The Pixel 10a doesn’t have a camera bump, and that’s great.

For years, smartphone manufacturers have been making the camera bumps on their devices bigger to improve the cameras. Even though such designs make cameras better, they sometimes cause usability issues. With the Pixel 10a, Google has taken a new approach by completely eliminating the camera bump and creating a flat phone that sits entirely on the surface.

It’s a pleasant change in the world of big camera bumps, but Google hasn’t made any major design changes with its latest budget smartphone. The Pixel 9a looked almost identical except for a very small camera bump.

I have a plain old black device, but Google offers phones in Lavender (a mix of light blue and purple), Berry (coral), and Haze (a grey-green tone).

The 6.3-inch screen size is the same as last year’s product, but the display is brighter at 3,000 nits. Google is using the Actua series screens it has used with other Pixel 10 series devices for better usability in bright conditions. The display gets a 120Hz refresh rate, but the device ships with it set to 60Hz, so you’ll have to manually change this through your phone’s settings.

In terms of build and specs, the Pixel 10a goes toe-to-toe with the Pixel 10 with a few differences. For example, the Pixel 10 has Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the front and back. The cheaper 10a has a plastic back and a Corning Gorilla Glass 7i protection on the front. The budget device also has a larger battery of 5,100 mAh compared to 4,970 mAh in the base Pixel 10. The Pixel 10 Pro XL’s battery is 5,200 mAh.

There are only a few differences between the Pixel 9a, Pixel 10a, and Pixel 10, and most of them have to do with performance and computing power. The obvious hardware difference is that the budget phone series uses the Google Tensor G4 CPU compared to the Pixel 10’s Tensor G5. The Pixel 10 series phones charge at 30W via USB-C, which is higher than the Pixel 9a’s 23W charging capacity. Wireless charging is supported at 7.5W for Pixel 9a, 10W for Pixel 10a, and 15W (magnetic) for Pixel 10.

The battery bump and new charging capacity are helpful as the battery will easily last a full day, including regular app use, hours of video watching, and light gaming. A brighter display also makes the device better for the overall experience in different lighting conditions. Yes, the 10a has thicker bezels than its more expensive cousins, but it won’t make much of a difference in everyday use. In the end, you get a device at a much lower price than a flagship.

The Pixel 10a uses the Tensor G4 chip, which is also used in the Pixel 9a. This means there will be no performance improvements this year, and you’ll notice this if you switch between many apps. Due to its chip and 8GB RAM combo, the Pixel 10a cannot run the updated Gemini Nano model. This means there are fewer AI features on the device than the Pixel 10a series.

The list of features that won’t be available on the Pixel 10a includes Notification Summary, the Pixel Screenshots app, Magi Cue (which provides suggestions across apps like Gmail, Messages, and Maps), call notes, and on-device call translation.

This phone is equipped with a 48-megapixel main camera and a 13-megapixel wide-angle camera, which is the same as last year’s product. The main camera is suitable for most conditions, even in low light. However, because the ultrawide’s sensor is older and smaller, it tends to lose some detail. Additionally, there is no autofocus feature.

Pixel 10a has a Camera Coach AI feature that guides you to take pictures of objects. This feature guides you to make your subject more visible in the photo frame. There’s also Auto Best Take, which merges multiple photos to create the best one. This is useful when taking group images. The phone also supports up to 8x super-resolution zoom, but the processing and quality isn’t as good as the Pixel 10, which offers up to 100x zoom with this feature.

Notably, some AI features could make their way to the Pixel 10a via Pixel Drop since Google often manages to make them work on older models.

Google provides seven years of software updates for this device, which is important to ensure you get all operating system updates along with feature releases and security updates. Although it’s not exclusive to the Pixel 10a, the phone now has a quick sharing feature that works with AirDrop. That means I can simply transfer photos to my MacBook with a few taps, like I did in this story. Previously, you had to connect your Pixel 10a to your MacBook using a USB-C cable.

For $499, good battery life, a bright display, and faster charging give the Pixel 10a an edge. At this price, this phone offers good value for money with its lightweight and flat design. However, if you have a Pixel 9a released last year, there is no reason to change it. Also selling for $499, the Nothing 4a Pro will face stiff competition from Google’s budget device, which has better specs including a larger and brighter screen, a more capable Qualcomm processor, a dedicated telephoto lens, and faster charging speeds of 50W.