hello everyone and welcome to the channel surprisingly the Pixel 9 is available for sale in the UEE so I couldn't wait to get my hands on one of the units to show you everything you need to know and answer all your questions so please subscribe and hit the bell icon as a lot of videos about the latest Pixel 9 are in the pipeline and now let's begin starting with the design and builder quality at first I didn't know if I like or hate the new design language of the A series but after some time I kind of like it it's simple and clean which is something I always lean to even though the camera visor is gone but the pill-shaped camera housing gives it the same pixel identity we got used to another advantage is you don't need to worry about the dust accumulating under the camera visor or getting scratched over time but what I do like for sure is the loudspeaker placement it's back again to the right side so I no longer covered the speaker in landscape orientation unlike the 9 Pro XL so thank you Google for listening to the feedback and I hope to see the same with the Pixel 10 the matte finish aluminum rail is another plus over the flagship model that has a glossy finish additionally holding the phone feels so comfortable and everything is easily reachable with one hand plus it's very light it only weighs 186 g so it certainly wins in the comfort talking about the front that's the biggest trade-off in the design the bezels of this phone are massive imagine if it got the same bezels of the 9 Pro it would have looked so much better but after some time I got used to it i recommend not to look at any other phone with thin bezels to make it easier for yourself moving to the build quality the display is covered with Gorilla Glass 3 so the drop protection is not great that's why my Lion A display broke after slipping from my pocket while sitting in a restaurant i created a video about this incident but then I removed it because I said the drop distance is 25 cm but I had doubts and later I found that the drop distance to be about 35 cm at the end of the day it's my mistake but I expected it to be more durable similarly the back material feels very cheap and hollow but thankfully it's made of plastic so you don't need to worry about breaking it i recommend installing a case and a screen protector immediately after purchasing this phone in contrast the phone's structure is very solid and it doesn't flex whatsoever same as the buttons that are also wellmade and tactile beside this the IP rating improved when compared to its predecessor it's up from IP67 to 68 to match the flagship models which is nice overall I like how comfortable light and compact is the Pixel 9a additionally it got higher IP rating and perfectly placed loudspeaker but the front and back materials and bezels are the biggest drawbacks of this phone now let's talk about the display in terms of quality and features it's more of a flagship display rather than a mid-range so let me tell you why it supports adaptive touch same as the 9 Pro which means it works nicely with wet hands something like this you won't find in the S25 Ultra the peak brightness is 2700 nits same as Samsung flagships but slightly lower than the 3,000 nits of the 9 Pro models but in this sideby-side comparison with the 9 Pro XL it doesn't feel like you are missing anything even the 120 Hz refresh rate is here same as any flagship the resolution is certainly lower than the 9 Pro XL but the PPI is 422 so it looks sharp and the colors are on point same as any highquality display plus the size is up from 6.1 in last year's model to 6.3 in so what are you missing here when compared to the Pro models first it doesn't support the LTPO technology so the refresh rate doesn't go down to one herz like the Pro models secondly it doesn't have an ambient light sensor on the back like the Pro models and that's it overall the display exceeded my expectations getting all these features at this price is just a great deal i think Apple should take a note they sell the 16e for $599 which is $100 more than the 9A with a 60 Hz refresh rate $1,200 net brightness and a 6.1 in display with no adaptive touch support which says a lot so well done Google on the display one last thing I want to talk about is the PWM deming based on my testing it's certainly faster than the 9 Pro XL as shown now on the screen i'm not sure about the actual numbers but I'm happy to see an improvement before jumping to the next category let me tell you about the wallpapers by in-depth thick reviews app if you like any of the wallpapers you see in this video you will find them as part of the collection so you can enjoy them on your phone right now plus I added these 12 new wallpapers to the collection that look great on any smartphone you will find Google Play Store download link in the description and now let's get back to the review now it's time to talk about the performance let me start