The Google Pixel 9a is the best cheap phone you can buy right now, and comes packing an impressive camera. That's not a huge surprise; the Google Pixel 8a was much the same, and Google’s mid-range phones often produce excellent photos for their price. The question isn’t whether the Pixel 9a’s camera is good, but rather how much better is it than its predecessor?
The Pixel 9a has a stylish new design, enhanced AI features from the Tensor G4 chipset and even faster charging. But, strangely, Google has actually downgraded the main camera this year. Rather than offering a 64MP sensor like the Pixel 8a, the Pixel 9a has a resolution of 48MP.
While there’s more to photography than extra megapixels, it’s going to be interesting to see how much of an impact this has. So to find out what’s what, we put the Pixel 8a and Pixel 9a through an extensive photo shootout covering 10 different categories.
Here’s my verdict on which phone has the better camera.
Daytime
The Pixel 9a may not have as high a resolution as the Pixel 8a, but it still manages to take consistently better photos. I should caveat this by saying that the final products from each device don’t look all that different, but the Pixel 9a manages to come out on top.
While the subject in shot tends to look pretty similar, the Pixel 9a does a much better job of capturing everything around it. That means the background is clearer and much crisper, especially if there’s grass involved. The coloring was also a little bit more true to life, which is always beneficial.
It’s worth noting that the Pixel 9a did a better job of capturing the individual dust particles on my Lego sets much more clearly. So if my girlfriend asks, that’s why I haven’t cleaned them in the last... well, ever.
Winner: Pixel 9a
Ultrawide
You know how people always complain that phone companies just release the same phone every year? If they were basing that assumption on the Pixel 9a’s ultrawide camera, they’d be right. Because these images are virtually identical — and the only difference seems to be a little deviation in contrast.
I’ve looked over a bunch of shots I took with the 13MP ultrawide camera, and the story is the same every single time. There is no other tangible difference between any of the comparison photos. The actual quality is so similar, that if there are any other key differences my eyes can’t make them out.
Winner: Tie
Color Reproduction
I’ll be totally honest here, I can’t really tell the difference between the coloring from Pixel 9a and Pixel 8a either. Once again, the only way I can actually tell them apart is because of the aspect ratio. The Pixel 8a shot in 16:9, whereas the Pixel 8a shot in 4:3.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume that all these phones had been taken on the same phone and cropped to size. But they weren’t, and it means that you’re not going to notice any major improvements to color reproduction on the Pixel 9a. Not that the colors are bad, of course.
Winner: Tie
Selfie
In a reveal that should surprise absolutely no one, the selfie camera shots from Pixel 9a and Pixel 8a look almost identical. They do, after all, have more or less the same front camera hardware. But it seems whatever software changes Google has implemented haven’t done much to improve things.
There are two points to note here. The first is that the Pixel 9a seems to produce warmer, more lifelike colors, compared to the Pixel 8a which looks a little washed out. However the Pixel 8a picks up more of the finer details when you zoom in — since the Pixel 9a has a habit of blurring up my stubble and eyebrows.
Winner: Tie
Portrait Mode
In terms of overall quality, the Portrait photos come out looking very much the same. There are still some of the some quality issues when you zoom in with Pixel 9a, but for the most part the selfie camera is doing its job pretty well.
The major difference, however, seems to be in how well the phone cut me out for the bokeh effect. The Pixel 9a did a neater job of clipping me out and blurring the background, whereas the Pixel 8a seemed to be leaving a few stray artifacts from the background at times. Some flowers here, a little too big a border there, and so on.
I can’t complain about how well they both identified that me and my dog were both the subject of the photo — while also ignoring my other dog that had wandered into the background. That was pretty well done.
Winner: Pixel 9a
Zoom
When it comes to zooming shots, things don’t work out quite so well in the Pixel 9a’s favor. In fact 2x magnification shots on the new phone don’t seem to be that much different from the Pixel 8a. In fact it’s quite difficult to tell the two apart.
The overall image is a little darker, and there is slightly more clarity in long-distance shots, but overall the picture is just not very good.
Even when you push that magnification up to 8x, the maximum both phones allow, and the image quality isn’t any different. I struggled to differentiate the two phones; we’re mostly talking about variations in color, and not much else.
You’d think that the Pixel 8a would do better at long distance shots, on account of it having higher resolution. But this doesn’t seem to be the case. I suppose those are the perils of not having a telephoto lens.
Winner: Tie
Panorama
When it comes to panorama shots, there isn’t really much debate to be had. The Pixel 9a may not take the most crystal-clear shots imaginable, but it’s immediately apparent that it’s doing a better job than the Pixel 8a. Not only are the colors more vivid, but the finer details of the phone are significantly better. Text on signs in the distance is one that particularly stands out to me.
It’s pretty similar to all the other shots. Outdoor panoramas taken on the Pixel 9a pick up a lot more detail than the Pixel 8a, which has a tendency to blur them all together. The colors are significantly more muted with last year's model, and you can tell it struggles to pick out details in darker areas of the shot.
Winner: Pixel 9a
Macro
In this macro shot of a vine, I was able to get a lot closer with the Pixel 9a and pick up some of the fibers on the tip of the stem in a lot better detail than the Pixel 8a. That said, the Pixel 8a was able to capture a lot more of the vine itself, including a much sharper look at the spider-silk hanging from the leaf.
Checking some of my other photos and it’s clear that the Pixel 8a does do a great job of macro photography, despite not having a dedicated macro mode. However it seems as though the Pixel 9a is better at close-ups and capturing a sharper image of what’s in the foreground.
Winner: Pixel 9a
Low Light
At first glance the night time shots of this church don’t look all that different from one another. There’s some extra detail in the clouds from the Pixel 9a, and a little bit more contrast in the coloring of the brickwork, but that’s about it.
Looking a little closer, the clarity just isn’t there on Pixel 9a, with the smaller details looking significantly blurred on both the church tower and the tree to the right. Sensing something wasn’t right, I went to check some of my other photos and it was a slightly different story.
I wouldn’t call the church shot a fluke, since the Pixel 9a does seem to struggle with picking up details on buildings in low light. But for the most part it does seem to offer a better picture when light is at a premium.
Winner: Pixel 9a
Verdict
Overall it’s fair to say that the Pixel 9a does have a better camera, though it wasn’t the slam dunk a lot of people (myself included) had hoped it would be. So, while the Pixel 8a didn’t beat its successor in any single category, the fact that there were so many draws is rather telling.
Particularly since the front and ultrawide lenses seem to be producing the exact same photos on both devices.
This is not to say that the Pixel 9a has a bad set of cameras. It’s still able to produce some pretty consistently good photos, albeit with some inconsistent performance in low light conditions. That said, if you have or are interested in the Pixel 8a, then you won’t be missing out on much in the camera department.
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