Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56: Which sub-$500 phone should you get?

With Apple choosing to raise the price on its cheapest iPhone, the battle to be the best sub-$500 phone is now a Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56 face-off. But this is one showdown that has to wait.

While Google has announced the successor to its well-regard Pixel 8a this month, there's no official release date for the Pixel 9a. Google says the phone is arriving at some point in April while the company checks on what's described as "component quality issue" affecting some units. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A56 is shipping — but only in some parts of the world.

We may not be able to pit these phones together in a head-to-head comparison just yet, but we can take a look at what $499 gets you in a phone these days. Here's a preliminary Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56 comparison while we wait for our chance to try these phones out side-by-side.

Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56: Specs

Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56: Price and availability

Both phones cost $499 and £499 in the U.S. and U.K., respectively. The Galaxy A56 is cheaper in Australia, with a price of AU$699 to $AU849 for the Pixel 9a.

You get a little more storage for your buck with the Galaxy A56, as Samsung's phone comes with 256GB of storage in its base model. The Pixel 9a only starts with 128GB, but you can upgrade to 256GB for an extra $100 in the U.S.

As noted above, the Pixel 9a is set to ship at some point in April, though Google has yet to provide us with a firm release date. If you're in the U.K., you can already get your hands on a Galaxy A56, and the phone goes on sale in Australia March 27.

As for the U.S., Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy A56 will arrive here later this year. That's a step forward since its immediate predecessor, the Galaxy A55, never made it to the U.S.

Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56: Design

Recent midrange Pixel and Galaxy devices have stayed close to the design of their flagship siblings, but both the Pixel 9a and Galaxy A56 change things up a bit.

In the case of the Pixel 9a, the camera bar that's beeen the distinguishing visual feature on Google's phones the last three years has disappeared. The Pixel 9a's rear cameras are arranged in a horizontal pill-shaped cutout that's almost flush to the back of the phone.

The Galaxy A56 goes in an opposite direction, adding a separate vertical camera array to house its two rear cameras.

The bigger screen on the Galaxy A56 means Samsung's phone is taller and wider than the Pixel 9a. At 10.1mm, though, the Pixel 9a is thicker than the 7.4mm Galaxy A56. Google's phone weighs less by nearly 0.4 of an ounce.

You get a more durable phone with the Pixel 9a, which offer IP68 water resistance. The Galaxy A56 has IP67 resistance, so it can't be as deeply immersed in water without risking damage.

Each phone has four different color options, though the Iris and Peony colors on the Pixel 9a seem more vivid than what the Galaxy A56 offers. In addition to those two colors, you can also get Google's phone in Obsidian and Porcelain. Samsung offers a pink option for the Galaxy A56, but the olive, light gray and graphite colors have a sameness to them.

Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56: Display

As I alluded to, the Pixel 9a offers a larger screen — 6.7 inches to the 6.3-inch panel on the Pixel 9a. Both displays are capable of 120Hz refresh rates.

One of the things we need to test in person is the brightness of two screens. On paper, the win should go to Google, as the Pixel 9a lists a maximum brightness of 2,700 nits. Even if it can't approach that in real world circumstances, you'd think it would outshine the Galaxy A56 with its 1,900 nits of peak brightness.

In a side-by-side comparison with the Pixel 8a, my colleague Richard Priday thought the Galaxy A56 didn't look as bright as last year's Google phone, even if he did appreciate the larger screen on the Samsung device. Still, it's easy to imagine the Pixel 9a outshining its sub-$500 rival.

Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56: Cameras

Google's Pixel A phones have traditionally outperformed Galaxy midrange devices when we've tested them head to head, even with the similar hardware. (See our Pixel 8a vs. Galaxy A35 camera face-off for the latest example of that.) Though we'll hold off final judgments until the Pixel 9a comes out and we can test it, we may be in for a repeat performance.

That's because the Pixel 9a features a main camera with a wider aperture than last year's Google phone. That means the Pixel 9a's 48MP main camera should be able to capture more light than before for sharper photos even with fewer megapixels than the Pixel 8a's 64MP main shooter. The Pixel 9a also gains a macro mode, eliminating an advantage that Galaxy A phones had over Google's cheaper devices.

A 13MP ultrawide camera on the back and a 13MP selfie camera up front complete the Pixel 9a's camera offerings.

