Pixel 9a vs Galaxy S24 FE: The battle for the affordable flagship crown

The prices of flagship phones have been steadily growing in the past couple of years. You can blame inflation or the economic climate, but the fact of the matter is that phones are getting expensive.

This is one of the reasons why the so-called flagship killers, or affordable flagships, have gained so much popularity over the years. Google's A-series devices that launch between two regular flagship Pixel phones are a go-to option if people try to get the best bang for the buck.

Samsung took notes and tried to emulate this with its Galaxy FE (Fan Edition) model, offering a bare-bones flagship for not a lot of money.

Today we're going to pit against each other two models from the aforementioned companies. Models that aim to deliver a flagship experience for midrange money. In the blue corner: the latest member of the Fan Edition family, the Galaxy S24 FE. In the red corner, the recently released Google Pixel 9a.

This comparison is preliminary, but we will update it with benchmarks and tests once we finish the review of the Pixel 9a. Until then, let's see how these two stack together.

Galaxy S24 FE: Up to $400 off with trade-in

$249 ⁹⁹

$649 ⁹⁹

$400 off (62%)

The Galaxy S24 FE is up for grabs at the official Samsung Store. Currently, you can save up to $400 on the handset with eligible trade-ins. No pre-trade in discounts are available right now.

Buy at Samsung

Galaxy S24 FE: Get at Amazon for $102 off

$102 off (16%)

The Galaxy S24 FE is also available at Amazon. The base storage configurations featuring 128GB of onboard space are currently available at lower prices, and you can save 16% on them.

Buy at Amazon

The Pixel 9a has grown in size, mainly due to its larger 6.3-inch screen (compared to the 6.1-inch display of the previous generation), and the dimensions and weight are 154.7 x 73.3 x 8.9 mm and 186 grams, respectively.

The Galaxy S24 FE, on the other hand, comes in at 162 x 77.3 x 8 mm and 213 grams, making it a larger and heavier device, again due to the bigger 6.7-inch display. The Galaxy is made of aluminum and glass, while the Pixel 9a uses composites (plastic) for its back and painted metal for its frame.

The design of the Pixel 9a is very similar to the new look that Google coined with the regular Pixel 9 series. The flat front and back are present, the curvature of the corners is similar, and the flat frame also reminds us of the Pixel 9. The camera on the back is completely flush with the body and comes in the form of a pill-shaped housing for the two cameras.

The Galaxy S24 FE is a known entity when it comes to design; it mimics the S-series devices with vertically arranged camera housings on the back and flat sides, front and back. Both phones have more design similarities than differences, as in recent years Samsung, Apple, and Google have kind of uniformed the design of their phones.

Let's quickly list the available colors for both phones.

Google Pixel 9a available colors:

• Obsidian
• Porcelain
• Iris
• Peony

Samsung Galaxy S24 FE available colors:

• Blue
• Graphite
• Gray
• Mint
• Yellow

Moving to the display part of the equation, we find the biggest difference between the Pixel 9a and the Galaxy S24 FE. The screen size of the Pixel is substantially smaller at 6.3 inches, while the Galaxy sports a 6.7-inch panel.

The resolution is similar (FHD+)—the Galaxy S24 FE's screen has 1080 x 2340 pixels, which at 6.7 inches results in around 385 pixels per inch. The Pixel 9a boasts a similar resolution (1080 x 2424 pixels), but due to the smaller size, the pixel density is higher at 422 PPI.

Both panels are LTPO and can dynamically change their refresh rate, going up to 120Hz. The brightness figure for the Galaxy S24 FE is 1,900 nits peak (we measured 1,110 nits at 100% APL, which is quite good). Google cites 1800 nits in HBM (High Brightness Mode) for the Pixel 9a and 2700 nits peak, but we have to measure it to confirm or deny, as one agency used to say.

Stay tuned for our thorough display tests where we measure color accuracy, minimum and maximum brightness, white balance, and more metrics for you number nerds out there.

