Google has announced that it will release the Pixel 9A in the US, Canada, and the UK on April 10. The budget device was originally expected to hit the market shortly after its unveiling on March 19, but Google postponed it to investigate a “component quality issue.”
The Pixel 9A will be available in the rest of Europe on April 14, and in Australia, India, Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia on April 16. Google says the phone will be available in Japan “soon”. You still can’t pre-order the Pixel 9A on Google’s website, but you can sign up to be notified when it’s available.
When asked about the delay, Google spokesperson Matt Flegal told The Verge that “rumors and speculation about this delay are false.” He added: “The passive component in the Pixel 9a did not meet our strict quality standards for device durability, and rather than send it back, we made the difficult decision to shelve it and take action to fix a small number of affected devices.”
The Pixel 9A starts at $499 and features a larger display than its predecessor, an updated Tensor G4 chip, and a design that does away with the prominent Pixel camera protrusion in favor of a flat back. Despite supporting Google Gemini, it runs on a more limited version of the artificial intelligence model, which results in the lack of features such as Pixel Screenshots and Call Notes.
