With all the talk about tariffs driving up costs, the word “cheaper” should bring comfort to just about anyone. That’s why I’m delighted to share that the cheaper smartphone from Google has arrived, a few months after Apple released a somewhat cheaper entry-level iPhone — and that both products are very good.
Google this week released the Pixel 9a, the $500 sibling of its $800 flagship smartphone, the Pixel 9. It competes directly with the $600 iPhone 16e released in February, the cheaper version of Apple’s $800 iPhone 16.
Both of the new phones have the staples that people care most about — great cameras, nice screens, zippy speeds, modern software and long battery life. To cut costs, they omit some fancier extras, like advanced camera features.
Is it a wise idea to save some bucks, or better to spend more on the fancier phones? To find out, I strapped on a fanny pack and carried all four phones with me for the last week to run tests.
The upshot: As is often the case, you get what you pay for. The $800 phones are slightly better in terms of features and performance than the cheaper versions, and the $600 iPhone is faster and has a better camera than the $500 Pixel.
But more important, the cheaper Pixel and iPhone were nearly indistinguishable from their $800 counterparts in several of my tests. In some cases, like battery life, the cheaper phones were even better.
The future of phone prices remains uncertain, but costs will probably go up. On Wednesday, when President Trump announced a pause on most “reciprocal” tariffs, he raised tariffs on China, where many phones are manufactured. So plenty of us may soon be motivated to compromise and consider less expensive alternatives.
Apple declined to comment on whether it would increase prices of its iPhones, but analysts estimate that tariffs could drive up the cost of some iPhone 16 Pro models to anywhere from $1,300 to $2,300. Google said there were no planned changes to the $500 price for the Pixel 9a, but it declined to comment on whether it would amend the price of its $800 Pixel 9.
The cheaper iPhone and Pixel look nearly identical to their more expensive siblings. Here’s a rundown of how they compare:
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The screens on the phones are the same size. (The iPhones measure 6.1 diagonal inches, and the Pixels measure 6.3 diagonal inches). The iPhone 16e’s screen is slightly dimmer than the iPhone 16’s, but the difference is hardly noticeable.
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Both cheaper phones lack some camera features found on the more expensive versions. The Pixel 9a’s camera sensor is smaller than the Pixel 9’s, meaning it will capture less detail and light. The iPhone 16e’s camera has one camera lens instead of two, so it can’t create certain types of special effects, such as “ultrawide” photos with a broader field of view for scenic shots of the Grand Canyon.
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Both less expensive phones are slightly less powerful than their nicer counterparts. All four phones include the same computer processors. But the Pixel 9a has less memory for running multiple apps at the same time, and the iPhone 16e has a slightly weaker graphics processing unit for running games with heavy animation.
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The iPhone 16e lacks the iPhone 16’s MagSafe feature, which uses a magnet to attach accessories such as power chargers and wallets to the back of the phone. The phone can still be charged wirelessly, however, using a slower charging standard called Qi.
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Both phones can take advantage of artificial intelligence. The iPhone 16e can use Apple Intelligence to summarize text, generate images and remove photo bombers from pictures. And the Pixel 9a can run Google’s A.I., including the Gemini chatbot and similar photo editing tools. But both companies are still developing their A.I. software, which remains largely unfinished, so this feature may not be that important to most phone users.
Battery
Long battery life is high on the priority list for people buying a new phone, and the cheaper Pixel 9a and iPhone 16e are the clear winners here. They have larger batteries partly because they have more space for them, since the phones lack some features found in their more-expensive counterparts.
The iPhone 16e and Pixel 9a lasted about a day and a half with general use, including web browsing, photo shooting and video playing, before their batteries were depleted. The iPhone 16 and Pixel 9 both lasted about a day.
Camera Tests
The downsides of buying cheaper phones were most pronounced in their cameras.
I took my corgi, Max, to a park to take photos of him in various lighting conditions, including bright daylight, in the shade and in partly shaded areas. In general, photos taken with both the Pixel 9a and Pixel 9 looked consistently clear, with accurate colors.
But the Pixel 9a’s weaknesses were visible in more challenging lighting conditions, such as when Max sat on a shaded path with sunlight filtering through the trees. The Pixel 9a struggled to distinguish the light from the shade, and Max looked blown out by the sun. (The Pixel 9 did fine in this situation.)
When I tested the iPhone 16e and iPhone 16 cameras, they excelled in all these tests, and the results were nearly indistinguishable.
Both iPhones outperformed the Pixel phones in shooting videos. Videos recorded of Max strolling through the park were clearer and smoother on the iPhones; the Pixel phones’ videos looked choppier.
So the main downside of the cheaper iPhone camera is simply what it can’t do. Because the iPhone 16e lacks a second lens, I wasn’t able to take an ultrawide shot of Max running in a field of grass.
Speed
The more expensive phones slightly outperformed the cheaper phones in terms of speed.
According to the speed-testing app Geekbench, the Pixel 9a is about 4 percent slower than the Pixel 9, and the iPhone 16e is 3 percent slower than the iPhone 16.
In real-world use of the phones, most people probably won’t notice a difference. When I put the phones side by side and launched different apps and games, their performance felt about the same to me.
What This Means for You
If you care mostly about having a smartphone with long battery life and a good camera, you’d be happy with either the iPhone 16e or Pixel 9a. But if you care a lot about any of the premium features missing from the cheaper phones, such as taking more detailed, better-looking photos or using Apple’s MagSafe to charge your iPhone, then spending more is still a fine idea.
Just get ready to think of a smartphone as a longer-term investment, similar to a car, since prices are likely to go up soon.
