iPhone 16e vs Pixel 9a preview: which mini flagship to care about?

Intro

The new Google Pixel 9a has just been announced and is coming out in early April. It’s the midrange Pixel — the affordable version of the mainline phones, but it doesn’t cut too many corners. For $500, it’s the core Google experience, with the promise of a good main camera and all the latest Gemini tricks.

iPhone 16e vs Pixel 9a differences:

iPhone 16e	Pixel 9a
Flat sides, notch — like iPhone 14 with single camera in rather thick pill module	Flat sides like Pixel 9, small pill module with two cameras
6.1-inch OLED screen, 60 Hz	6.3-inch OLED screen, 60-120 Hz
Apple A18 chip, 8 GB RAM	Google Tensor G4 chip, 8 GB RAM
Single 48 MP camera 12 MP front camera	48 MP main camera 13 MP ultrawide camera 13 MP front camera
4,005 mAh battery	5,100 mAh battery
USB C 20 W wired 7.5 W wireless	USB C 23 W wired 7.5 W wireless

Table of Contents:

Design and Size

Flat sides united

Both phones get the high IP68 rating for added peace of mind. In general, the iPhone will “feel” slightly more premium with the glass back, but the Pixel will feel more fluid and snappy with its 120 Hz screen.

Display Differences

The Pixel 9a‘s display is slightly larger, at 6.3 inches versus the iPhone 16e‘s 6.1 inches. Both panels are OLED tech, but Google’s Actua display is rated for 2,700 nits peak brightness where the iPhone has 1,200 nits. Both are pretty sharp with the Pixel 9a having 420 pixels per inch, the iPhone — 457 PPI.

But here’s the bad news — the iPhone 16e is stuck with a 60 Hz refresh rate yet again. Yes, Apple insists that’s a premium feature, and that’s the first thing to get axed when you travel south of the Pro. The Pixel 9a, on the other hand, will generously be giving you “premium” 120 Hz every time you swipe and swoop through the interface, but it can go down to 60 Hz when needed or for battery conservation. 

For biometrics, Apple uses Face ID which has been improved and perfected through the years. It’s fast and accurate and works at pretty wide angles. Google’s Pixel 9a does have an under-glass fingerprint scanner, but also uses the front camera for face unlock, which has a boosted security thanks to AI. Despite not having a fancy infrared TrueDepth camera, the Pixel’s face unlock has been rated to be secure enough to use for banking apps.

Performance and Software

Tensor, please

The Pixel 9a rocks the newest Tensor chip — the Tensor G4. Google’s chipsets are, unfortunately, not powerhouses. They get beaten out by both their contemporary Qualcomm Snapdragons and Apple A competitors. Not to say that Pixel phones don’t run well — of course they do, Google optimizes both the software and the hardware. But if you are a benchmark aficionado, they won’t give you the bragging rights you may want.

But not to take away too much from Google. The fusing of software and custom-designed hardware has value and you can get away with much less horsepower that way. And the Tensor has been specifically designed to support Google’s AI and photo processing needs. Of course, the Pixels excel in both categories — more to follow when the Pixel 9a arrives for impressions and tests!

Camera

Cutting corners, or just being a minimalist

Battery Life and Charging

Surprisingly good battery life on the 16e

Apple surprised us by unveiling the iPhone 16e as having the “best battery life on a 6.1-inch iPhone”. We now also know that this is thanks to a nearly 20% bigger battery than on previous iPhones (it has a 4,005 mAh battery capacity).

The Pixel 9a, on the other hand, is will expand its capacity by a little bit. With a cell of 5,100 mAh it’s the first a-series Pixel to break the 5,000 mAh threshold and will probably last you quite a while. Google states 30 hours of power — we need to get it to our testing bench and see how it performs in our in-house tests.

The iPhone 16e already passed our battery benchmark test with mixed results — 17 hours of browsing time, but only 6 hours of YouTube binging. We’ll see how the Pixel does once it’s out!

One disappointment with the 16e is that it does not support MagSafe. It does have wireless charging, but the old Qi standard which gets it 7.5 W. Well, the Pixel also doesn’t have magnets, and also has 7.5 W wireless charging, so that would make them equal.

Specs Comparison

Summary

The Pixel 9a will be coming out in early April and will, indeed, be quite the challenger for the iPhone 16e. In fact, one may argue that the launch of the iPhone 16e was a bit inspired by the Pixel a-series, considering how these phones seem to cut the same corners and go for the same type of audience.

Excluding the meme that is AI. What it does look like is that they will be very solid phones for less money than the exorbitantly-priced flagships. The Pixel 9a is starts at $499, while the iPhone 16e is more expensive at $599.