Google has been working hard on its Tensor chipsets for the past couple of years, and even though there are substantial performance gains generation to generation, the latest Tensor (G4) is still not on par with its Snapdragon competitor, at least in raw power.

The situation is sort of similar with the Exynos chips. Samsung phased out using them in flagship phones, and the FE model is one of the few in this tier that still gets Exynos silicon. That said, the Exynos 2400e inside the Galaxy S24 FE turned out to be quite a potent chip, scoring close to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (2153 and 6631 in Geekbench 6 single and multicore tests, respectively).

We know that the Pixel 9a comes equipped with the same Tensor G4 as the regular Pixel 9 flagships, so we expect similar synthetic scores (1800 and 4573 in the same Geekbench 6 tests). Of course, we need to run the test on the Pixel 9a to get the actual score for that particular device, but we expect the Galaxy to have a tiny bit more oomph in synthetic benchmarks.

As far as RAM and storage are concerned, things are almost identical between these two. The Galaxy S24 FE starts at 8GB of RAM paired with 128GB of storage, and the same memory configuration can be found as base on the Pixel 9a.

The Galaxy S24 FE comes with its own pack of Galaxy AI features, some of which are quite useful while others feel a bit superficial. On the other hand, the Pixel 9a features most of the AI magic from the regular Pixel 9 series, so it might have a slight advantage on the AI front, although people don't seem to use AI as much as companies have hoped.

The software support is the same on both phones; the Galaxy S24 FE offers seven years of major OS updates, and the Pixel 9a mimics that. The Pixel 9a will last a year longer, though, being the newer of these two, with support ending in 2032.

The Galaxy S24 FE has one inherent hardware advantage in the camera department, and it's the dedicated telephoto camera. The main snapper uses a 50MP sensor under an f/1.8 lens and has a focal length equivalent of 24 mm. The ultrawide camera is a 12MP sensor under an f/2.2 lens and has a 123-degree field of view.

The Pixel 9a, on the other hand, features a very similar setup, barring the telephoto camera. The main camera is a brand-new 48MP sensor with an f/1.7 lens on top and a 23 mm focal length equivalent. The ultrawide is a 13MP sensor with the same f/2.2 aperture and a 120-degree field of view, very similar to what the Galaxy S24 FE sports.

We will populate this comparison with side-by-side samples because, as we all know rather well by now, processing algorithms do some serious lifting in smartphone photography, and hardware specs don't always translate directly into real-life results. So stay tuned for some samples soon. 

What we can say now is that the 75 mm telephoto camera of the Galaxy S24 FE gives the phone a little more flexibility, especially when doing portrait photography.

The Galaxy S2 FE comes equipped with a rather small for the size of the phone 4,700 mAh battery, and this is reflected in our battery score. The phone ranks #69 for phones tested in the past two years, which is not a particularly impressive result. The charging situation is also nothing to write home about; the S24 FE supports up to 25W of wired charging power and 15W wireless. This translates to 1h 21m for a full charge.

The Pixel 9a boasts a pretty hefty 5,100 mAh battery (despite its smaller footprint). As always, more testing is needed to proclaim a winner in this department, but the Pixel 9a looks like the favorite at the moment.

Here's a quick specs comparison table. You can also check out the full Galaxy S24 FE vs Pixel 9a comparison for more detail.

This fight is far from over, and it's shaping out to be a very interesting one. On the one hand, we have the Galaxy S24 FE with a more potent processor, an extra telephoto camera, and a big and vibrant screen.

On the other hand, the Pixel 9a starts at the same $499 that made the last few generations so popular, and for that amount of money, you're getting quite a lot. A bigger battery, Google's AI expertise, and a more compact form factor.

Will the extra telephoto camera and the bigger screen be enough to sway people to spend $150 more? We have to wait and see. Stay tuned for benchmarks, image samples, battery tests, and of course, the final verdict.