I'd be emailing and calling and bitching then. Super shitty
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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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)
Releasing a Pixel without QA issues. Level: IMPOSSIBLE
sent from Pixel 9
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:
- 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.
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.
Google is not offering me a no-cost battery replacement.
I'm not eligible for any replacement or refund according to their own support page
Edit: Here's proof.
On the one page they are talking about "impacted devices", but on the other page they say I'm not "eligible" for a refund of repair.
So they do not confirm whether my phone is unaffected or not. They only say I won't get a refund.
I'm highly skeptical when a massive corporation uses inconsistent language like this. Especially when they don't clearly define what they mean with the terms "impacted" and "eligible".
Are there situations where impacted devices may not be eligible?
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.
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.
I wonder who chose the batteries that go in the phone designed by Google, what a mystery
Well there are multiple companies that make the batteries
I wonder who selected the companies to provide the batteries
Why is this your random go to? Kinda apple user of you.
mate if a badly made product makes it into your hand it's the company that made it and sold it to you's responsibility. "we used a subcontractor" is not an excuse. this is not random. it's simply saying that google made a crappy product by cutting corners intientionally to boost short term profits at the cost of their consumer. if you think that's what apple users do you haven't met a single one
My wife uses apple. She's had several phone updates that Nuke her battery. She's also had a watch update that filled her storage up 98% that if she received a text through her watch it would say "storage is full"
What I don't get it is, not ALL pixels are affected. Only SOME of them are. So Google has several suppliers to make their phones and only a few of those batteries are shit.
Not to mention Google said "we took this L, we will replace your battery for free"and everyone is like "NuH man Google just wants my money because I got their cheapest phone"
Keep in mind too, the 4a only had update support until 2023, this is knowledge you can understand when you purchase the phone. Like the 9a has update support until 2031
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.
Google loves to cheap out if they think they can get away with it, just look at the modem on the 8 series
- It's a budget variant,
- 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
GrapheneOS
Won't they push this update?
Pixels of this generation can get up to $1500 USD. If that's not flagship territory, I don't know what is.
Never seen a 4a or a 6a sold for 1500 Bucks. Dunno where you live though..
I don't think the 'a' variants are ever close to that price.
Even if they were cheap, the implication is that its okay to screw a customer if they're not rich?
"You were warned. The a stands for a-splode."
subpar? this is just capitalism ensuring we “need” a new phone.
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.
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.
how does one source such a phone to brazil?
Ask a friend to buy it in europe and send it to you
i barely have friends here, let alone a continent over.
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.
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.
When that one breaks there's a good chance you can replace just the broken part.
Yep
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%.
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.
System Settings > About Phone > Device Details Category > Battery Information
I'm using Calyx but I assume that its also the same on Graphene, lineage, AOSP, /e/ so on and so fourth.
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.