The Google Pixel 9a is official but won’t be available until April. While people will still be deciding whether to buy the Pixel 9a or not, it’s fun to deliberate about what next Spring’s Pixel 10a might look like and if it’s worth waiting for.
The Google Pixel 9a ushered in the biggest design change since the Pixel 6a, ditching the trademark Pixel camera bar for a nearly completely flat design. Google said the camera bar wouldn’t stick around forever, but few of us thought the company would ditch it this soon.
We’ve already seen a few leaks for the Google Pixel 10 series, including information relating to its chipset as well as model numbers for the wider Pixel 10 family. For now, though, let’s focus on Google’s next budget-friendly phone, the Pixel 10a.
Google Pixel 10a: What’s likely to change
The biggest bit of concrete evidence we have on the Pixel 10a so far is its processor. According to one leak, the Google Pixel 10a will ship with a “boosted” version of the Tensor G4 chip inside the Pixel 9a. If so, that would mark the first time the company would ship a different chipset from the mainline series in a Pixel A-series phone, at least since Google started making Tensor chipsets.
Up until now, Google has shipped a nearly identical Tensor processor in A-series phones, enabling excellent photography capabilities, AI processing, and years of promised software updates. However, Google has long had an issue with performance and overheating, and the Tensor G4 was the first to solve only half of that equation — the overheating issue.
A boosted Tensor G4 could mean that Google is further tweaking the Tensor G4’s thermal properties, allowing the company to speed the processor up without reintroducing the old overheating problems of Pixels’ past.
The Pixel 10a might be the first Tensor-based Pixel that doesn’t get the same processor as the rest of the familial line.
The downside to this strategy is that the Pixel 10a wouldn’t benefit from the Tensor G5 that’s rumored to launch inside the rest of the Pixel 10 series. While we’re not expecting the Tensor G5 to introduce many major performance improvements, the new processor is rumored to come alongside a suite of changes that could prove beneficial, including a new GPU, a new ISP, and a new display processor.
This could mean that the Pixel 10a doesn’t see display, camera, or gaming performance improvements compared to the rest of the Pixel 10 series. Of course, all of this is based on leaks and rumors, but it’s worth noting the hypothetical.
The Pixel A-series is long overdue for charging improvements and an LTPO display.
Every generation, we see Google add at least one display enhancement from the mainline Pixel series to the equivalent Pixel A-series. The Pixel 8a introduced a 120Hz display for the first time in Pixel A-series history, while the Pixel 9a’s display is now as bright as the ones on the rest of the Pixel 9 series. The only thing missing is LTPO technology, which we surmise Google will add next year to further improve battery life.
Speaking of battery life, the Pixel A-series is long overdue for a charging speed upgrade. Google gave the Pixel 9a a very minor charging speed bump, but the mainline Pixel 9 series charges twice as fast. Even that pales in comparison to competitors like OnePlus, which offers 80W charging with a charger included in the box. It’s very possible that the Pixel 10a may finally adopt 30W charging to keep up with the pack, but I don’t foresee Google doing more than that.
We could see the return of multiple phone sizes with the Pixel 10a, something we haven’t seen since the Pixel 4a days.
Lastly is the possibility that Google could finally offer multiple sizes of the Pixel 10a. The last time the company offered multiple Pixel A-series model sizes was with the Pixel 4a and Pixel 4a 5G. A rumor circled for a while that the Pixel 8a would see the return of multiple sizes, but that has yet to materialize.
While we’re certainly not confident that Google will return to offering multiple sizes, the company has been expanding its portfolio of devices in recent years, so now would make a lot of sense for them to make a move like this.
Google Pixel 10a: What we expect to stay the same
Seeing as how the Pixel 9a just drastically changed the design compared to the Pixel 6a, 7a, and 8a, we don’t expect the company to change much for the Pixel 10a. Pixel 10 leaks show that Google is largely keeping the design identical between the Pixel 9 and Pixel 10 series, so there’s not much reason to expect it would do anything different with the Pixel 10a.
Likewise, the Pixel 10a ditched the camera bar to make a thicker, flatter phone with a bigger battery. As such, there’s little reason to expect Google to change the battery at all on the Pixel 10a. Thankfully, though, the Pixel 9a boasts the best battery life of any Tensor-based Pixel phone to date, at least on paper.
Don’t expect to see many design or camera changes next year.
On the subject of cameras, leaks show that Google may offer a telephoto camera on the smaller Pixel 10 this year, but we haven’t seen anything that points to a telephoto camera being offered on a Pixel A-series device yet. If Google does make multiple sizes of the Pixel 10a, there’s a possibility that we could see the addition of a telephoto camera. Otherwise, don’t count on that changing.
We also don’t foresee Google changing the $499 price much, if at all, for the Pixel 10a. All things considered, Google’s aim with this series is to keep it as affordable as possible. With the rumor that the Pixel 10a will be using a Tensor G4 again, plus several design changes on the Pixel 9a that make manufacturing simpler and less expensive, there’s no reason to think Google will change the price in 2026.
Google Pixel 10a: Potential launch date
The Pixel 9 series was announced several months before the Pixel 8 series, launching in August 2024 instead of the traditional October timeline. That trend stayed the same with the Pixel 9a which was announced in mid-March rather than in mid-May when Google I/O takes place.
It doesn’t seem like Google will repeat this trend and will likely keep the Pixel 10 series on an annual release timeline. Even if they do continue the 2-month-early trend, that means the earliest we’ll hear anything official about the Google Pixel 10a will be sometime in the first quarter of 2026.
Until then, we’ll be covering every leak and rumor that gives us a clearer picture of what Google’s 2026 budget release will pack.