They’re going after GrapheneOS users!
My battery is lasting about 30% + longer with GrapheneOS. Plus my phone heats up less.
I find that it heats up quite easily, maybe it’s just that the pixel isn’t super good. I’m on a 7a though
People in this thread mentions setting the phone to only charge to 80%, it will hell extend battery life.
Settings -> Battery -> Charging Optimization
Already done! But it’s a bit annoying that it can’t be set to higher values if we want to
Interesting. I find keeping my screen on, keeping it plugged in, and not putting battery saver can heat up my phone some.
Battery saver is probably the most important step
But I’m surprised that the phone doesn’t have a powerful processor/chip
I just want a comeback of phones with swappable batteries.
fairphone does that.
Didn’t HMD make a couple of those too? Obv not the same country of origin but from what I’ve seen they’re considerably cheaper
Didn’t HMD make a couple of those too?
Yes, the HMD Skyline has an easily removable backplate and battery.
Its 900$ where im at. I can get 3 phones for the same price. Terracube 2 apparently does too, but last time I had a fairphone, it failed pretty bad. Literally fell apart and no software updates at all.
600 euro, not so helpful. Thanks though.
I can relate to the feeling, but considering that their hardware and software support can get the phone going for twice as long (for me) as other mainstream ones, I feel tempted.
As far as I know, this will be the case in the EU in 2027.
That’s for “easily replaceable” batteries, not necessarily swappable, as in pop off the cover and insert new battery.
The new Fairphone 6, for example, requires a screw driver to open up the phone, and that would meet the legal requirements of the EU law.
For the purposes of disposing of a janky battery before it goes off bang and replacing it with a fresh one, that is probably quite sufficient.
I don’t think even power users these days are going to be strutting around hot swapping batteries from the little holster of them they’ve got on their belts like us turbo-nerds were doing in the PDA era. It would be rad to be able to do so, sure, but I think that will wind up just being a side effect models of the next wave of user-replaceable battery phones on some models.
Yeah, even though batteries have gotten smaller, and I’d prefer a larger one, mine still trivially lasts a day. I’ve got an inductive charger at my desk too, so it’s rarely drops below like 80% even. They easily last long enough that carrying extras to hot swap is not required and just a hassle. I guess if you’re going camping or something, it might be nice, but that’s about the only situation I could see being useful.
I miss my Galaxy S5. I could change the battery while jumping on a trampoline if I wanted to.
I still have two of them in a desk drawer. Both still boot, although the batteries are definitely toast. I have no idea if you can find a new-old-stock battery for one of these that is not likewise also knackered. But fun fact, an S5 will power on and run indefinitely with no battery in it at all if it’s connected to a sufficiently powerful USB power source.
Why pine for the past when you can have one again right now!
What? No takers for a phone that’s stuck on Android Marshmallow?
I put LineageOS on a S4 and I use it as a desk clock. All it needed was an app that shows the time.
Typing this on an samsung xcover 6 pro right now. Costs less than 200 used, has a removable battery, up to 1tb micro SD card support, and a headphone jack.
Does it run lineage, because that is the only way I’ll touch Samsung’s abysmal OS ever again
It does not, but I don’t sign into any Samsung/Google things and replace every system app with one from F-Droid including the launcher. The experience is fairly similar to my old pixel with grapheneos like this. I am sure it is far cry from as secure, but I am realistic about my threat model and am willing to make trades to be more sustainable and convenient. The only other difference is the system ui skin, which does its job just fine IMO
Hi, I was considering samsung as an option. Could you please tell me why you dont like samsung? I’m looking for cons but review sites only want to sing praises.
Samsung locks the bootloader, even for carrier unlocked versions traight from samsung’s website. (At least for those sold in the US, not sure about other places)
If you don’t intend to use a custom RON like Lineage OS, you wouldn’t notice a difference. But if you do, then it might be a dealbreaker. As for the Xcover series in particularx the specs are worse for the amount you’re paying. Camera is worse, SoC is slower, assuming if you are conparing the price of a brand new mainstream S or A series phones to a brand new Xcover series. But if you don’t care about worse specs for the swappable battery, then sure, go ahead. I personally wouldn’t get the Xcover series, doesn’t seem like a good deal, the screen is LCD and I’m way too used to OLED/AMOLED of the more mainstream phones.
Seems like it has a 778G SoC too which would be pretty solid for emulation as well. That’s an interesting option!
