Google Pixel 9a Delayed Over ‘Component Quality Issue’

It looks great from its initial coming-out party. Held just yesterday, Google unveiled the Pixel 9a to approving fanfare across the web, with its attractive $499 price tag and feature set stealing the thunder from Apple’s lukewarm iPhone 16e.

The only hitch in Google’s product announcement was that you couldn’t preorder the Pixel 9a, and the release date was vaguely said to be in “April.” Now we’re starting to hear why it’s been delayed, and it means a bit of egg on Google’s face.

few details, but a short wait

Thanks to The Verge, we heard more this afternoon about why we got such a vague timeline for when customers can get a Pixel 9a in their hands. “We’re checking on a component quality issue that’s affecting a small number of Pixel 9A devices,” Google spokesperson Matt Flegal told The Verge by email.

Rumors were that Google had planned for a March release of the Pixel 9a, pushing it back to April because of these unnamed quality issues. Flegal didn’t say how many devices were affected or which components were experiencing quality issues, but it was apparently grave enough that Google held back from distributing Pixel 9a units to the media for pre-release reviewing.

Not only that, but Google (like Apple) likes to begin taking preorders for devices as soon as they announce them. The inability right now to place an order for a Pixel 9a risks losing out on those compulsive would-be buyers who get all excited reading the news about the latest and greatest and then mash the preorder button.

There’s no word yet on when in April we can expect the Pixel 9a. Just “April.” Luckily for all of us, we’re more than halfway through March, and April is creeping up on us. As long as the mysterious quality issue is solved, a few weeks more will fade into memory once the phone is in your hands.