dual-camera system. It's the same 48-MP main camera, 13-MP ultrawide, and 13-MP selfie shooter. Photos are pleasingly exposed with sharp details and natural colors. There are sometimes a few white balance issues, but overall, it's a very respectable system for the money. I'd love to see a 2X or 3X optical zoom lens in the future on an A-series, especially since Samsung offers it on its slightly pricier Galaxy S25 FE (often on sale for under $500), but I can't ding Google too hard considering Apple still only offers a single-camera experience on its $599 iPhone 17e.

Unlike the Pixel 9a, the Pixel 10a sports Satellite SOS, and it's nice to see this flagship feature trickle down into more reasonably priced phones. (Apple also has offered this on the iPhone 16e and now iPhone 17e.) It's just a nice-to-have in case of emergencies in areas without a cell signal.

Smart Software

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

You get many existing software features from prior Pixel devices, including two new additions from the Pixel 10 series: Camera Coach and Auto Best Take (you can read more about these here). I've already evaluated these features in my Pixel 10 review; long story short, I find the latter helpful when you're taking group pictures to make sure everyone's eyes are open, and mouths are smiling. Camera Coach impedes the flow of taking a photo—at least, for me—so I have little reason to use it.

Google's conversational photo editor is more useful when you want to make some minor changes to a photo and don't want to dig through tools and menus, though this is hardly exclusive to the Pixel 10a series. Even Samsung now offers it on its latest phones.

It's great that the Pixel 10a supports Google's new Quick Share to AirDrop feature, allowing 10a owners to “AirDrop” files and photos to their iPhone-wielding friends without having to explain why they don't have an iPhone. (More puzzling is why the Pixel 9a doesn't support this yet, considering it's the same hardware—maybe in a future software update.)

Naturally, being a Google phone, there are plenty of artificial intelligence features, and Gemini is there to do your bidding. It's a delicate balance. Many of the software smarts are things I've come to rely on, like the AI transcription service in Google's Recorder app. Or Now Playing, which automatically tells me what song I'm hearing on the radio while I'm waiting for my coffee order. I also sometimes call up Gemini and ask it contextual questions about what I'm staring at on the screen, and its answers are often helpful.

But it can also swing the other way with AI fatigue. It frustrates me to see the “Create” banana emoji when I use Google's Circle to Search feature, as if I constantly want to generate AI images. The Pixel Weather app's AI summaries generate more slowly than the time it takes me to actually look at the weather data (generally, I have never found these summaries useful). Why does Google Discover now think I want AI-summarized stories?

The good significantly outweighs the bad, and that makes the Pixel 10a still one of the best smartphones on the market—whether you have a tight budget or not. Unless you hate Google's data collection practices and its AI features—if so, wait a few months to install GrapheneOS and de-Google the phone entirely.