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If there’s one drum that I will incessantly beat, it’s that you don’t always need to buy the latest and most flashy smartphone. Even when the Prime Day phone deals start to crop up, it can be far more beneficial to forgo the recent models and snatch up a bargain on a phone that’s just slightly longer in the tooth.
Case in point, the Google Pixel 10a is on sale for Prime Day. It’s down to a record-low price of £374, from a 90-day average of £470. It’s a very good deal on a well-rounded mid-range phone. But I’m not recommending that you buy it.
That’s because, for all of its quality, the Pixel 10a is barely an improvement on its predecessor, and the Pixel 9a is also on sale. It’s averaged £359 over the past 180 days but this deal drops it down to just £317 – the cheapest it has ever been.
If you’re hankering for an excellent new phone with great cameras and impressive battery life for less than £400, I’ll say it again: To hell with the Pixel 10a, get this Pixel 9a Prime Day deal instead.
What’s so good about the Pixel 9a?
In my 2025 Google Pixel 9a review, I labelled it “a better class of mid-range phone”, awarding it the full five-star rating and slapping on a Best Buy award for good measure. To put it plainly, I really liked this phone.
The positives
So let’s jump right in, starting with the cameras. Pixels consistently offer some of the strongest photographic quality in their respective price ranges and the Pixel 9a is no different.
The 48-megapixel main camera carries most of the load, producing gorgeous shots with excellent dynamic range in good lighting, as well as some of the best night photography you can get for this kind of money. The selfie camera is also excellent, capturing strong and well-coloured portraits in my test shoot.
I was also extremely impressed with the quality of the 6.3in AMOLED display. With my trusty colourimeter, I recorded an exceptional peak brightness of over 1800 nits when displaying HDR content and an average Delta E of just 0.67, which indicates some of the best colour accuracy that I’ve ever recorded.
Battery life set records, too, producing the best stamina from any Pixel (at the time) in our standard battery test. Running our looping video for over 34 hours, the Pixel 9a outpaces plenty of far more expensive phones – though the Pixel 10a did pip it ever so slightly, stretching to 38 hours to become the new Pixel champion. Even still, this is outstanding battery life that will easily see you through a couple of days of moderate use.
The last thing I want to highlight is the software. In addition to an excellent suite of camera editing features, the biggest benefit of Pixels is Google’s seven years of software support, providing OS updates, security patches and new feature drops for far longer than rivals in this price range. That means that the Pixel 9a will stay up-to-date until 2032.
The negatives
This won’t take long, my list of issues with the Pixel 9a is incredibly short.
Firstly, as a camera-bar apologist, I didn’t love the design, finding it a little bland and lacking instantly recognisable identity – we live in the era of Nothing Phones, so I have high standards when it comes to the look of a smartphone.
The only other issue was that some phones – including the Nothing Phone (4a), funnily enough – include telephoto cameras for similar money. The Pixel 9a’s cameras are so strong that this doesn’t hurt the overall appeal, but those who are seeking a telephoto may want to think twice before purchasing.
How is the Pixel 10a better than the Pixel 9a?
This won’t take long, either. In fact, let’s just bullet point it:
- The protective glass over the display is upgraded from Gorilla Glass 3 to Gorilla Glass 7i, the bezels around the screen are slightly slimmer and peak brightness is upped from 2,700 nits to 3,000 nits.
- Charging speeds are increased from 25W wired and 7.5W wireless to 30W and 10W, respectively.
- Bluetooth 6.0 and Satellite SOS are both supported and you get two new AI camera features: Auto Best Take and Camera Coach.
- You get an extra year of software support due to it being one year younger.
And that’s it. Well, almost. Aesthetically speaking, the rear of the Pixel 10a is now completely flat, with the camera bubble sitting flush, while the Pixel 9a’s protrudes roughly 1mm. The catch is that Google hasn’t slimmed down the camera module, instead just making the phone thicker to match it: the Pixel 9a is 8.9mm thick while the 10a is 9mm. So that hardly counts in my opinion.
In just about every way that counts – we’re talking chipset, RAM and storage options, battery capacity, display specs (for the most part), camera layout and software experience – the Pixel 10a is identical to the Pixel 9a.
Should you buy this Pixel 9a Prime Day deal?
And for me personally, this meagre selection of upgrades certainly isn’t worth laying out the better part of £60, not when you can get such a well-rounded and strongly specced mid-range phone for just £317.
The Google Pixel 9a Prime Day deal is an excellent price on an excellent phone, and while the same can be said for the Pixel 10a, I don’t think that the latter offers enough in the way of improvements to part you with more of your money. Ignore the latest model and grab this fantastic bargain from the discount rack.
If you want to see what other smartphone bargains I’ve uncovered, head over to my dedicated Prime Day phone deals roundup. I’m constantly updating with the latest and most tantalising offers, so check back in regularly if you don’t see what you’re looking for upon first perusal.
We also have the central Prime Day deals hub gathering together the cream of the crop in all categories, with the best deals on everything from fans and TVs to coffee machines and vacuum cleaners.
