[HN Gopher] Google nerfs Pixel 6a batteries following fire hazard
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Google nerfs Pixel 6a batteries following fire hazard
Author : fffrantz
Score : 44 points
Date : 2025-07-11 18:41 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
| unethical_ban wrote:
| 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.
| dmitrygr wrote:
| Someone needs to first make replacement batteries in the right
| dimensions, voltage, etc...
| homebrewer wrote:
| It takes about five seconds after a new phone is released for
| Chinese factories to design and start selling all sorts of
| accessories, including batteries. High quality ones too.
|
| The average consumer needs to be able to swap it without
| doing deep surgery on the phone, and that's on the phone's
| manufacturer.
| dmitrygr wrote:
| The same factories that made the current battery that is a
| fire risk. yes. or maybe different ones, with no vetting
| for how dangerous their batteries are.
| ghusto wrote:
| Yes, in all likelihood the same factories. Which still
| make your choices a battery that needs replacing but
| can't be without voiding your warranty, or a battery that
| needs replacing that you can swap out easily. Am I
| missing something?
| asadotzler wrote:
| some goal post moving going on here.
| dmitrygr wrote:
| Goalposts have always been the same: pocket/table/house
| not on fire
| luckylion wrote:
| The same factories you wouldn't trust with the
| replacement also make the originals. So you wouldn't buy
| a phone at all?
| dmitrygr wrote:
| Because a deep-pocketed company can be sued to recover
| the cost of my house - Samsung, Google, or Apple, and
| they take all possible precautions to make sure this
| isn't needed. Not going to successfully sue "big luck
| bright shine battery company of shenzhen"
| SideQuark wrote:
| Pretty much any phone repair store swaps them out in store.
| I've done exactly a Pixel 6 recently.
| readthenotes1 wrote:
| I think it's sad and funny that most of the replies to this
| assume the difficulty of the non-replaceable battery. For
| years, it was the way things worked. Smaller battery, maybe a
| spare in your pocket. Then the iPhone:(
| eddythompson80 wrote:
| I don't think it helps anyone to dismiss the difficulty
| involved in doing that in 2025 vs 2004.
|
| I'm not saying it's not possible, of course it is, but there
| is some friction and difficulty especially if you _seriously_
| want to compete with Apple, Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi, etc.
|
| Fairphone exists[0]. Nobody is in the market for either a
| Fairphone vs Galaxy vs Pixel.
| capitainenemo wrote:
| There is also the Samsung XCover 7 pro. Waterproof,
| trivially swappable battery. You can even keep around a few
| batteries for quick recharge.
| https://www.samsung.com/us/business/mobile/phones/galaxy-
| xco...
| Terr_ wrote:
| [delayed]
| AceJohnny2 wrote:
| Reminds me of the iPhone throttling battery fiasco
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batterygate
|
| What 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?)
| ryao wrote:
| My recollection is different. The batteries were not defective.
| They simply got old in terms of cycle life and once they were
| old enough, they could not support the peak current needed by
| the phones causing crashes. Apple shipped an iOS update that
| throttled the CPU frequencies of phones with old batteries and
| called it a stability update without explaining anything.
| Phones stopped crashing, but started to become slower. Then
| 12-18 months later, people realized how the update worked and
| there was outrage because of how Apple handled it. Then Apple
| shipped an update to give customers visibility into this,
| published documentation and offered to replace batteries that
| were below 80% capacity for $29 for a year.
| giingyui wrote:
| > "We found that a small number of iPhone 6S devices made in
| September and October 2015 contained a battery component that
| was exposed to controlled ambient air longer than it should
| have been before being assembled into battery packs. As a
| result, these batteries degrade faster than a normal battery
| and cause unexpected shutdowns to occur. It's important to
| note, this is not a safety issue."
|
| Seems a defect to me.
| ryao wrote:
| I had forgotten about those, since they had not been
| relevant to the controversy at the time. The controversy
| had applied to nearly all iPhones at the time, not just the
| small number of iPhone 6s devices with batteries that
| degraded prematurely due a manufacturing issue. The only
| ones that were exempt were the oldest iPhones that did not
| receive iOS updates anymore such that they never received
| an update that throttled the CPU when the battery was
| degraded. Had Apple given users documentation on its
| throttling patch and visibility into battery health
| upfront, there would never have been any controversy.
|
| The current issue affecting Google Pixel 6a phones is a
| safety defect, which is quite different than Apple's
| throttling controversy. It has more in common with
| Samsung's Galaxy Note 7.
| refulgentis wrote:
| ^ vouch
|
| Also boo on Google for not being open and honest about
| this.
|
| I'm sure the lawyers believe in
| minimizes...something?...by not going officially on the
| record that the reason is there's a heightened risk of
| fire. All corpospeak, the original was: "Pixel 4a will
| receive an automatic software update to Android 13 that
| introduces new battery management features to improve the
| stability of the battery. This update will reduce your
| battery's runtime and charging performance.", and I
| presume this one isn't better.
