If only there were a way to quickly swap out defective, used batteries for new, safe batteries without needing to return a critical device to the manufacturer.
1. Battery defects caused some of them to underperform, leading the battery management subsystem to shut down the phone due to voltage drop when too much current was drawn.
2. To work around the shutdown issue (very bad), Apple implemented throttling (IMHO less bad) in a new version of iOS, to prevent too much current from being drawn. They figured the throttling would be so light as to be unnoticeable to users, except...
3. Benchmarkers noticed the throttling, and all hell broke loose.
Battery defects are unfortunate, but the decision to make them not user-serviceable leads to a host of bad downstream decisions.
(Of course, making them user-serviceable also leads to a host of other difficult decisions, and I'm not just talking about opening the case. What happens to system design when you can no longer trust the battery's specs?)
First 4a, now 6a. At least they're giving 100 USD this time and 6a batteries not total dogshit like 4a and it won't turn into landline.
Annoying 150 USD store credit can't go towards something like Youtube Premium. Or multiple 6a credits can't be stacked on 1 device. Cause I'm never touching a pixel again.
> Pixel 6a owners can get $100 in cash or $150 in store credit. Alternatively, Google offers a free battery replacement with the same limits on phone condition.
I just ran into this on my wife's phone. I started removing the tempered glass screen protector to replace with a new one and the whole screen came up. The battery had started to puff up enough to lift the edge of the screen.
I get nervous when I see videos of people buying random Li-Ion/Po-battery powered crap from Teemu etc.
My personal policy for buying anything with such a battery: the seller must have a meaningful presence in my country and sell for at least like $10M/year.
Their website says I am "not eligible" but that doesn't tell me if my pixel 6a is impacted or not. It would be nice if Google would tell me if my phone is a fire hazard.
So here's a fun story on how Google completely ruined my Pixel 4a and will not help resolve it over the last 7 months.
In January 2025, Google pushed an emergency Android update to Pixel 4 devices which completely killed the battery's life.
They offered an extended warranty to get the battery replaced at any official Google repair center for free. They claimed a new battery would resolve the issue and your battery would drain at a normal rate.
For context I live in NY and the official Google repair center I visited has ~500 4.7 star reviews. I'm not going to out them publicly because despite all of this nonsense the local store owner seemed genuine.
---
VISIT 1: I went to their official repair center and they swapped the battery. It took ~2 hours plus ~45 minututes in travel time.
The new battery was put in and it did help but it still drained faster than pre-any updates. However it was usable from a battery life perspective.
After the repair I noticed my phone's display stopped turning on when I picked up and angled the phone towards me. I also noticed that more often than not if I got any type of notification (even an incoming call) the display would not turn on. Lastly, my phone would not unlock normally. Normally I would flick the bottom of the screen with my thumb maybe 1 inch and it would turn on and prompt me for my pin. Now I had to drag my entire finger up the whole phone like I'm 80 years old and it would only unlock 30% of the time.
---
VISIT 2: I explained the situation to them, another ~3 hours of total time at the store.
They replaced the display of the phone and it made little difference. There were still problems listed above which I demonstrated in front of the store owner.
He went back and got some tools and they hooked up a diagnostics tool to my device in front of me and confirmed the proximity sensor was not functioning. The owner of the store told me it's unfortunately common for this to get damaged during a battery replacement.
He said the best they can do is order a new motherboard but it will wipe everything.
At this point I've already had a ~30 reply email thread with Google support where they kept saying they can't do anything except suggest keep going to the repair center I've been to.
---
VISIT 3: They replace the motherboard, another ~3 hours of total time at the store plus ~3 hours to set everything back up again on my own
Most of the issues went away, but the phone still doesn't turn on a lot when I get new notifications of any kind.
However, the battery started draining quite fast again. We're talking losing 28% battery for a 2 hour phone / voice call with the display turned off.
Just texting my friend on Whatsapp with 15 messages drained 5% battery. My phone at this point is very not usable with battery life. The battery life is ok if it's idling doing literally nothing but as soon as I do anything, it drains fast.
There's ~50 replies to the Google support email and they said sorry, nothing they can do. I can mail the phone to them and they can try repairing it but it will cost me out of pocket and I'll be out of a phone for however long that process takes.
---
VISIT 4: The repair center gave me a new battery
At this point I told them I can't afford to keep going to the store and having my phone damaged on every visit and they said they can do the battery replacement at my apartment in their work truck. The store owner told me "changing the battery is the easiest thing in the world, it's safe to do in the truck".
