Last year’s Pixel 9a was a phone that checked almost every box. For $499, its combination of practical hardware, great cameras, excellent software, good battery life, and seven years of software updates was almost too good to be true. But it was true, and the Pixel 9a emerged as one of Android Authority’s highest-reviewed phones of 2025.
As the Pixel 10a has leaked over the past couple of weeks, it’s become increasingly obvious that it won’t be a dramatic upgrade over its predecessor. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing! So long as the 10a addresses the few lingering issues of the 9a, we could be looking at another top-tier budget Android phone.