To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more
We’re approaching the final hours of the last day of Amazon’s Prime Day sale but there’s still time to nab yourself a bargain smartphone deal. The Google Pixel 9a is my favourite mid-range smartphone, and the one that I recommend to anyone looking to get themselves an excellent phone for less than £500.
This Prime Day deal makes it all the more appealing, dropping it down to its lowest price on record. The Pixel 9a has averaged £488 since launching a few months ago but now, you can pick up the 128GB model for just £419.
If you want double the storage, the 256GB model is discounted as well, down from an average price of £587 to just £499 – once again, the cheapest it has ever been.
When I reviewed the Google Pixel 9a earlier this year, I gave it the full five stars and our Best Buy award – the highest honour that we bestow. It’s not perfect, of course, and I’ll outline where it could improve just below, but first, here’s the biggest highlights:
- Seven years of software support is one of the biggest benefits of getting a Pixel, and the 9a is included in this excellent roadmap, too. Google will provide OS updates, new feature drops and security patches all the way into 2032, which is better than anything else in this price range.
- Battery life is another area in which the Pixel 9a blows away the competition. In our standard battery rundown test, the Pixel 9a lasted for a little over 34 hours, which is phenomenal by any metric but particularly impressive for such an affordable phone. For context, this ranks very highly on our best phone battery life chart, with only a couple of models lasting any longer.
- Exquisite cameras are a staple of Pixel phones by this point, with Google’s excellent image processing producing sharp, well-coloured images with fantastic dynamic range. On top of the expectedly brilliant main lens, the Pixel 9a has a brilliant night mode that plucks out keen detail in shadowy areas, and one of the better ultrawide cameras you can get on any smartphone.
- AI features can be hit and miss but Google’s inclusions are usually quite considered. Google Gemini is the best AI-powered smart assistant around right now, and there are several fun camera editing features, too. Best Face swaps out faces in group shots, so everyone looks their best, and Add Me allows you to composite in the photo taker so everyone’s included.
- The display is easily the best screen I’ve tested on a mid-range phone in recent memory. It’s a 6.3in pOLED panel with perfect contrast and black levels, it gets incredibly bright, hitting over 1,800 nits when displaying HDR content, and it’s wonderfully colour accurate. The average Delta E colour variance score came back at just 0.67 – we’re looking for 1 or under here, so this is outstanding.
You may have noticed in the image above that the design of the Pixel 9a is a little plain, and honestly, that’s my biggest criticism. The full-width camera bar was stylish and easily identifiable, so it feels like a misstep to replace it with this little bubble camera housing. It’s still nice and lightweight, at 186g, and is suitably robust with Gorilla Glass 3 over the display and an IP68 dust and water resistance rating, it just lacks in flair.
Speaking of lacking, the other big problem is that, as good as the camera suite is here, it doesn’t have a telephoto camera. Previously the sole property of flagship phones, telephoto cameras have started to make their way into the mid-range, with early adopters like the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro and Motorola Edge 60 Pro beating Google to the punch.
Otherwise, there’s very little to dislike about the Google Pixel 9a, and far more to like. It’s powerful, sleek, long-lasting and an excellent photographer, to boot. Best of all, it’s an absolute bargain at this deal price of just £419.
We’ve not got long left to sift through the remaining deals before Prime Day closes its shutters for another year (or at least until October, probably) but if you want to see what other phone deals are about before you make your choice, head over to my live blog. I’ve got all the best discounts on phones in every price range, so there’s sure to be something that catches your eye.
Amazon Prime Day savings are open to Prime subscribers only. The good news is that you can sign up to a 30-day free trial if you don’t want to commit to the monthly cost.
