Apple recently entered the grand (re) of the mid-range smartphone market with the iPhone 16E, replacing the old iPhone SE variant. Of course, the only thing to do now is check it out compared to one of the best mid-range smartphones for the newly released Google Pixel 9a.
Both phones offer a lot of value for those looking for a flagship experience at a lower price, but everyone has benefits and drawbacks. Let’s get into it.
Google Pixel 9A and iPhone 16e
Two phones enter, but only one can be kept in your pocket. Which one is it?
Price and specifications
Pixel 9a is a great value.
Image source: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
When it comes to prices, here is a great option. The Pixel 9a starts at $499, while the iPhone 16E starts at $599. While $100 isn’t the biggest difference in flagship world, it’s a lot of budget phones for anyone on the market.
Here’s what you’ll get in the Pixel 9a for this price:
And, for $100, that’s what the iPhone 16e brings to you:
We’ll do display and performance analysis later, but Google has been easily winning value games so far. You get bigger, and (in some ways) better monitors and bigger batteries for less money. To its credit, Apple offers more storage options, but these will only make the phone more expensive. The 512GB iPhone 16e costs $899, which isn’t even a budget phone anymore.
design
Apple keeps it simple.
Image source: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
None of these phones are at the forefront of smartphone design, but it is not necessarily a bad thing.
For part of it, the iPhone 16e looks like an older iPhone model. Instead of having a separate dynamic island cutout at the top of the display, it buys a classic Notch look, as you’ve seen in your recent flagship iPhone. There is no home button, it distinguishes itself from the old iPhone SE models, but there isn’t a button on the Pixel 9a either. Unfortunately, it only has two very boring colors: black and white.
Google’s mid-range phones have a slightly bold design. That said, Google went and removed the horizontal rear camera that had the iconic part of the Google Pixel look over the past few years. Now, the rear camera is almost not obvious, and even lacks the bumps that make it stand out. That’s great if you want your phone to be completely flat on the table, but it does make the Pixel 9a look like a universal phone prop on a TV show.
Mixable light speed
That said, the Pixel 9a offers four colors, twice as many as the iPhone 16e. In my humble opinion, there are black and white options, and there is also a choice called “iris”, which is also a gorgeous pink color scheme.
exhibit
Google’s display is superior.
Image source: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
In my opinion, there is a very certain winner in the display category.
Not only is the Pixel 9a’s display a little bigger (though this may actually be problematic for people with smaller manuals), but it also has twice as much refresh rate. Not everyone values ​​this as much as I do, but the smooth scroll is Very It’s a bit crazy to use it on your smartphone, and Apple is still so much on this issue in everything but the iPhone Pro Models. You also get peak brightness of up to 2,700 columns, which makes it perfect for outdoor use.
Anyway, Apple’s panels are pretty good. Its 2532×1170 resolution is slightly higher than the resolution offered by the Pixel 9a (2424×1080), and it is an OLED screen with HDR support. However, with only 1,200 columns of peak brightness, it doesn’t look as good as pixel 9a in the sun.
Performance
Apple participated in this with USB-C, which was great.
Image source: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
In terms of performance, there is really no choice here.
Both phones are excellent in everyday use. The app loads quickly and when it opens too much, any phone will slow down too much. I Have done it Note that the Pixel 9a will be a little warm after long use, but the case can easily be mitigated.
If you want to put it in a number, and Technically speaking Choose the winner, that will be Apple. The iPhone 16e’s Geekbench benchmark metric is better than the Pixel 9A, with Apple netting 7,423 multi-core scores, compared to just 4,358 for Google. However, at the actual level, any kind of phone is good for you.
Battery life
Both phones have good battery life.
Image source: Joe Maldonado/Mashable
Battery life is another area where you can only win.
In my tests, the Pixel 9a is more or less a 24-hour device between charges, which may last longer if the refresh rate is reduced to 60Hz or other energy-saving measures are taken. I never tested the iPhone 16e directly myself, but our critic Stan Schroeder pointed out that he was able to make about two days of expenses on what he called “mass use”.
So the extra cash you pay for the iPhone 16E is better than the available values ​​on the Pixel 9A. However, I wouldn’t describe the Pixel 9a’s battery as “bad”. This is not very good.
camera
The iPhone 16e did a nice night shot.
Image source: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
The iPhone 16e and Pixel 9a have the same 48MP main shooter (in terms of megapixels) on the back. However, Apple only includes a camera lens on the back of the phone, while the Pixel 9a also has an additional 13MP ultra-wide lens.
Since these are all budget phones, the camera is the biggest place to compromise. That said, you can definitely get a nice lens on the Pixel 9A or iPhone 16e. One nice benefit that Pixel 9a has on the Pixel 8a is the addition of macro focus, which allows you to really get close to tiny objects and capture them in detail. Unfortunately, the iPhone 16E doesn’t have this feature at all due to the lack of an ultra-wide lens.
Given that Google’s phones have extra lenses, at least with features that the iPhone 16e can’t claim, I tend to think the Pixel 9a has a better camera system.