So their most experienced tech came and did the battery replacement.
The tech told me the phone is good to go, quickly showed me the phone's display is turned on and I unlocked it with my pin like I normally do. He left.
The store owner told me this is the last time they will service the phone and if there's any other problems to call corporate.
Over the rest of that day and early morning next day I noticed the battery re...
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 26.3 ms ] threadWhat happened was:
1. Battery defects caused some of them to underperform, leading the battery management subsystem to shut down the phone due to voltage drop when too much current was drawn.
2. To work around the shutdown issue (very bad), Apple implemented throttling (IMHO less bad) in a new version of iOS, to prevent too much current from being drawn. They figured the throttling would be so light as to be unnoticeable to users, except...
3. Benchmarkers noticed the throttling, and all hell broke loose.
Battery defects are unfortunate, but the decision to make them not user-serviceable leads to a host of bad downstream decisions.
(Of course, making them user-serviceable also leads to a host of other difficult decisions, and I'm not just talking about opening the case. What happens to system design when you can no longer trust the battery's specs?)
Annoying 150 USD store credit can't go towards something like Youtube Premium. Or multiple 6a credits can't be stacked on 1 device. Cause I'm never touching a pixel again.
This seems very fair
I didn't get from the article how the update will make the phone unsable.
My personal policy for buying anything with such a battery: the seller must have a meaningful presence in my country and sell for at least like $10M/year.
In January 2025, Google pushed an emergency Android update to Pixel 4 devices which completely killed the battery's life.
They offered an extended warranty to get the battery replaced at any official Google repair center for free. They claimed a new battery would resolve the issue and your battery would drain at a normal rate.
For context I live in NY and the official Google repair center I visited has ~500 4.7 star reviews. I'm not going to out them publicly because despite all of this nonsense the local store owner seemed genuine.
---
VISIT 1: I went to their official repair center and they swapped the battery. It took ~2 hours plus ~45 minututes in travel time.
The new battery was put in and it did help but it still drained faster than pre-any updates. However it was usable from a battery life perspective.
After the repair I noticed my phone's display stopped turning on when I picked up and angled the phone towards me. I also noticed that more often than not if I got any type of notification (even an incoming call) the display would not turn on. Lastly, my phone would not unlock normally. Normally I would flick the bottom of the screen with my thumb maybe 1 inch and it would turn on and prompt me for my pin. Now I had to drag my entire finger up the whole phone like I'm 80 years old and it would only unlock 30% of the time.
---
VISIT 2: I explained the situation to them, another ~3 hours of total time at the store.
They replaced the display of the phone and it made little difference. There were still problems listed above which I demonstrated in front of the store owner.
He went back and got some tools and they hooked up a diagnostics tool to my device in front of me and confirmed the proximity sensor was not functioning. The owner of the store told me it's unfortunately common for this to get damaged during a battery replacement.
He said the best they can do is order a new motherboard but it will wipe everything.
At this point I've already had a ~30 reply email thread with Google support where they kept saying they can't do anything except suggest keep going to the repair center I've been to.
---
VISIT 3: They replace the motherboard, another ~3 hours of total time at the store plus ~3 hours to set everything back up again on my own
Most of the issues went away, but the phone still doesn't turn on a lot when I get new notifications of any kind.
However, the battery started draining quite fast again. We're talking losing 28% battery for a 2 hour phone / voice call with the display turned off.
Just texting my friend on Whatsapp with 15 messages drained 5% battery. My phone at this point is very not usable with battery life. The battery life is ok if it's idling doing literally nothing but as soon as I do anything, it drains fast.
There's ~50 replies to the Google support email and they said sorry, nothing they can do. I can mail the phone to them and they can try repairing it but it will cost me out of pocket and I'll be out of a phone for however long that process takes.
---
VISIT 4: The repair center gave me a new battery
At this point I told them I can't afford to keep going to the store and having my phone damaged on every visit and they said they can do the battery replacement at my apartment in their work truck. The store owner told me "changing the battery is the easiest thing in the world, it's safe to do in the truck".
So their most experienced tech came and did the battery replacement.
The tech told me the phone is good to go, quickly showed me the phone's display is turned on and I unlocked it with my pin like I normally do. He left.
The store owner told me this is the last time they will service the phone and if there's any other problems to call corporate.
Over the rest of that day and early morning next day I noticed the battery re...
It would have given you time, however, to find a technician with more experience with this model.
On the other hand, the battery problem was physically dangerous, and that should have some bearing.