Put my IMEI into the link and it says I’m not eligible. Does this mean I’m in the clear? Should I still do something about my battery? I’d really rather not get another phone right now…
Your battery is not one of the defective ones, then.
Nice. That’s all I needed to hear.
I put my IMEI in and it said I was eligible. But then it gets stuck in an infinite loop of support links with no option out (at least when I selected to get a replacement battery). Edit: I got free of the loop, but the nearest place to take my phone into to get the battery replaced is 100 miles away!
I think I’m just going to get a new phone and move on. Not a Pixel though. Fuck this noise. My wife had a Pixel 5a and the motherboard fried itself after a couple of years. Google sent her a Pixel 6a replacement about 2 months later (long after we’d found her a non-Pixel replacement). So I upgraded to that replacement for in a 4a. But now this battery/fire bullshit? I’m done with their shitty products and their shitty support!
Maybe they should do a recall.
A battery exchange program is not quite the same thing as an actual product recall.
I have owned 3 pixels.
5a - bricked randomly 8 - screen failed within 6 months 6a - stuck in a bootloop, gave up on fixing it just before the battery issue made headlines
I gave them a fair shake. Never again.
I had the 3a for three years, passed it on to my son who used it three more years. Bought a 6 after the 3a, used it for three years and passed it on to my son. I am typing this on my 9a. Never had any issues on any of those phones. Either I have been very lucky or you got two rotten apples.
The 8 had known screen issues, and they were fixed even out of warranty. After six months it would have been within warranty, so you definitely should have been able to get that fixed. I know, I had to have mine replaced too.
I’ve had a 4, 6, and 8. No issues. But I know that if I do have hardware issues, Google will address them like these screen and battery issues.
During which time I have no phone.
Not acceptable. Bought something else.
I went to the nearest Google store. The time without a phone, I spent going and having a coffee.
Cool. I’m not going to do that another three times when I can spend less money on phones that don’t break.
Not to mention Google doesn’t do stores where I live.
I went to the nearest Google stor
A “Google Store” doesn’t even exist in my country lol
Before the pixel existed I owned a Google Nexus
54 which was manufactured by LG and to date that was the worst phone I’ve ever owned. I guess my point is it doesn’t matter who is manufacturing the hardware; if Google is involved it’s gonna be junk.Edit: it was a 4 not a 5 but either way it was such an awful experience I’ve never bought another piece of Google hardware since
The Nexus 4 was a great phone in my opinion.
Had it rooted and everything for about 6 years.
I had a Nexus 5 (also LG) and it was the best I’d had for years. Ran lineageOS on it (maybe it was CyanogenMod still I can’t remember) but that thing was the shit.
I left it on top of my car once and ended up destroying it. Swapped the modem into an EU model (the modem and GPS module survived, all other components failed) and had basically a brand new phone afterwards.
I don’t agree. Many of the cheaper phones are pretty shit and barebones. I’ve had Samsung flagship phones for years, and they have never disappointed me. Friends and family have had the cheaper Samsung phones, and they have been pretty hit and miss. You just kinda get what you pay for. Wanna pay €200 for a phone? You get something that can barely turn on, that’s it.
I think you replied to the wrong comment
I didn’t? My point was that you get what you pay for, Google or not.
Really? The Nexus 4 was my favorite device to date. I pushed mine to its limits, it was great. Even took a trip through the washing machine and still kept ticking.
Glad I ended up ruining my 6A attempting to replace the battery and had to upgrade.
My battery sucks after this update. Once I get down to 30% it free falls.
And no licensed repair places near me have batteries in stock
I switched my 6a to GrapheneOS a few weeks ago and the battery lasts like twice as long, its unreal.
i originally wanted to get pixel, after the 5A died from a fall, but i went with OP instead better battery life, dont really care about the photos that much.
Well that’s just great.
Here’s the website to see if your PIxel6a is an “impacted device”. Mine isn’t, not sure why… zero transparency on this.
https://support.google.com/pixelphone?p=pixel6a_battery_help
Why the fuck do I need to verify whether I’m an adult
Because children can die in a fire, I guess.
It’s probably a GDPR or similar requirement.
Is there a way to do it without a google account?
Absolutely, it only requires you to allow a Google representative to check your pulse via fingering your asshole. It is worth noting that results and feedback of this authentication method vary based on age and sexual orientation*.
o shit, I was signed in.
Well bummer. I only use it for app development, so I keep it powered down most of the time, so it should be OK, right…?
