Pixel 9a: The latest A-series phone with Google AI smarts at an unbeatable value

I recently upgraded from a galaxy s8 to a pixel 9 xl because I wanted to try Graphene myself as well. It's been a huge jump that I'm still getting used to but I'm a fan of GrapheneOS. There's some learning I needed to do but I do love the security features that both Graphene and Android OS have implemented since Android 9

> GrapheneOS has only been problematic with Revolut

That's odd, did it complain about anything? I use GrapheneOS on my Pixel 8a and Revolut works without any problems for me. It's also on this list of banking applications that have been verified to work on GrapheneOS:

https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compa...

Same here, I listen to a lot of music and I refuse to buy e-waste earbuds with tiny ass non user replaceable batteries that will fail in a few years at best while delivering audio quality on par with $30 wired buds.

Dongles are a pain in the ass and keep disconnecting if you look at them the wrong way (walking, gym, &c.). If it wasn't for the camera quality I'd already have moved to something else, when the phone dies I might go back to a dedicated audio device

For what it's worth, outside of the sheer photography parts, with the better processors and memory multi-task is actually usable (no crashes nor leaving the apps in unstable states).

Wireless charging also had an unexpected (to me) effect of freeing the USB port while charging, which is great with Qi2 mobile batteries when plugging headphones or external storage. I don't know if the 9a gets it, but display mirroring is also surprisingly useful, especially for people who don't want to network their TVs.

None of it is critical, and the audio jack is really missing, but I think we're getting decent features aside.

AI on phones is its 3D TV moment. Phones are commodities now and like computers, don't need to be upgraded for several years. So phone vendors need a new selling point.

didn't headphone jack removal come also because the DAC (Digital-Analog Converter) made interference with the Cellular Modem? Or is it just propaganda I read about online?

Yeah, I hate this move. I own good, low Ohm headphones than can be powered by a phone, but they are all 3.5mm jacks.

The 2010's were an exciting time because every year new phones would come out that would be double the power of the previous generation (I still remember trying out an iPhone 3GS when it came out and it was noticeably faster than my iPhone 3G). But I would say starting in like 2016, the progress slowed down and it's now much more incremental.

I now recommend to my friends and family to get lightly used phones that are 2-3 years old. Personally I recently upgraded from an iPhone 11 to an iPhone 15 and the only reason I did so was to go down in screen size from a "Pro Max" to just a "Pro". I imagine I will keep this device for the next 5-7 years and by then the reason I'll be getting a new phone probably won't be because they are noticeably faster.

But I gotta say I like where phones are now. I remember in the 2010's you had to plop down some serious money to get a super fast phone, nowdays I can buy a $150 phone on Amazon that would probably be a great phone for at least 4-5 years.

I have the same phone. SD card AND headphone jack is basically unheard of on so called "flagship" phones. The camera is definitely a step down though.

The phone even has a stylus with a built in slot, although the screen itself is not presssure sensitive, the experience is like tapping on a Palm PDA.

Motorolas seemed cool when I was looking for a phone recently but their update support policy was very short. Whether it matters is another question but still..

I haven't seen a worthwhile innovation in phone design in at least 5 years. Everything is such a marginal gain for a smaller set of use cases. I got my kid a $150 Moto G Power like 4 years ago because it had a giant battery that lasted 3 days. That's an actually useful feature. It still runs everything just fine and has a fingerprint reader. Not much need for anything else.

$175? Was it with a carrier plan?

Less. It means that at best there's stuff I'm going to have to waste time disabling, at worst the product will have that crap using resources all the time for no benefit.

Makes me want to buy it less for sure, since the maker is clearly focusing on a feature (set) I don’t want to use or support. In the worst case, the AI stuff cannot be disabled and will annoy me on a daily basis.

I associate it with marketing and privacy invasion, in most cases.

I keep griping about this, but I hate that features that we used to just love that were a more traditional ML now have to have "AI" branding slapped over it. The image search on iOS where I can just search "beer" and find a glass of beer I had a month ago is absolutely incredible, but it was early enough to not get hit with the "AI" branding. If that feature, or any other ML features that all smartphones have today, came out now, it'd be labeled "AI". It's a broad term that has now been shoved into everything, even in places where it may technically apply, but feels over the top.

Nobody asked Microsoft to put an unremovable Copilot button next to the cursor in every Office app. Shoving AI into everything has little to do with what customers want, and much to do with checking a box re: org strategy and investor PR.

With Pixel it doesn't really matter to me. I'll install GrapheneOS the minute I get it out of the box.

As for other vendors -- definitely less. I just want a decent phone with good software and minimum bloatware. I see all these AI features as bloatware.

Absolutely less. Like, "Will not purchase unless there is no alternative" less.

Mostly irrelevant to me. Maybe a tiny bit more *if* that means it comes with more RAM at the base price (as with "Copilot+ PC"s starting with a minimum of 16GB).

Less.

If the AI features ran totally locally, it would be a different story but there’s no way I want features to be locked behind having coverage/a subscription etc.

Almost same weight as 8 and 8a - FWIW I have 8, and the size and weight are very comfy, as a previous 3a owner (I "downgraded" from Pixel 6 which was too big and too heavy to fit in one hand and in the pocket, though I actually gotten used to it at home as a "tablet"). Using Spigen Liquid Air case.

The AI integration doesn't add much to the assistant usefulness for me but I do like even the previous Google Assistant way more than I've ever found Siri useful. Apple has just been behind on the digital assistant game for years before the LLM integrations came along.

Been on an iPhone since the original and mostly until maybe the XS got a new model every other year, since the XS I've been on a 4-5 year cycle, with a 14 Pro to replace my XS.

I also have a Pixel 7 that I use primarily as a home phone stuck on a cheap very few minutes pre-paid plan. I've used it at home on wifi a number of times just to try it out. I think it's... fine? App quality is definitely a negative as I find as a Mac user that some of my favorite developers are better at making iOS apps, or their app is simply not available on Android at all and the alternatives are not nearly as good.

If not for that I probably wouldn't care from a usability perspective, but I still think Apple's focus on privacy and security tend to win out overall. That said, I now carry around a camera with me 90% of the time so I suspect I will be downgrading to a standard iPhone when I upgrade next if the camera carry continues. When I need super pocketable, I use a Ricoh GR, when I need small but great a Fujifilm X100VI, and when I want to go big I have a Sony a7cr full frame camera (still a small camera but FF lenses are much larger than APSC lenses)

why are you considering the switch? just AI features or did Apple's monopoly break it for you?

Take out the Google and it'd still be true. People need an AI phone like they need a "Smart TV".