Google reducing the capacity of the Pixel 6a battery after 400 cycles
A mess of its own making: Google nerfs second Pixel phone battery this year
I wonder if there is something subpar about whoever Google is getting the batteries from for the A series phones.
https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/16340779
for those of you affected in the us, you can get a free battery repair, $100 cash or $150 in store credit (lmao)
My pixel 6a screen stopped working (the glass isn't even broken), but I was able to use talkback to get my IMEI and $100. What a win.
subpar? this is just capitalism ensuring we “need” a new phone.
Except that they're admitting fault and offering free battery replacement... The update of course sucks ass but it's a safety measure.
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.
Honestly at this rate my next phone will be a feature phone. There is a lot I love about my Poco X7 Pro, but also a lot that I do not. And a lot of things seem to be getting worse.
When that one breaks there's a good chance you can replace just the broken part.
how does one source such a phone to brazil?
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.
Releasing a Pixel without QA issues. Level: IMPOSSIBLE
sent from Pixel 9
I'd be emailing and calling and bitching then. Super shitty
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.
I own a Pixel 6a, and I'm not happy about the whole situation for several reasons:
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.
If this happens to me I'll just install grapheneOS
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.
So why not do the no cost battery replacement that Google is offering everyone with a 6a?
Fairphones do look nice. Those are like what the nothing phones wanted to be but just didn't.
I got the nerf on the 4A because the battery replacement "option" requirement me to personally being my phone to a repair shop 250km away.
And calling it a nerf is flat out wrong, it's borderline remote bricking. That patch not only slashed battery life in half, but the charge indicator was completely unreliable. I've seen it go from 80 to 30 in an hour (on standby, btw.), then from 30 to 25 in 2 hours.
I've installed CalyxOS, which comes without the nerf.
The pixel 4a only had a guaranteed update life up to 2023. And again if you read the article it's to prevent your phone from exploding. I know it's annoying, my wife has an iPhone and Apple seems to do this shit on every model older than 2 years old. But if the 4a is 2 years past its promised "service time" then why not just get a 9a that has a 7 year "service time"? I know it's easier to complain and bitch about it but when the pixels first started coming out their guaranteed updates were NOT long to begin with.
This doesn't seem like that big a deal, especially as it's a software update. Easily fixable with a firmware update like GrapheneOS
I haven't seen a single other budget or midrange phone with this problem.
I have used cheaper budget and midrange phones. To date I have never experienced this issue ever.
This is the 1st I have been hearing since the Pixel 4a. Let's not justify google.
I expect even a budget phone to still work the same after 1 year.
Most already do. This is the 1st we have been hearing for a while. Consistently since the Pixel 4a
Pixels of this generation can get up to $1500 USD. If that's not flagship territory, I don't know what is.
GrapheneOS
Won't they push this update?
400 cycles? So, a year? One year.
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%.
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.
How do you know how many cycles it has? Is there a way to see that, or are you just counting days?
I have a Pixel 6, don't charge it overnight. Batteries fine, yet.