Google Pixel 10a: the five rumored features that will make or break next year’s budget Pixel

The Google Pixel 10a — a budget offering for the Pixel 10 lineup — is likely going to follow the release schedule of the Google Pixel 9a. Which means that the phone will probably launch in April of next year.

But is the Pixel 10a worth waiting for? Here are the five rumored features, or lack thereof, that we currently know of for Google’s budget offering of 2026. The Pixel 10a might sound great, or it might not, your mileage may vary.

An older processor

Though Google introduced the Tensor G5 chip this year for the Pixel 10 phones, current reports indicate that the Pixel 10a will still use the Tensor G4 instead.

The Tensor G4 was already not a powerful chip when it debuted with the Google Pixel 9 series, so its use in 2026 will be…difficult to justify. Of course, it’s not a bad chip by any stretch of the imagination, but if you were hoping for a repeat of the Pixel 9 series — where each phone used the same chip — then you’re in for a disappointment.

The same streamlined design

To not much surprise, the Pixel 10a will reportedly look the same as the Pixel 9a, which means that it will sport a pretty streamlined design. The Pixel 9a dropped the camera bar that the Pixel 8a had, and Google is expected to continue that design moving forward.

Funnily enough, this comes at a time when both Apple and Samsung are adopting larger rear camera islands with the iPhone 17 Pro and the Galaxy S26 Edge. If you want to remain on team Google, but also like the older design, then the Pixel 10 (non-a model) will be more your style.

A much brighter display

It’s not all bad news for the Pixel 10a, thankfully. Google’s newest budget phone will apparently boast an even brighter display, and the Pixel 9a already reached some pretty impressive highs.

The Pixel 9a advertised 1,800 nits of brightness, and could reach a very respectable 2,700 nits of peak brightness. If early reports coming in are accurate, then the Pixel 10a will advertise 2,000 nits of brightness, and may be able to produce 3,000 nits of peak brightness, just like the Pixel 10. In simpler words, the Google Pixel 10a will be plenty bright for any outdoor use.

Pixel 10a may miss out on new AI features

This year, Google heavily advertised its AI features for the Pixel 10 phones, to no one’s surprise. But here’s the downer, these new features — Magic Cue and Camera Coach, for example — probably aren’t coming to older Pixel phones because they need the Tensor G5’s processing power.

So, if the Pixel 10a does end up using the Tensor G4, that means you’ll be excluded from all of the exciting new goodies that Google is cooking up. Of course, not all of you care about AI features, and the Pixel 10a might seem perfectly fine to you. But many consumers will be quite let down that their brand-new phone doesn’t even support Google’s heavily marketed AI features from the previous year.

Much slower storage access

Continuing the train of bad news, Google Pixel 9a will very likely come with UFS 3.1 storage. This, for most consumers, won’t be a big deal. If you were fine with how quickly your Google Pixel 9 or Pixel 9a loaded your apps and data, you’ll be fine with the Pixel 10a too.

However, it is worth mentioning that Google has finally moved on to UFS 4.0 storage for the Pixel 10 series, providing up to twice as fast data read speeds compared to the Pixel 9. But, much like the processor, the Pixel 10a is expected to still ship with UFS 3.1. So, if that bothers you, you should probably just skip the Pixel 10a.

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