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We just got our hands on the brand new Google Pixel 9a here in the office, and alongside its Pro siblings - the Pixel 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL, we're excited to dive into Google's latest venture into the competitive mid-range market. Priced at a very attractive $499, the Pixel 9a aims to deliver a near-flagship experience without the flagship price tag. Let's dive in the box!
Read more: https://chromeunboxed.com/pixel-9a-unboxing-and-initial-impressions-video/
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0:00
here in front of me on the table is none
0:02
other than the new Pixel 9a and over
0:05
here for reference I've actually got the
0:08
Pixel 9 Pro XL and we're just excited to
0:11
have this thing in the office uh it's
0:14
Google's new entrylevel um not quite
0:17
flagship device but at
0:19
$499 it packs a bunch of really cool
0:21
specs and so uh let's just hop in the
0:24
box and see how this thing feels
0:26
[Music]
0:29
but before we hop into this particular
0:31
box I'd like to invite you to come check
0:34
out our Chrome Unbox Plus community and
0:38
uh over there you're going to find a a
0:40
whole host of people who have joined and
0:42
are in there discussing all sorts of
0:44
things from Chromebooks to Google
0:46
products to phones just like this one uh
0:48
it's a it's a community of just awesome
0:50
people and I think a lot of you watching
0:53
a video like this would probably uh find
0:55
some some kindred spirits there but
0:57
additionally you get uh ad free access
0:59
to
1:00
chromeunbox.com you get uh more access
1:03
to Joe and myself and to exclusive AMAs
1:06
that we do from time to time with the uh
1:08
Chrome OS team and it's just two bucks a
1:11
month so if any of that sounds
1:13
interesting to you head over to
1:16
chromunbox.com/join and uh you can find
1:17
out more details and get started so the
1:20
one that we got in is what is the actual
1:24
porcelain uh that's what they're going
1:25
with for the white variant uh we didn't
1:28
get any cases we filled out the thing
1:30
for cases but we didn't get any um and
1:32
that's okay generally speaking you know
1:35
Google has a handful of colors on these
1:37
i think you've got like a kind of a pink
1:38
and a blue and a white and a black um
1:40
but I'm going to give you some of the
1:42
specs and I'm pulling up my my personal
1:44
phone here uh for reference because
1:46
honestly guys look I'm a Chromebook guy
1:48
i'm a Chromebook reviewer like if you
1:50
put a Chromebook in front of me I can
1:51
probably rattle off every spec that
1:53
thing contains when it comes to
1:55
smartphones I don't um pay as much
1:58
attention to all the the finicky details
2:00
and I know a lot of you want to want to
2:02
hear all those details um but to me when
2:04
it comes to something like a Pixel 9 Pro
2:07
XL or even a Pixel 9a um the specs
2:10
matter a whole lot less than the
2:11
experience of using the device however
2:14
I'm going to rattle off a few of these
2:16
important things so um it's uh let's see
2:20
screen size is 6.3 in still being called
2:23
an actual display uh it's uh 1080p
2:26
basically with a little bit uh added
2:28
width there 20x9 aspect ratio that kind
2:30
of stuff the screen uh interestingly
2:32
enough goes from 60 to 120 Hz so you're
2:35
not getting the 1 to 120 Hz so there's
2:38
you would think a little bit less
2:39
battery saving there but this thing
2:41
apparently is a battery beast uh it does
2:43
get up to 1,800 nits uh 2700 nits peak
2:47
brightness if you're outside in the sun
2:48
uh 1 million to1 contrast ratio HDR
2:51
support all that good stuff so great
2:53
looking screen on this thing but then
2:55
the battery is rated at 30 plus hours uh
2:58
100 plus with the extreme battery savers
3:00
if you turn everything off um but it's a
3:02
5100 milliampour battery that's a
3:05
massive massive cell uh inside of a
3:08
phone this size 8 gigs of RAM 128 gigs
3:11
of storage there's an option for 256 and
3:13
it also comes with the same uh Tensor G4
3:16
processor that's in this phone right
3:18
here uh and I want to say that at this
3:20
point right now the the Pro is a $1,200
3:22
phone so for 700 bucks less you're still
3:24
getting the Tensor G4 which is pretty
3:27
awesome um and then I wanted to get the
3:29
rear camera specs here for you 48
3:31
megapixel wide 13 megapixel ultrawide um
3:35
so you get your two sensors there and
3:37
then all the other you know
3:39
softwarebased
3:41
um um camera tricks that that Pixel
3:44
devices do let's see if there's anything
3:46
else 82Ā° of uh uh view um on the wide
3:52
camera ultra wide is 120Ā° and then on
3:55
your front camera you're getting 13
3:56
megapixels with a 96Ā° field of view any
4:00
other things i mean there's a bajillion
4:02
specs here obviously it'll do 4K 60
4:05
1080p 60 uh with a digital zoom of up to
4:08
5x on video yeah so you get it um the
4:12
point is here this device is $499 MSRP
4:17
all day every day it doesn't require any
4:18
tradeins or deals or any of that kind of
4:20
stuff and you're getting a lot in this
4:23
box for that particular price point so a
4:26
lot of this comes down to um it's not a
4:29