The Galaxy A56 features three rear cameras — a 50MP main lens, 12MP ultrawide shooter and 5MP macro sensor. Of those, only the ultrawide camera is an improvement over the Galaxy A55, thanks to a new sensor. The 12MP front camera on the Galaxy A56 is different, too, with Samsung reducing megapixels in favor of better low-light performance.

Head-to-head photos taken with the Galaxy A56 and last year's Pixel 8a give us some idea of how a Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56 camera face-off might turn out. The older Google phone turned in consistently better images, save for the ones taken with the front camera. If the Pixel 9a's camera setup really is an improvement over what its predecessor can do, this should be a win for the Google phone.

Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56: Performance

Here's another area where we have an idea of how comparisons between the Pixel 9a and Galaxy A56 will shake out, as we've already tested the Exynos 1580 powering Samsung's phone and we have benchmarks of the Tensor G4 chipset from when we tested the Pixel 9. Like those that flagship phone, the Pixel 9a uses a G4 as its chipset.

When Richard reviewed the Galaxy A56, he found the speed tests performed on the Galaxy A56 to be the most disappointing aspect of Samsung's phone, and looking at the numbers you can see why. In tests involving both the CPU and GPU, the numbers produced by the A56's Exynos 1580 silicon not only trailed the results we got when benchmarking the G4-powered Pixel 9, they also lagged behind the Pixel 8a and its older Tensor G3 chipset.

The Pixel 9a may not match the Pixel 9's numbers perfectly — it only comes with 8GB of RAM to the 12GB available in Google's flagship. But it should still have enough under the hood to out-muscle the Galaxy A56 on most tasks.

Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56: Battery life and charging

Battery life certainly figures to be an interesting comparison once we have both phones in hand. We haven't done a formal battery test on the Galaxy A56 yet — that will happen when the U.S. version arrives — but in Richard's informal testing, the Galaxy A56 only lost 14% of its battery capacity after 3 hours of streaming video. That's better than the results the Pixel 8a and Galaxy A55 posted when Richard ran the same test on those phones.

But the Pixel 9a figures to see battery life gains in its own right. The Pixel 8a featured a 4,492 mAh battery, but in the Pixel 9a, that cell has increased to 5,100 mAh. That, plus the better power efficiency of the Tensor G4 should help the Pixel 9a last longer on a charge than its predecessor.

On the charging front, the Galaxy A56 offers much faster charging speeds — 45W compared to 23W for the Pixel 9a. But Google's phone can charge wireless, something the Samsung midrange offering doesn't support.

Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56: Software and support

In this era of AI-infused phones, Google's Pixel offerings have typically enjoyed an edge, especially the A Series devices, which tend to support the same AI features found on flagships with identical chipsets. Indeed, the Pixel 9a supports most — though not all — of the Pixel 9's AI capabilities.

Supported features include Add Me, in which AI and AR team up to help you insert yourself into group shots where you've been tasked with taking the picture, as well as Reimagine, which uses text prompts to make edits to photos. The Pixel Studio image generator is supported as well, and Gemini Live is available on the Pixel 9a.

However, you won't find the Pixel Screenshot app on the Pixel 9a, nor does this phone offer summaries of phone call transcripts. Those features require a beefier version of Gemini Nano than the Pixel 9a and its 8GB of RAM can support.

Last year's Galaxy A phones only offered Circle to Search as an AI-powered feature, but Samsung made some key additions to the Galaxy A56. A Best Face feature lets you swap in different face to improve group shots, while Object Eraser takes distracting things out of photos. Another Galaxy A56 tool lets you create custom filters based on the look of your favorite photos. Circle to Search improvements introduced alongside the Galaxy S25 series are here, too.

Samsung increased software and security support for this year's Galaxy A devices like the A56 to six years. That's still shy of the seven years Google provides for the Pixel 9a, a policy change it introduced last year with the Pixel 8a's release.

Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56: Outlook

Side-by-side testing of the displays and cameras will give us the definitive word on who wins a Google Pixel 9a vs. Samsung Galaxy A56 battle. But on paper at least, the Pixel 9a enjoys an edge with its more extensive AI features, longer software support and track record of better camera performance.

The Galaxy A56 certainly impresses, particularly with its more generous storage and its new AI tools. But the Pixel 9a would really have to make a misstep to surrender the advantages it enjoys right out of the box.

More from Tom's Guide

• Google Pixel 10 — biggest rumors and what we want to see
• Samsung Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 debut — bringing more AI to inexpensive phones
• Samsung could delay One UI 7’s release in the US — here’s what we know