Is the Pixel 9a a good safe upgrade now

Speeduser7533

With support through 2032, I'm thinking of upgrading my 7a to the 9a. Any reason I shouldn't do this now? I want to get the most lifespan out of this investment and as I understand it, the 10 may not allow boot unlocking?

cutiepatootie

Speeduser7533
I would wait for the end of life and then change phone that way you can maximize the lifespan of the device

chance

I think if you are really going to keep the phone for 7 years you should get the 9 for the better modem then the ones in the 9a. Also it seems there is a clear pattern emerging with the A series of using really cheap batteriee.

DeletedUser313

According to the pattern, the 8a should be the next phone to get hit by the battery update of death. Third time's the charm, hopefully Google will be hit by another lawsuit. It's probably impossible but seeing Google go bankrupt would be a dream come true

GrapheneOS

DeletedUser313 Pixels have official battery replacement kits. Batteries are expected to degrade after a couple years. OS improvements to extend the lifetime of degraded batteries based on how things are playing out with them in practice is a good thing, not a bad thing. If you want a non-degraded battery, you can buy a new one. There is no device where the batteries aren't going to degrade over time.

N1b

If upgrading from 7a to 9a looks good to you, nothing critical against it comes to mind. You don't give up build quality or camera features (compared to coming from Pixel 7 or 8 for example). Now as for the Pixel 10, nobody really knows. I learned that, especially with Google, you shouldn't buy based on future expectations but based on what's here right now.

Out of interest: What about the 9a is worth upgrading from the 7a for you? This might help us giving better advice.

TrustExecutor

N1b MTE support may be a big reason to upgrade. At least it was for me, from 6 to 8 series.

locked

Why not wait for the 10? It's just around the corner. You're likely going to get a much better SoC by TMSC on a new 3nm process, likely a much better modem upgrades to fingerprint scanner etc...

phone-company

locked It is unclear if the Pixel 10 is supported by grapheneOS as far as I know

GrapheneOS

locked Pixel 10 will take much longer for us to support than past Pixel releases and we've also made it clear there isn't a guarantee of it being supported. If people want to use GrapheneOS, they should buy one of the supported devices. It could take us many months to add Pixel 10 support.

PatchLake

GrapheneOS I’m curious, is there a reality where no future Pixels can be supported? What would this mean for currently supported models? To what extend is there a given for support or can GOS be completely shut out? What would/could happen then?

de0u

PatchLake I’m curious, is there a reality where no future Pixels can be supported?

That's up to Google... or, if Google is forced to sell Android, to the future owner of Android... or perhaps to government regulators in various countries... "It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future."

Personally, I suspect the picture will be somewhat clearer when the Pixel 10 is released, and then clearer again when Android 17 comes out. Meanwhile it is likely that there will be various speculation, some of which will eventually turn out to have been more accurate than the rest.

Please note that I do not speak for the GrapheneOS project.