400 cycles? So, a year? One year.
this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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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.
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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)
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.
Yep
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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.
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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.
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.
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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
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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
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.
Because the 9A a) costs money, which I currently don't want to spend (especially not on Google), and b) is significantly larger than the 4A, which I specifically bought for it's small form factor.
And I seriously doubt the only way to keep my phone from exploding is to push a patch that makes it so the device itself seemingly has problems figuring it the charge level of the battery it tries to keep from exploding.
I cannot stress enough how god awful this "patch" was. They completely phoned it in, doing just the bare minimum to ward off class action lawsuits or consumer protection agencies.
I will buy a new phone quite soon since CalyxOS also stopped updating it now. But the Pixel A series obviously comes with a major liability now.
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