The Pixel 9a is making so many appearances, it doesn’t even need an announcement

Well, Google certainly has no idea how to keep the Pixel 9a under wraps, and the upcoming mid-ranger has now shown up in a full-blown video review on YouTube, way ahead of its supposed official unveiling.

We've already had a glimpse of how its camera would perform when a YouTuber took the unannounced Pixel 9a to a wrestling match, we saw its design and colors leak repeatedly, and now a YouTuber has published a review of the phone and at the time of writing, the review is still up on YouTube!

With all we know so far with all these leaks, the Pixel 9a is as good as announced. The review published by The Mobile Central on YouTube goes through the main details about the Pixel 9a. The phone is shown without a hint of shyness. We see the design, the somewhat thick bezels in the front, how it would perform, more or less, and the camera.

According to this early-bird review, the Pixel 9a comes with the standard Google Pixel camera abilities, which are frankly pretty good, and delivers natural-looking photos without oversaturation or unnecessary contrast.

The only weakness of the Pixel 9a camera, according to this early review, is the low-light video recording, which is shown to suffer from quite a noticeable level of noise.

The phone is also said to experience some frame drops when playing demanding games but otherwise is reportedly performing reliably with simple tasks and everyday use. The video also praises the big 5,100mAh battery found in the device, claiming it ensures a reliable one-full-day battery life even with heavy usage.

Of course, we'll test the phone extensively, and we'll tell you exactly how it measures up in terms of performance, camera, battery, and feel... that is when the phone is officially out.

In the meantime, this video review can give you a glimpse of what to expect from the device. It's obvious that the Pixel 9a has no secrets anymore, but the biggest one still stays - would it be good enough to earn the title of the best mid-range phone?

The Pixel 9a is expected to be unveiled sometime in mid-March (not that it's currently 'veiled', per se, but an official introduction is still to be made). The phone's 256GB version is expected to get a $40 price hike and start at $599, while the 128GB version is said to keep the same price as the predecessor, $499.

We've already seen it in a hands-on video. Before that, it showed itself in high-quality renders which also showed its colors and revealed its minimalistic design and Google's decision to ditch the camera bar in favor of a simpler camera island.

Today's early review doesn't necessarily reveal anything we haven't already heard about the phone, but the mere fact that it's not only leaked but also reviewed, posted, and still remaining online shows Google's nonchalance about keeping it under wraps. Maybe Google is too busy fixing the Pixel 9's long-lasting GPS issue to notice the phone leaking...

The Pixel 9a is shaping up to be a good contender for its price range, though. When it becomes official, it will face the Galaxy A56, which was recently revealed with a triple-camera system and Galaxy AI, and also the iPhone 16e (although this one is a bit more on the expensive side) which sports Apple's powerful A18 Bionic chip (and a promise of an elusive Apple Intelligence future.)

Nothing also recently unveiled the Nothing Phone (3a) Pro, which stands out with its unique design and telephoto camera, a great contender for your heart if you're looking for a budget-to-midrange device. The mid-range market is getting pretty exciting, so let's see how the Pixel 9a will fit into the full picture!