As Google launched the Pixel 10a, I did what everybody else does: opened the sheet, in contrast the chip with what different smartphones provide on the identical value, and felt the acquainted unease. I requested myself one query: “Why is Google even doing this?”
The Pixel 10a featured a Tensor G4 chip (from 2024) that didn’t impress in benchmarks, thicker entrance bezels, a 120Hz show and not using a really variable refresh fee, no telephoto digital camera, and a battery that supported slower charging than the competitors. On paper, it seemed like a cellphone that misplaced a struggle earlier than even coming into the ring (and for a rumble match no much less).
4 weeks later, I’ve arrived at a place that I didn’t assume I’d, however I wish to defend: the Pixel 10a’s spec sheet is the improper doc on which to evaluate this cellphone. After weeks of standard utilization, I noticed that the Pixel 10a isn’t for individuals who purchase telephones (particularly after studying the spec sheet) ̦— it’s for many who really reside with them.
Shikhar Mehrotra / Digital Tendencies
A display screen that you just cease noticing (in a great way)
Let’s begin with the show. Sure, the bezels are thicker than what you’d see on rivals, and the cellphone doesn’t use an LTPO panel that drops to 1Hz when the display screen is idle. Nevertheless, it was solely after days of constant use that I noticed app transitions had been fluid, navigation gestures had been effectively synced together with your fingers (and the pace at which you swipe), and basic scrolling felt seamless on the Pixel 10a.
The Pixel 10a was vivid sufficient on a sizzling, sunny day, so I didn’t must protect the display screen with my hand, and that’s what issues, not simply the height brightness numbers.
The chip doesn’t do effectively in benchmarks however nails day by day utilization
Shikhar Mehrotra / Digital Tendencies
The chipset argument is even simpler for me to dissolve at this level. The Tensor G4 trails the Tensor G5 by a big margin. Nevertheless, it’s once I used it as a main gadget (together with my iPhone 17) that I noticed it by no means feels prefer it doesn’t benchmark effectively.
Google, being the identify behind the Android working system, has optimized the chipset (and the supporting {hardware}) so effectively that I didn’t discover the distinction in day-to-day utilization. First-party apps open virtually instantly, and Google’s Gemini AI assistant runs seamlessly (because it has a succesful TPU).
You would argue that the Pixel 10a’s rivals provide a devoted telephoto lens for added versatility, however after capturing roughly 800 photos and a few 100 movies with the gadget, I’ve come to the conclusion that two well-tuned lenses and years of computational pictures enhancements outperform three mediocre ones.
Nice cameras and battery life spherical out the expertise
Shikhar Mehrotra / Digital Tendencies
Whether or not you understand the Pixel 10a’s main digital camera’s decision or not, it certainly captures photos which are balanced and pure, with persistently correct (or near-accurate) pores and skin tones. Options like Evening Sight and Photograph Unblur, which add to the pictures expertise, aren’t even bolted to the {hardware}.
The identical is true for the Pixel 10a’s battery, which simply offers me with round seven to eight hours of screen-on time. On 12 to 14-hour workdays, the battery typically carries into the following morning. The charging pace continues to be behind the competitors, however I suppose the cellphone isn’t constructed for last-minute top-ups in any case; the main focus right here is endurance, not pace.
All of this, in my view, is rounded up by Google’s flawless Android expertise, which does its obligation on the gadget in its purest and best kind. The Pixel 10a is clearly an instance of how a cellphone with not-so-impressive {hardware} can nonetheless present glorious usability by means of well-optimized software program, which can be what the corporate is basing its seven years of software program help on.
Pixel 10a: The cellphone that merely works
Shikhar Mehrotra / Digital Tendencies
The Pixel 10a isn’t the cellphone that wins in spec comparisons. It’s one which wins on Tuesday afternoons, while you want a fast Gemini reply, seize an image in opposition to the sunshine, or a battery that goes a great distance even while you’re across the anxious mark of 10%. You may’t run the general expertise by means of a benchmark, and that’s the place the specs debate has stopped bothering me.