question of whether or not this this
4:31
phone is going to perform well well I
4:32
mean it's got 8 gigs of RAM and the
4:34
Tensor G4 so it's not that far off from
4:37
what you get in Google's more premium
4:39
phones it's really about how does it
4:40
feel in the hand like what does it look
4:43
like how does it um you know perform out
4:45
in daylight and all that kind of stuff
4:46
and obviously that that kind of requires
4:48
a little bit more of a review to answer
4:50
uh but I can answer some of the stuff
4:52
about how it feels in the hand and and
4:54
all that kind of stuff cuz we know it
4:55
doesn't have a glass back we've at least
4:57
seen that part of it so that's that's
4:58
one kind of downgrade but it's got metal
5:00
rails um obviously it's got a nice
5:02
screen
5:03
[Music]
5:05
um yeah this feels great um it
5:09
definitely feels Yeah a little less
5:11
substantial i mean that's a much bigger
5:13
phone obviously too but I would I would
5:15
assume if I put the Pixel 9 Pro in my
5:17
hands it would feel a little bit more
5:19
weighty just because the back of those
5:20
phones is glass look at Joe's got that
5:23
boom it's not that different actually
5:25
here let me take the case off make sure
5:27
I'm apples to apples here
5:30
yeah I bet if I handed this to somebody
5:31
with their eyes closed and they didn't
5:33
feel up and feel the the big camera
5:34
notch there uh they would they would
5:36
mistake that uh one for the other we'll
5:39
talk about the camera notch here in just
5:40
a second but overall I've already gotten
5:42
fingerprints all over this thing overall
5:45
it just uh it feels nice it feels um it
5:48
feels good in the hand and obviously um
5:52
let's talk about that camera real quick
5:54
that's one of the most notable changes
5:56
that Google has made slide this stuff
5:59
out of the way and
6:01
see kind of from the side there you can
6:04
see the massive plateau you get on the
6:06
other Pixel devices and they've kind of
6:09
gone away from it here and I've heard
6:11
some criticism of this move uh that it
6:14
makes it look less um iconic but I don't
6:17
know there's just something really
6:19
uh nice about not having a huge camera
6:22
hump on your phone um you know it's
6:24
something we've gotten used to over the
6:25
last few years but um it's it's nice to
6:28
it's not quite flush i mean it's maybe
6:30
like a millimeter above the back of the
6:32
phone um and I'll say the the kind of
6:34
frosted plastic back here you can tell
6:38
it's not you can do this kind of thing
6:39
and feel it it's not glass for sure but
6:41
it it feels nice and most people put a
6:43
case on their phone but I I love I'm a
6:46
sucker for these kind of matte finish
6:47
rails around the sides and
6:51
ultimately I mean it's just as thin as
6:54
uh the other Pixel phones too so you're
6:56
not adding a ton of bulk to get that
6:58
bigger battery you're not adding a ton
6:59
of bulk to get the camera hump under
7:01
control and so uh those are those are
7:04
some nice uh nice benefits here
7:06
obviously got a speaker port down at the
7:07
bottom SIM card uh USB type-C uh your
7:10
power and volume rocker is over here on
7:12
the side like you would expect on a
7:14
Pixel phone another mic jack up there
7:17
and then just some brakes here for the
7:18
antennas and all that kind of stuff so
7:20
uh let me get this thing powered on just
7:22
a second and get past the the initial
7:23
setup screens real fast and we'll take a
7:25
look at this screen and maybe see how
7:26
the speakers perform too all right so
7:28
we're all logged in and uh I tested a
7:31
couple things uh while we were off
7:33
camera and I'm already pretty impressed
7:35
so first thing is speakers i'm going to
7:37
give you a sample of uh one of our
7:39
videos so you can just kind of hear um
7:42
the robustness i've got a couple let's
7:44
see one two three one two three i'm
7:47
going to go four notches down from top
7:49
so here's this processor is the N150 and
7:52
N250 and those numbers probably sound
7:54
familiar cuz for a couple years now
7:56
we've had the N100 and N2 okay then
7:59
we're going to do the same thing on the
8:00
9 Pro 2 3 4 of RAM whereas this uh new
8:06
device from ASUS I think this is the
8:07
CM12 uh their latest i don't really hear
8:10
any difference whatsoever once again I
8:12
think this is a situation where I could
8:13
hand both of these phones to someone
8:15
with their a blindfold on listen to both
8:17
and they would have a very hard time
8:18
telling the difference between the two
8:20
so uh speakers sound really good i'll
8:22
say the haptic feedback uh while I was
8:25
just kind of doing some of the setup
8:26
stuff and getting logged into a couple
8:27
things feels really really good i think
8:30
Google always does a great job of that
8:32
kind of stuff and then let's see i'm
8:34
going to put them right here like that
8:36
this is one notable thing you can
8:38
obviously tell a difference in when we
8:39
start looking at bezels um and the
8:41
reason I'm comparing these two is
8:42
they're just similar size so I didn't
8:44
want to compare the speakers on the 9A
8:46
against the Pro XL just there's it's
8:49
bigger there could be bigger speakers in
8:51
here and make it sound better but it
