From the early leaks to the final spec list that’s currently sitting on my desktop, the Pixel 10a launch has been dogged by an overwhelming sense of familiarity.
Here is a phone that looks almost exactly like the Pixel 9a before it. Sure, it’s got a flatter camera module (though the Pixel 9a’s was pretty minimal), a narrower bezel, and some slightly different color options. It also has a fractionally smaller footprint, and it weighs 3g less.
But this is, to all intents and purposes, the Pixel 9a design reused. That’s fine. Smartphone makers do this all the time, and it’s unreasonable to expect millions of dollars of design R&D to be frittered away after a year.