right away by showing you the Geekbench 6 scores compared to the 9 Pro XL keep in mind that the 9A is running January update with no software updates available yet versus Marsh update on the 9 Pro XL and the results are close it's about 300 and 200 points less in the multi and single core scores respectively which is not bad but the trade-off here is in the RAM the 9A has 8 gigs versus 16 in the 9 Pro XL so let me show you a quick app launching and RAM management test [Music] hey [Music] as you saw the app launching speed is very comparable and it did win the 9 Pro XL in some apps so let's try the RAM management [Music] in this area the 9A showed its weaknesses it closed almost every app while the 9 Pro XL didn't but it's too early to assess as I found that the 9A is running an older kernel from October 2024 while the 9 Pro XL is on Jan 2025 version so let's wait and see what will happen after software updates i also tried the 9a in video calling watching HDR videos and playing games i found that the phone gets hot but it doesn't lag or stutter for example when I play games on maximum settings the temperature goes up to 40° C in a heavy game like Genshin Impact with that said I was able to play Asphalt Unite on maximum settings with a consistent 60 frames per second for 20 minutes without any overheating on cellular data when it comes to Genshin Impact on cellular data with the highest settings and manually adjusting the FPS to 60 instead of 30 I didn't notice any lag but the phone got too warm reaching 43° C after playing for 20 minutes and the actual FPS ranged between 36 to 62 then I tried Genchin Impact once more on medium settings the temperature maxed out at 40° and the FPS ranged between 50 to 60 but either way the game remained playable in both scenarios with no major issues so overall the performance is quite good but the phone gets hot and the RAM management is not great hopefully that will be fixed with the updated kernel and software so I will revisit this when it gets updated moving to the battery the 9ae is the first Pixel that comes with a 5100 milliamp battery so everyone is expecting a great battery life for having a bigger capacity and lower specs i didn't have enough time to test it in all scenarios but I tried it for a full day only on cellular data with the 5G set to auto light theme and the 120 Hz refresh rate is activated i was able to get 6 hours and 8 minutes of a screen on time with 5% battery left i expected more than this but I'm sure Marsh update will improve this number quite a lot on a side note the standby time seems to be the main issue so far so let me show you the numbers the phone was connected to my home Wi-Fi network then I slept at 6:00 a.m with 94% battery left and woke up at 3:17 p.m with 81% battery which is a total of 9 hours and 17 minutes of standby time which means it lost 1.4% per hour which is too high the next day I did the same experiment but on cellular data and 100% battery i slept at 6:00 a.m and woke up at 1:25 p.m with 91% left the standby time was 7.42 42 hours so it lost 1.2% per hour which is surprisingly better than Wi-Fi but still higher than expected again Marshall Update did solve most of these issues with older models so I better revisit these numbers when it gets updated lastly the charging speed it supports 23 Wired and 7.5 wireless with no reverse wireless charging support based on my testing I was able to charge it from 16% to 100 in 1 hour and 53 minutes using my 45 W fast charger which is very slow in my opinion overall in the battery the screen on time seems to be fine but I expected much lower standby usage so let's wait for the software updates to see if things will get any better for the charging speed Google needs to consider improving this for the whole Pixel lineup not just the A series now let's talk about the camera the 9A has two lenses a 13 megapixel ultra wide and a 48 megapixel main camera with a 13 megapixel selfie these numbers are underwhelming when compared to the 9 Pro XL but I did a quick camera comparison to see how far behind is the 9a surprisingly the results exceeded my expectations in a lot of areas but first let me highlight that the 9a doesn't have a pro mode so all photos are taken at the default 12 megapixel resolution on both starting with morning photos the only difference between the two is the 9 Pro XL tends to saturate the colors a bit more while the 9a is more true to life other than this from 0.5x up to 2x everything look almost identical with only some few exceptions even in the toughest situations like directly pointing the camera towards the sun they did perform identically switching to portraits the 9 Pro XL softens the skin which is something I started to see after Marsh update while the 9A doesn't it depends on your personal taste but in this scenario I like the 9 Pro more when it comes to subject isolation the 9A tends to miss a lot of areas in