5 improvements I want to see for the Pixel 10a

Pound-for-pound, the Google Pixel 9a is our favorite midrange phone today. Sure, there are phones that cost less, but at $500, the Pixel 9a offers a quality experience that matches or even bests what you’d get from an Android flagship just a couple of years ago.

While the 9a largely nails the fundamentals — it boasts fast performance, decent cameras, and phenomenal battery life — there’s still plenty to improve around the margins. We’re expecting Google will release a Pixel 10a that improves on the 9a’s formula sometime in the middle of 2026. It’s early to speculate what that phone will actually be like when it arrives, but having spent some time with the 9a, we’ve got our hopes. Here are five improvements I want to see Google make in next year’s Pixel 10a.

1

Thinner bezels

Given everything the Pixel 9a does right, I’m not too annoyed at its chunky display bezels; Google had to cut some corners to offer the 9a at the same $500 price point that both the 8a and 7a carried, and a thicker-than-average border around the screen is relatively inoffensive.

Still, we’re talking year-over-year improvements, and the bezel is an obvious place to start. It’s about 4mm thick on the Pixel 9a, considerably thicker than what you’ll find on higher-end devices. I wouldn’t expect the 10a to match something like the Galaxy S25‘s razor-thin bezels, but shaving just a millimeter off would make all the difference here.

2

Better display glass

While we’re on the display: a future Pixel 10a could really stand a display glass upgrade. The Pixel 9a has Gorilla Glass 3 coating its screen, a version of Corning’s extra-durable glass introduced in 2013. It gets the job done, but phone glass has come a long way in the past 13 years.

Corning’s newer glasses are more resistant to shattering than older versions, so an upgrade to the Gorilla Glass Victus 2 used on the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro, or even the slightly older first-gen Victus, would make the Pixel 10a meaningfully more durable than older models.

3

Faster charging

None of Google’s devices are exactly industry-leading when it comes to charging rates, but the Pixel 9a is especially slow to top up. Wired charging is capped at 23 watts, and wireless only pulls up to 7.5 watts. The base Pixel 9 isn’t all that much quicker, with 27-watt wired charging and up to 15 watts wireless when using the Pixel Stand 2 wireless charger.

For comparison’s sake, the $599 OnePlus 13R can pull up to 80 watts wired with OnePlus’s proprietary charger. Even if Google doesn’t swing for the fences here, a future Pixel 10a would ideally at least match the modest charging rates offered by the standard Pixel 9.

4

More RAM

The Pixel 9a’s got eight gigs of RAM. That means that it can’t pull off some of the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro’s local AI tricks — for example, the Pixel 9a doesn’t have access to Google’s Screenshots app, which is powered by a local Gemini model on the Pixel 9 and 9 Pro.

I don’t think 9a users are missing much in terms of AI; I never use any of the AI features my Pixel 9 Pro’s 12 gigs of RAM enable. But Google’s A-series Pixel phones carry the same seven-year update promise as its flagships, and a Pixel 10a with 12 gigs of RAM has a better chance of actually being usable for seven years than the Pixel 9a does. I anticipate the 9a’s RAM will start to be a usability bottleneck before software updates are, and it’d be good to see the next generation avoid that pitfall.

5

An ultrasonic fingerprint sensor

The Pixel 9a has an optical fingerprint sensor that shines light on your fingertip and essentially uses a specialized camera sensor to read your fingerprint. It’s functional, but there’s a better alternative: an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor.

Ultrasonic sensors use inaudible sound waves to read your fingertip’s topography. They’re generally faster, and they tend to work better in cases where your finger is wet or dirty. On top of that, they’re more pleasant to use in the dark, since they don’t rely on shining a bright light on and around your fingertip to unlock your phone.

How much better can a $500 phone get?

The Pixel 9a is awfully impressive for its $500 price tag — and it’s actually the third Pixel A-series phone in a row to hit shelves at that same price. A generational price hike is starting to feel inevitable. The Pixel 10a launching at something like $550 would feel fair if we got a couple of these improvements. If Google ticked all these boxes, it’d likely make for an even pricier device. Whether that’d be good depends on your priorities: should the Pixel 10a be a solid midrange option, or more of an entry-level flagship?

There’s quite a while to go before we know whether Google has any of these improvements planned for the 10a — this year’s 9a has only been available a few weeks, so we’re nearly a year out from a potential 10a. Still, we can hope.