This minimalist design works well. For the urbanite, aesthetics play a key role in everyday paraphernalia—from table lamps to water heaters. In this world, design-led firms are actively chasing the right amount of minimalism to make gadgets—typically perceived as cold and too technical—fit right into the idea of grounded, close-to-earth items around us.

The Google Pixel 9a, on this note, feels gentle. Especially in its ‘Porcelain’ colour, it feels calm and easygoing—a phone that blends in with everything else in your life. This is a big win for Google, for in terms of its overall design, the Pixel 9a feels plush and seamless. Yes, the borders around the display are a touch too visible—but for everyday usage, this feels like a phone that won’t need you to be specially careful about in terms of handling it.

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In a world where flagship phones are using more glass and metal and making them prone to damages, this is a big win for Google. In the long run, you do feel that the Pixel 9a can be used without a rear cover or an external screen protector on top—though both are good ideas to protect your investment in the long run.

While Google has been making this ‘a’ version of its Pixel phones for six years now—this is its seventh version, the lineup has always promised the best of Google’s Pixel experience without the lofty price tag. Now, it feels that the Pixel 9a should stand on its own as a phone that does not give you additional frills, but has more than everything that you’d want from a new phone. In fact, its starting price of ₹49,999 is over 7% lower than its predecessor—perhaps an effect of Google assembling its Pixel phones here in India instead of paying hefty import duties of 15% of its cost.

At this price, you get all of Google’s latest AI chops (including things like ‘Add me’ in the camera, and the ‘Magic editor’ in Google Photos), the same 6.3-inch OLED display as the Pixel 9, the latest generation ‘Tensor G4’ custom processor, and 256GB of fixed storage.

What this leaves you with is a phone that uses the minimalist Android software interface that Google has been marketing for half a decade, without any additional apps forced upon you. The display offers the modern-day standard of 120Hz refresh rate—in simple terms, this means that your eyes will perceive it to be silky smooth. For some reason, Apple still does not offer this in its base iPhones (neither the iPhone 16, let alone the iPhone 16e). Score: Google one, Apple nil.

This simplistic design and interface is combined with a battery that easily lasts a full day, at least for now. It has been just about two weeks since the device was activated, which is nowhere near enough time to judge a phone’s battery stamina. But, by early signs, the Pixel 9a does seem to be good enough to last a full work day even after one year—when your limited warranty on the phone runs out.

All of this makes the phone highly functional. The smooth-refreshing OLED display means you can stream live sports without a hiccup, or play most of the latest video games compatible with Android without feeling limited. The Pixel 9a does heat up if you intensively play games for over 30 minutes, but this phone is not meant to be an outright gaming phone anyway. For most casual and sporadic games, it is amply sufficient.

Is it too good to be true, though? Not quite. The Pixel 9a makes a clear tradeoff with its camera, using a 48-megapixel main camera with a sensor that is the smallest of Google’s latest phone cameras. Sure, it offers a good-enough camera for the occasional social media post, but the tradeoffs in details, shadow levels and colour balances are clearly visible.

Thankfully, Google’s ‘cheaper flagship’ smartphone outtake with the Pixel 9a still lets you shoot portrait photographs unlike the Apple iPhone 16e—a peculiar limitation in the latter. But, the 13-megapixel ultrawide camera might seldom be useful, and we would have rather taken a telephoto camera for optical zoom here instead.

Make no mistake, though—for most everyday situations, such as a quick snap of a fleeting moment in nature when driving up the hill, or an impromptu photograph of a new dish you’re trying out at a restaurant, the Pixel 9a does produce acceptable photographs. Its results just aren’t as strikingly detailed or consistently rich as the ‘Pro’ Pixels, or even the Samsung Galaxy S25 and the Apple iPhone 16e.

Why, then, are we hyping up a seemingly ordinary phone? All things considered, the Pixel 9a right now is the only smartphone in the market which shows that you can get a top-notch smartphone that gives you everything and can last three or more years without putting yourself through two years of EMIs or a hefty credit card bill.

At ₹49,999, the Google Pixel 9a is the perfect balance of everything that you need in a phone—5G connectivity, a good battery, a great display, the glitzy AI features, and a good processor to make sure that your phone remains smooth over the years. Yes, the storage is limiting, and the camera is not the absolute best. But, for the price you pay, there is no better smartphone in the market right now than the Google Pixel 9a.

This, eventually, could bring more buyers to the table. After all, the smartphone industry is likely to continue with incremental innovation in the years to come. With a smartphone showcasing balanced innovation without over-pricing its proposition, the Pixel 9a points the compass towards fair market prices—one that can lead to flagship smartphones becoming less expensive in India in the years to come.

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