RC car enthusiasts use “lipo guard” bags to control any runaway fires during charging and transport, one the size of a pixel is under $15.
Rip I guess I’m gonna have to look for one or something, signed in to the site with my college email and then it asked how I wanted the money so im guessing that means my pixel is affected
I personally use harbor freight steel ammo cans for almost all of my lithium batteries at this point, except for my active phone (which is not a pixel 6a)
I don’t think they’ve made the failure conditions public. That may not mitigate the risk.
Because yours doesn’t have one of the batteries from the batch that catches fire.
… yet
Thanks for the link. I put my phone’s info in and it told me I’m eligible. But the color of the phone was completely wrong.
I’m done with Pixels. The first one was amazing. But the quality has been going gradually downhill for both the main series and the A series phones.
pixel 5 was there last great one, thats when they decided to enshitify with AI, devoting the whole line to only AI. decided not to use snapdragon, instead trying to save money on thier in house brand.
These updates are fire!
Damn. Never knew batteries catch on fire when angry.
Dude. I just bought a used 6A last week.
I think, but 100% on this, that not all 6a’s were affected.
Patch it to the latest update. If you get a notification about your battery then it’s probably fucked.
All 6s users hey a warning you might be affected. They give you a link you have to follow to check. Load the page, you’re in your IMEI and it will confirm if you’re affected
people still uses the 6A? it was hasty replacement for the defective 5A. thats why i went with OP, because every pixel after it sucked, because all they could see as improvement is the tensor chip.
I was thinking about going with a pixel for my next device so that I could use graphene because I’ve used pixels in the past and they were fine but with all these battery issues I’m having serious second thoughts.
They are doing free battery replacements. So at least they’re doing the right thing.
The battery of my Pixel 6 started to bloat and leak last week. I contacted support. After a bit of back and forth where they asked me to provide proof of purchase and pictures of the phone, they sent me a brand new Pixel 6 and told me to just recycle the old one.
I reported the issue on Tuesday, received the new phone on Friday. That’s not bad support for a 4 year old device that’s long out of warranty. I fully expected them to tell me to go F my self.
Why would they make it worse
Oh well they were forced to acknowledge a problem that needed a fix and what they did was they asked Gemini how do we fix this which Gemini had zero problems at all, not even an inconvenience, in giving them it’s fix so that’s what they went with without a single further thought employed in the matter
They really liked it when the response started with it’s super easy
To force you to change your battery (which is free), otherwise you will blame Google when it explodes after you ignored the warnings.
More accurately, to attempt to avoid a battery fire for people who can’t or won’t replace the defective batteries.
Due to the risk of battery fires, Google said that devices with more than 400 charge cycles could see their capacity and charging speed drastically reduced.
Apparently they design phones that’ll last just over a year before self-igniting.
Does 400 charge cycles really amount to just over a year of use for most people? I’m assuming one cycle means a full power cycle, not just a top up.
For reference (and I understand it’s a bit apples to oranges) I’ve had my iPhone 15 since Dec 2023 and charge it every night and it’s currently showing 125 charge cycles.
I would asssume a “cycle” is a 100% drop. Mine is capped to 80% charge and I assume it ticks up 4 cycles for every 5 charges from zero.
More then 400 charge cycles? So like… All of them
Becsuse that’s what Google does now. They make things worse. They got bored of making things good.
I love how they just make things worse indiscriminately now. Like you’d expect that if a company turns evil, they make things worse for profit, but google often doesn’t even care about that and makes everything worse randomly.
The clearest example I have is the maps app, which used to let you tap once to clear the search and directions bars off the screen. They removed that in one update for absolutely no fucking reason, so now a third+ of the screen is blocked at all times. If that space displayed ads or something at least I’d get that they were making an app shittier for profit, but nowadays more often than not everything just seems to be shitty because they don’t give a fuck anymore.
Don’tBe Evil.Lol, they removed that from their campus years ago
Yeah, it was replaced: “Do the right thing (for the shareholders)”
Because they would gaslight half the 6a owners into upgrading their phone this way
and then gaslight them into own 7, 8, and 9.
Oh shit I didn’t hear about the 6a also being fucked.
I lost my 4a to their shenanigans, couldn’t get it repaired and have now a Xcover 6 pro which I bought refurbished. Best modern phone: swappable battery, headphone jack, long software support, micro sd
4a didn’t have swappable battery iirc.
Yes, that is why i switched to the Xcover which has