8:52
sounds really good but there are
8:54
noticeable bezels here and whether or
8:56
not Google did this like on purpose um
8:59
you know it's is obviously a question
9:01
they they have to decide that stuff for
9:03
themselves but you know you want your
9:04
premium phones to look a little more
9:05
premium that's accomplished through some
9:07
smaller bezels on the 9 Pro um but are
9:11
these bezels big enough that you're
9:13
going to look at them and be uh uh
9:15
mortified by them in public or anything
9:17
no i actually I had to get uh the case
9:20
off of Joe's phone and look at them to
9:22
make sure cuz yeah they're there but
9:25
immediately you just kind of stop
9:28
recognizing them so um not really an
9:31
issue there either so the one other
9:33
thing I wanted to do during this is cuz
9:35
again when we talk about performance of
9:38
this device it's going to be right on
9:40
par with the other Pixels like it's
9:42
that's the one thing that's really cool
9:44
about um uh Google's uh A series phones
9:47
is that they they don't really they
9:50
don't skimp on a bunch of stuff like you
9:52
don't have to worry about that stuff so
9:54
uh I do I do enjoy that so there's
9:55
there's a bunch of stuff over here so
9:57
I'm just going to shoot there's a I've
9:58
got a drink um some random camera stuff
10:03
so I'm going to take that photo there so
10:05
I'm going to zoom in okay yeah yeah and
10:07
again like the the sensors in this phone
10:10
aren't as good as the Pro line they're
10:13
just not it's not as good a hardware but
10:15
Google has done so well with lower-end
10:18
hardware in their cameras for so long
10:20
it's just not a problem um you know I we
10:23
can we can stitch this this photo into
10:26
um into the video but I mean so much
10:30
detail like I can read stuff on the desk
10:32
back there like I can read stuff on our
10:35
our light i mean once again I mean I I
10:39
didn't doubt for a second that the
10:40
camera would look good uh but it looks
10:42
it looks stellar um and not surprising
10:45
there let's look at the selfie camera
10:46
real quick flip that around
10:52
and granted this is really good
10:55
lighting but I mean you can see wild
10:58
amounts of detail here um look at all my
11:01
gray hairs um eyebrows all that kind of
11:03
stuff i'm not getting too close nobody
11:05
wants to see me up that close except my
11:07
wife but yeah so impressive just you
11:09
know from the from the jump at least uh
11:11
impressive looking camera wild battery
11:14
life obviously here great performance uh
11:17
a very solid feeling phone a very
11:19
attractive phone I would have to say
11:21
still just as thin as everything else uh
11:23
in the Pixel lineup so I don't know once
11:26
again I I find myself uh really
11:29
intrigued by the 9a and the cool part is
11:32
this year Google's figured out their
11:33
pricing in such a way that it shouldn't
11:35
be such a conundrum like last year with
11:37
the 8a uh the Pixel 8 kept dropping down
11:40
in price so much that it would like be
11:42
cheaper than the 8a i don't think that's
11:44
going to happen because right now I
11:45
think uh we're at like 1,200 1100 I
11:48
think on the Pros is where it's sitting
11:50
right now and then 900 for the Pixel 9
11:54
um and then or it's 800 I think maybe
11:57
799 for the Pixel 9 but then it drops
11:59
all the way down to 500 for this one if
12:01
they'll keep that price gap there and if
12:02
the 9's going to come down the A needs
12:04
to come down a little bit too then this
12:06
becomes the compelling Pixel phone in
12:08
2025 for people to go buy that's that's
12:11
just the the end statement there if you
12:13
don't if you're not looking for a
12:14
massive phone if you're okay with kind
12:16
of a standard 6.3 6.4 in phone um solid
12:20
build quality great camera gorgeous
12:23
looking screen great speakers great
12:25
haptic feedback uh plenty of storage and
12:28
a massive battery i Yeah I mean it's it
12:31
seems like an absolute win here um it's
12:34
a device that uh hopefully uh if things
12:37
play out the way I'd like them to I'll
12:38
be able to throw my SIM card in and
12:40
spend just a few days using it um we've
12:43
got a lot of stuff going on behind the
12:44
scenes right now so I don't know when
12:46
exactly that will happen uh I would like
12:48
to do it but I can tell you from this
12:49
initial uh first hands-on here that uh
12:52
this is an impressive impressive phone
12:54
for 500 bucks and I would I would likely
12:57
say in the Android world in this kind of
12:59
price point I it'd be hard for me to
13:02
imagine a phone that would beat this
13:03
because now you're getting all of the
13:05
best of Google's Gemini and AI and all
13:08
their helpful stuff that they do just
13:10
for Pixel phones and it doesn't matter
13:12
that you don't have the Pro like you're
13:13
going to get all of those pixel drops
13:15
and all of those Pixel features and
13:17
that's a really really cool thing at
13:18
this kind of price point but guys that's
13:21
it for this one if you enjoyed this
13:22
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until next time we'll see you
13:33
[Music]
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