A phone that launched at £599 and is already available for £200 less than that, with a free SIM on top, is worth a second look regardless of where you stand on mid-range smartphones.
GiffGaff has the Google Pixel 10a down from £599 to £399, saving you £200 and throwing in a £10 GiffGaff 40GB SIM, making this one of the more straightforward deals on a brand-new Android phone right now.
The Google Pixel 10a has only been out a month, and you can already save £200
A phone that launched at £599 and is already available for £200 less than that, with a free SIM on top, is worth a second look regardless of where you stand on mid-range smartphones.
The Pixel 10a launched only a few weeks ago, which makes the size of that saving unusual, and it does help address one of the main criticisms our reviewer raised: that at £599 (for the 256GB model) it sat uncomfortably close to the older Pixel 9a in both price and capability.
At £399, that calculation shifts considerably, because what you are getting is a phone running Android 16 on the Tensor G4 chipset with seven years of guaranteed OS updates, which takes it all the way to Android 23 and meaningfully outlasts most of its competition in the mid-range bracket.
The camera setup is unchanged from the Pixel 9a, carrying the same 48MP main sensor and 13MP ultrawide, but that is not the criticism; it sounds like our reviewer found Google’s image processing continued to deliver consistently sharp shots with accurate colours and strong performance in low light, despite hardware that is not the most advanced on paper.
The 6.3-inch pOLED display runs at 120Hz with HDR support and hits up to 3000nits peak brightness, which is a meaningful step up in outdoor legibility, and the completely flat rear is a genuine design change that sets it apart visually from practically every other phone in the category.
Battery life is a quiet strength here, with the 5100mAh cell comfortably covering a full day of heavy use according to our testing, and the 30W wired charging can reach 50% in around 30 minutes, a notable improvement over the 23W found in the Pixel 9a.
The Google Pixel 10a is not a revolutionary upgrade for existing Pixel 9a owners, and our reviewer was clear on that, but for anyone coming from an older device or switching from a different brand entirely, £399 makes it a well-rounded mid-range phone with a support window that most rivals cannot match.
It’s tough to get hyped for the Pixel 10a when it’s basically a twin of the now-cheaper Pixel 9a, offering only minor tweaks like a brighter screen and a flatter back. While it’s definitely not worth the upgrade for current 9a users, it’s still a solid mid-range pick that keeps Google in the game for now.
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Completely flat rear
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Flagship-level AI features
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Great camera performance
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Too many similarities with Pixel 9a
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Older Tensor G4 chipset
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Bezels remain relatively thick
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No PixelSnap support
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Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
