A mess of its own making: Google nerfs second Pixel phone battery this year
arstechnica.com
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People don’t upgrade phones every year anymore—longevity matters.

I wonder if there is something subpar about whoever Google is getting the batteries from for the A series phones.

@[email protected]
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4217h

400 cycles? So, a year? One year.

@[email protected]
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41h

Had mine since late '22. I’m at 1k cycles, so yeah. about a year. Maybe a little less, because I dont charge my phone overnight, and I only charge it to 80%.

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221m

My math was assuming that most users do charge every night, and again during the day 2-3 times a month. 365 + (12x3) = 401. So it seems like we have both ends of standard usage. They’ve basically just said that this battery will only last one year of standard usage before they intentionally hobble it.

If that’s for safety reasons, they need to stop putting unsafe hardware into their handsets.

flandish
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2217h

subpar? this is just capitalism ensuring we “need” a new phone.

GreatBlueHeron
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411h

yep - I was still happy with my 4a until they killed its battery. I bought a used 8 Pro. That was about 3 months ago, and it still feels too big.

kadup
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1515h

My next phone will be a Fairphone 6, even though they’re not officially sold here in Brazil.

And when that one breaks… Maybe no phone at all.

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cake
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26h

how does one source such a phone to brazil?

@[email protected]
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32h

Ask a friend to buy it in europe and send it to you

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cake
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22h

i barely have friends here, let alone a continent over.

@[email protected]
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12h

Thats the cheap option. You can of course fly yourself to germany or netherlands and but it your self or even use a forwarding service.

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cake
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12h

do you happen to be brazilian? because i’m not aware of any forwarding service that can sneak around customs and id like to know one.

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1115h

When that one breaks there’s a good chance you can replace just the broken part.

mesa
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414h

Yep

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16h
  1. It’s a budget variant,
  2. The Pixel series are midrange, not high-end or flagship

This doesn’t seem like that big a deal, especially as it’s a software update. Easily fixable with a firmware update like GrapheneOS

@[email protected]
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29h

GrapheneOS

Won’t they push this update?

@[email protected]
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1116h

Pixels of this generation can get up to $1500 USD. If that’s not flagship territory, I don’t know what is.

kadup
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2215h

Even if they were cheap, the implication is that its okay to screw a customer if they’re not rich?

@[email protected]
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815h

“You were warned. The a stands for a-splode.”

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13h

I don’t think the ‘a’ variants are ever close to that price.

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-1216h

Ah the classic “I read the headline but not the article post”

Tldr because you’re lazy: oh a certain brand of battery, 400 recharge cycles because after that risk of fire increases so they nerf it. Only on the 4a and 6a series.

Humanius
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I own a Pixel 6a, and I’m not happy about the whole situation for several reasons:

  • The update is mandatory and instant the moment it is received. You don’t get a choice in the matter.
  • The only reason I am aware of my battery being nerfed is because I had read this article and because I paid attention during the update. There is no clear indication after the update that they might have nerfed my battery life.
  • Google is not communicating clearly whether my phone is one of the so-called “affected devices”. There is a tool that allows you to check “eligibility”, but it only reports eligibility for a refund. My phone is not eligible for a refund, so does that mean my phone is not an “affected device”? It doesn’t say.
  • After calling support Im not much wiser. All they told me is that “if my phone gets warm sometimes, or the battery drains too fast” that might mean my device is affected. But clearly they should know whether my device is affected otherwise they wouldn’t be able to determine whether I’m eligible for the refund.

This is also not the first time Google burned me with a bad quality battery. This just strengthens my resolve that my next phone won’t be a Pixel. Which is a shame, because I like these phones otherwise.

The Fairphone is looking quite interesting.

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1h

I had to get rid of my 4a because of the bad battery thing before that went public. The charger got so hot it melted part of the port, no refund offered, out of warranty. Now you’re telling me this same shit could happen with my 6a?

I know for a fact my next phone will be the Fairphone 6. Fuck this and fuck google.

kadup
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2115h

I wonder who chose the batteries that go in the phone designed by Google, what a mystery

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-315h

Well there are multiple companies that make the batteries

kadup
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1315h

I wonder who selected the companies to provide the batteries

@[email protected]
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-812h

Why is this your random go to? Kinda apple user of you.

kadup
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512h

Apple sources the worse lithium batteries known to man, they last a year and destroy themselves. I have no idea why you’re bringing Apple to this discussion.

I’ve dealt with Chinese devices with batteries that still worked fine six years after being bought.

disco
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58h

Google loves to cheap out if they think they can get away with it, just look at the modem on the 8 series

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