SAVE $100: The Google Pixel 9a (128GB) is on sale for $399 at Amazon and Best Buy as of Aug. 13. That's 20% off its $499 MSRP and its lowest price to date.
When it comes to budget smartphones, shoppers have no shortage of options in 2025. Even Apple managed to cook up a sub-$600 iPhone that doesn't suck. But after much deliberation, we found an overall winner in the Google Pixel 9a: It's fast, lasts forever, and takes great pictures.
Now, the best budget smartphone of 2025 (so far) has dropped to its best price yet. The 128GB Pixel 9a base model is on sale for just $399 at Amazon and Best Buy, an unprecedented 20% discount on its usual sticker price of $499. Choose from four colors: obsidian, porcelain, peony, or iris. (Note that the latter was marked up on Amazon and only available through a third-party seller; head to Best Buy if you want that particular color.)
Spec-wise, the Pixel 9a features a 6.3-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a Google Tensor G4 chip, 8GB of RAM, and a 5,100mAh battery. It's actually nearly identical to Google's flagship Pixel 9, which starts at $799, only it has slightly less RAM, half the starting storage, and worse cameras — but a better battery life. According to Mashable's Alex Perry, who tested both smartphones, "You begin to wonder why the Pixel 9 exists at all" given their similarities; the Pixel 9a "makes the Pixel 9 seem obsolete," he added.
For what it's worth, the Pixel 9a also has a nicer display than the $599 iPhone 16e, though Apple's model scored higher in our performance benchmark and lasted even longer in everyday use.
The Pixel 9a's biggest sin is that it looks kind of boring — it doesn't have a rear camera bar like the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro XL. As a result, it looks "very generic...like a prop phone in a movie where they don’t want to do any product placement," Perry said. But that feels like a fair forfeiture for just $400.
