Google Pixel 9a Interview: How New Photo Tools Define The Latest Pixel Phone

Forbes

29-03-2025

Google's Pixel 9a
Google has confirmed a launch date of April 10 for the Pixel 9a in the US, UK and Canada. The mid-range smartphone follows in the footsteps of the critically acclaimed Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro XL. It also follows the lineage of the Pixel 6a, 7a and 8a,
The Pixel 9a brings with it a new look, building on the knowledge and hardware of the more advanced models, yet has to be tailored to a more casual consumer. I sat down with Google's Group Product Manager Isaac Reynolds to discuss the latest family addition.
The first thing that avid Pixel watchers will spot is the lack of the camera bar across the rear. While this was tweaked in the Pixel 9 to be more rounded and isolated, it became a substantial part of the Pixel brand. It's now been replaced with something that stands out in the market.
It's moved to a completely flat rear case.
"This is the first shift of the platform in a long time,' Issac tells me. 'A few interesting things are hidden beneath the new flat design. One of those is the biggest battery we've ever put in an A series; it has 25 percent better battery life than the Pixel 8a."
That's to be expected, given the Pixel 8a boosted the battery endurance time to more than eleven hours compared to the Pixel 7a's ten hours. This 25 percent jump suggests close to fourteen hours of mixed-use from the new handset, although we'll need to wait for independent reviews to measure the real-world use after the 9a launches.
Google remains 'all-in' on establishing artificial intelligence as part of the mobile experience, so it will come as no surprise that Gemini AI is part of the Pixel 9a package, including the latest addition of Gemini Live with Video. 'When you buy a 9a, you're going to be one of those first in line to get the latest Gemini features from Google, as you'd expect with any Pixel phone."
The biggest indicator of the Pixel 9a's place in the portfolio comes with one of the camera features being Macro Focus. Crucially, this uses the main camera lens rather than the ultrawide lens or a dedicated macro lens used by other smartphones from several manufacturers. Why include this in the Pixel 9a? Is macro back in fashion?
"I don't think macro goes out of fashion,' Issac counters. 'The simple desire to take a picture from four to six inches away has always been there, and people are just pressing the wrong feature into use.
'You can use portrait mode to take pictures of people. Yet In a restaurant, I will see this happen, where people look at their food hungrily, but then they go, 'Wait, I need to get my portrait mode for my food.'"
'They're about six or eight inches away. And they've added that bokeh of the background blur. That's what Macro Focus does. The use case has always been there; people have been pressing Portrait Mode into service for this use case, which isn't really the right one, and there are limits on the distances."
These aren't grand staged pictures; they are fast moments that live briefly on social media as the ephemera of modern life. Yet the clichéd view of social media as a place of 'pictures of food' is a cliché because it is so popular and increases digital engagement (Digital Engagement on Social Media).
The fast moments have driven many choices in the Pixel 9a, as illustrated in the Camera app's user interface across the whole Pixel range.
'We've aired on the side of less complex cameras across the whole lineup. When you go into the Pixel 9 Pro, you find all the same patterns, designs, looks and feel. It's just that every menu has a little bit more in it. You open the options, and maybe it's six things, not three things. Maybe the controls panel is eight things, not two things."
Yet the Pixel 9a has fewer options than the 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL. Again, that's designed to help keep the idea of 'casual snaps' as part of the 9a's look and feel.
"I don't care if you are capable of hiking out into the country to find your one beautiful scenery and wait for four hours. When you're out at the birthday party with your kid and all your friends around, you don't want to be stuck behind the camera; you want to be participating. You're still going to 'get in, click the button, get out.'
There is a different flavor to the two strands of Pixel coming through my time with Issac; the Pixel 9a and Pixel 9 are more casual smartphones than the Pixel 9 Pro and the Pixel 9 Pro XL, living up to the 'professional' tag. They all have the same starting point in terms of research and development—be it core silicon such as the Tensor Mobile chipsets, the software built around Gemini AI, or the choices made in the hardware for displays, batteries, and cameras—but the decisions differ on what to offer in each handset.
"The Pixel 9a isn't about pushing the cutting edge. It's about offering the most affordable entry point to this premium product, with just the essentials—like good battery, seven years of security and safety feature updates, and a camera for snapshots and casual photos."
"Those customers don't need a professional tool. Overwhelmingly, the upgrade is "I want to take better snapshots."
There are still questions that the Pixel 9a needs to answer: Is that upgrade sentiment going to be evident to consumers? Will Gemini AI run as smoothly as other Pixels in the smaller memory of the Pixel 9a? Can it find an audience when it is so close in price to the Pixel 9? These questions will have to wait for the reviews that will arrive shortly after 9a goes on sale.
Now read more about the Pixel 9a, Google's Android plans, and more smartphone news in Forbes' weekly news digest for mobiles…