Google has followed up an ocean's worth of leaks with the official announcement of its Pixel 9a smartphone, which will retail for $499. Possibly the biggest change to the new A-series model is in its appearance,

Another Pixel 9 feature, Pixel Studio, also appears on the Pixel 9a. This is Google's image creation tool, where you can use text prompts to create an illustration. A recent Pixel feature drop added the ability to create images featuring people, and that's supported on the Pixel 9a as well.

The Pixel 9a looks a little different from last year’s Pixel 8a. The corners aren’t as rounded and instead match that iPhone-like style the rest of the Pixel 9 family adopted. It’s boring until you consider the Pixel 9a shines in design in all the places Apple’s diehard fans wish the iPhone 16e did.