We saw a few S26 chip stories. It seems that the Exynos 2600, which will power some of the S26 units in some markets, has stronger Ray Tracing performance than the Adreno 840 inside the Snapdragon-powered models. On the flip side, the single-core performance of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-powered Galaxy S26 Ultra is much better than the corresponding Exynos 2600 one.
You get a 6.3-inch OLED panel with a 60-120Hz refresh rate. They might look similar, but the new Pixel 10a has a brighter, stronger screen. It is protected by Gorilla Glass 7i (instead of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on the 9a), which should offer better scratch and drop resistance. Last year, the Pixel 9a's display supported 1,800 nits of high brightness and 2,700 nits peak brightness for supported HDR content. The new-gen 10a pushes these numbers to 2,000 nits and 3,000 nits, respectively.
Those are the kinds of refinements Google has made on the Pixel 10a. The pOLED display is nearly identical, except it can now reach 3,000 nits of peak brightness versus 2,700 nits on the 9a. The glass covering the display uses Corning's Gorilla Glass 7i instead of the aging Gorilla Glass 3, for better scratch resistance. The battery capacity remains 5,100 mAh, but Google has upped charging speeds to 30 watts when plugging in, and 10 watts for wireless charging.
Design-wise, not much as changed. The back of the phone can lay flat, which has become a hallmark of the Pixel A collection, rather than wobbling around on a bulky camera housing. The screen is still 6.3 inches with an Actua display. The phone's insides are also the same; the 10a comes with the same Tensor G4 chip and 8GB of RAM as its predecessor, and buyers have the option to upgrade to either 128GB or 256GB of storage.
You don't get all the good stuff that makes the Pixel 10 series more compelling. There's still last year's Tensor G4 chip and 8GB of RAM, which isn't enough to power the more advanced AI features Google launched on Pixel 10, like Magic Cue or Pixel Screenshots, the latter of which debuted on the Pixel 9. Do you care? Maybe not! I like Magic Cue, though.
Yesterday, Google finally confirmed that the Pixel 10a is coming soon - on February 18, to be precise. The company showed us one colorway, but past rumors and leaks claimed there would be four in total, called Obsidian, Fog, Berry, and Lavender. Today, a new leak brings us renders showing all of these colors. The Google Pixel 10a is, according to previously rumored information, basically a relaunched Google Pixel 9a.
The Pixel 10a is official, though details are limited. On Wednesday, Google posted a teaser video showing the mid-range phone dancing around colorful backgrounds. You can pre-order the Pixel 10a on February 18. Google hasn't yet revealed the phone's specs. In the short video, we can see a blue model that's virtually indistinguishable on the outside from the Pixel 9a.
The Pixel 7a came out in May 2023, followed by the Pixel 8a in the subsequent year, which was released in the month of May as well. Last year's Pixel 9a launched in the month of April, marking an earlier than usual launch, and the Pixel 10a could very well follow suit. According to a recent leak, Google will open pre-orders for the Pixel 10a starting February 18, followed by availability on March 6.
This is now portrayed in the CAD-based renders you can see below, ahead of its possible unveiling in early 2026. At one time it was even rumored to arrive before the end of this year, but the source of these shots now says it will be early next year instead. That still means it will land earlier in the year than its predecessor did, back in March.