the forground while the 9 Pro XL does much better but the 9A is better in isolating my face especially when you look around my hair but both are not great and it can go as bad as this which is crazy so please Google take it seriously moving to the front camera the 9 Pro XL's higher resolution and the wider field of view are obviously better but the 9A did a great job too the details are still good the colors are almost identical and the field of view is acceptable but it tends to show more lens flares than the 9 Pro XL in harsh conditions in the zoom the 9a is nowhere near the 9 Pro XL that has a dedicated 48 megapixel 5x telephoto this shot was taken at 8x on both which is the maximum range of the 9A there are some details that don't even exist in the 9A shot and here's another example that shows the same any photo taken beyond the 2x mark looks better on the 9 Pro XL even at 4x which doesn't involve the 9 Pro XL telephoto still looks better than the 9A which is expected when it comes to macros this is the first time to get this feature on the A series and in this comparison the 9 Pro XL has way better focus while the 9a can only focus on the center part and blur anything else but you get tons of details on both now let's talk about videos starting with the ultra wide the main difference is in the colors and details the 9 Pro XL is more saturated with a slightly better details while the stabilization looks identical to me also keep in mind that the 9A doesn't support video boost and later in this chapter I will show you the full list of missing features switching to the main lens the same story repeats itself they share the same stabilization with more saturated colors and slightly better details coming from the 9 Pro XL but the 9a is not far behind so I'm happy to see the budget model performing that close to the flagship switching to the front camera the 9A takes good videos but as I mentioned before it has more lens flares with a narrower field of view which gives the edge to the 9 Pro XL but overall I'm happy with the quality and the HDR performance now let's compare the night photos and videos starting with the ultra wide you will immediately see more noise in the sky with less details coming from the 9a which has a smaller and lower resolution sensor but at 1x the noise level is almost identical with the same colors white balance and contrast but the 9 Pro XL photos are a tiny bit more detailed even at 2x the 9a still doing a great job and by the way these photos are taken without night sight here's another shot at the same settings again the 9ae has more noise in the sky and less details in the ultra wide photos but the main camera produces almost identical results same as the 2x images and I'm happy that both did handle the bright signs really well in the third scenario the 9a brightened up the image a bit too much but I think it has to do with the software as the 9 Pro XL used to do the same prior Marsh update but things improved so I hope to see the same improvements reaching the 9A when it becomes officially available let me also show you one last scenario but this time with night sight on both which improved the 9A ultra wide shots quite a lot but still not as good as the 9 Pro XL in terms of details and noise at 1x you cannot tell them apart they look identical to me and the same applies to the 2x zoom and now let's compare the portraits in this 2x portrait the 9A did better with the colors it shows the exact colors of my outfit while the 9 Pro XL image has a magenta hue in subject isolation it's the same as morning photos the 9A doesn't blur parts of the background which is worse than the 9 Pro XL but it does better in isolating my face especially when you look around my ears and as I mentioned before the 9 Pro XL softens the skin after Marshall update while the 9A doesn't overall in this scenario I would pick the 9A image as it offers the best overall look with more accurate colors at 1.5x you will see the same differences and I'm still leaning towards the 9A shot let's try another scenario and this time both have two different looks the 9 Pro XL image is leaning towards warmer tones while the 9A is cooler i'm not sure which one is more accurate here but I prefer the 9 Pro XL colors this time plus the 9a didn't blur a big portion of the background but it's still better in isolating my face here's the 1.5x version of the same shot that also shows the same differences moving to the selfies I got mixed results in the first example the 9a had less noise and brighter shadows while the 9 Pro XL did the opposite it showed more noise in the sky and darker shadows for me if I'm going to pick one I would certainly go for the 9a in the second scenario the 9 Pro XL had a much better image in everything the noise the details and colors but taking the same shot with a slight change in the angle the results changed again the 9A did well this time so overall the 9 Pro XL takes better selfies same as morning photos switching to the zoom at 8x on both as expected the 9 Pro XL wins in terms of details but the colors of the 9A are much better and look more true to life plus it has less noise in the sky and here's one more scenario that confirms the same i hope to see the colors of the 9A with the details of the 9 Pro XL in the same shot to get the best of both worlds let me also show you a couple of macro shots at night the 9 Pro XL tends to saturate the colors with the same wider focus as morning photos but both do offer tons of details and here's another shot that confirms the same and lastly let's compare night videos the 9a ultra wide produces a lot of noise with less details while the 9 Pro XL is much better in everything but unfortunately none of them was able to handle the bright side well overall the ultra wide videos of the 9a reminds me of the Pixel 5 videos which is not great and if you're wondering about the image stabilization the 9 Pro XL is miles ahead even though both were almost identical in morning videos switching to the main camera most of the 9A issues disappear and becomes closer to the 9 Pro XL but is still not as clean or detailed as the flagship model the differences become even more visible when I switch to 2X the 9a video becomes softer and the overall quality is not as good as the 9 Pro XL but there is no big difference in the image stabilization switching to the front camera the quality is not good on both but the 9 Pro XL is certainly the better option at least for the wider field of view and slightly less noise and this is one of the areas that needs a lot of focus from Google so that's everything you need to know about the camera i think the overall camera experience is good enough for the price but the lack of video boost and poor quality portraits are my main concerns when it comes to the software I will have a dedicated video right after this one talking about the supported and missing features of the Pixel 9a when compared to the Pro models so if you are interested to know please consider subscribing and hit the bell icon to get notified when it's published so let's end this video by talking about the basics and I will start with the speakers thankfully they are much better than what I thought they are loud and clear and here's a side-by-side comparison with the 9 Pro XL you better wear your headphones to hear the difference and judge which one sounds better [Music] let me go feeling the lumps inside you and the black eyes make my way into your mind just to know what you Christmas every time we start laughing as a I lost control oh it's moving to the modem it gave me a solid cellular reception a great call quality with voice over LTE support in the UEE for those who ask and high 5G speeds as shown here I was able to reach 610 download and 116 upload indoors unfortunately I wasn't able to compare this to the 9 Pro XL as the 5G stopped working after installing Android 16 but comparing the Wi-Fi speed it couldn't reach the same speeds of the 9 Pro XL that was able to get 890 download and 338 upload while the 9A maxed out at 577 and 311 respectively i tried multiple times but with no luck so hopefully things will change with future updates moving to the haptics the 9a does offer very precise and good haptic feedback same as all other Pixels but it's a tiny bit less refined when compared to the 9 Pro XL i think it's related to the body structure the lighter and thinner materials of the 9A doesn't give the same premium feeling but it's still great last but not least the unlocking experience in this area the 9A did really well first it supports face unlock with the same security level as the 9 Pro XL that can be used in banking apps plus it works with minimal light here's a trial in low light and the face unlock still works fine giving me the same experience as the 9 Pro XL when it comes to the fingerprint it has an optical sensor not the same ultrasonic one used in the flagship model which is not as fast but it was accurate enough to unlock my phone every single time i'm not using a screen protector so I'm not sure how it will impact its performance so that's everything I wanted to talk about in my in-depth review for the Pixel 9 this phone ticks a lot of boxes and it's a great value for money but the most annoying things to me are the lowquality front and back materials the thick bezels and the lack of video boost other than this I think the trade-offs are reasonable for $499 it just needs some software updates to address the issues I came across in different areas especially the RAM management performance and battery usage which I'm confident that Marshall update will make them much better so that's pretty much it for today that was my in-depth review for the Pixel 9a please let me know in the comments what do you think but for now thanks so much for watching and see you in the next