|
| Then again, that "forget about Nvidia" blog last week
| with the extremely poorly designed melting connector that
| they don't cop to is probably worse.
| maxglute wrote:
| 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.
| luckylion wrote:
| Yeah, while I liked the pixel 4a, I just upgraded to a 7a
| because of this nonsense (thankfully I did not go with a 6a!)
| If they come for the 7a next year, I won't choose a pixel again
| either.
|
| Sure, I could send it in for a battery replacement. and not
| have a phone for a week or two, and get my phone back or maybe
| not.
| gruez wrote:
| >Sure, I could send it in for a battery replacement. and not
| have a phone for a week or two, and get my phone back or
| maybe not.
|
| There's walk-in replacements in select countries:
|
| >Starting July 21, 2025 battery replacement will be
| available:
|
| >At walk-in repair centers in the United States, Canada,
| United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, Japan, and India.
|
| >[...] Additional battery replacement capability is expected
| in Japan, France, some other parts of Europe, and Australia
| soon.
| luckylion wrote:
| Yes, I'm aware. I checked when they killed the pixel4:
| there's no shop close to me.
|
| I wouldn't spend half a day to get to an authorized partner
| and back and have it repaired, it's not worth that much.
| kotaKat wrote:
| I got told mine doesn't qualify. I'm now worried, will this
| mean it's going to blow up some time down the line and Google's
| gonna forget about me?
| xnx wrote:
| > 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.
|
| This seems very fair
| gruez wrote:
| Yeah, most people would not mind getting a free battery
| replacement 2-3 years after they bought their phone.
| mook wrote:
| From the article comments, that only applies if your phone is
| pristine (I guess because opening the phone stresses the
| screen, so if the screen has any damage it'll exacerbate the
| problem). Also linked in the article, getting the cash may be
| unreasonably difficult even in cases when they have a credit
| card on file that bought the phone.
| Fripplebubby wrote:
| I just filled it out for store credit, and it didn't matter
| at all the condition of my phone (it's in horrible shape), I
| just put in the IMEI number and that was that. It could be
| different for cash, though.
| eddythompson80 wrote:
| This might be a different program, but NEVER use Google's
| trade-in program.
|
| You might get lucky, but they use a third party to process the
| phones and they have ZERO oversight or control over them. It's
| extremely common to send in a perfectly working phone to get
| denied because it's DOA with whatever claim and google refuses
| to do anything about it because "it's an external partner"
| xnx wrote:
| Good to know. I guess I got lucky with my two trade-ins.
| Marsymars wrote:
| It's okay, but the cash is pretty tricky to get full value from
| if you're not on your toes. It goes through the "Payoneer"
| service. The Payoneer terms aren't entirely clear, but seem to
| imply that you'll get charged an annual fee after a year if you
| keep the account open but inactive.
|
| If you want the payment in non-USD, Payoneer takes a 2% cut on
| conversion fees - I figured I'd take the payment in USD, but
| neglected to do a full read-through of how the payment would
| happen - it comes as a wire transfer, and the bank I used has a
| 15 USD incoming wire transfer, so I got hit with that instead
| of the 2% conversion fee. (And the payment got blocked until
| the bank called me to inquire about whether I was expecting a
| wire transfer.)
|
| I really would have just preferred a physical cheque in USD.
| (The mechanism with which I've received refunds for recalls
| from other companies that didn't want to do internationalized
| payments.)
| kesslern wrote:
| 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.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Previous discussion:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44447802
| fffrantz wrote:
| Sorry for double posting, missed it at the time!
| pan69 wrote:
| > The new July Android update adds "battery management features"
| that will make the phone unusable.
|
| I didn't get from the article how the update will make the phone
| unsable.
| lysace wrote:
| 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.
| craftkiller wrote:
| 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.
| nickjj wrote:
| 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 replacement made zero difference, it still drains at
| the same rate. My phone is essentially unusable and not
| dependable from a battery life perspective.
|
| However, I tried logging into my trading platform of choice which
| is 100% dependant on biometric 2FA and if the fingerprint fails
| it falls back to the pin.
|
| That app won't even let me attempt to login, it simply errors out
| saying biometrics is unavailable. My bank's app says the same
| thing. The phone itself has zero reaction to the fingerprint
| sensor. It's completely dead.
|
| I called them and let them know and he said sorry, it's really
| easy for the fingerprint sensor to be damaged during a battery
| replacement.
|
| He said he can order a new sensor and service it one last time
| but it might be a day or 2. I told him I'm locked out of my
| trading account with my life's savings actively in the market and
| if I can't execute a trade due to this, should I hold him or the
| corporate company responsible for any losses.
|
| He very quickly said to hang tight and 5 hours later he sent
| someone to do the repair because they found a different
| fingerprint sensor at a different store location (they have a few
| locations in a 30 mile radius).
|
| ---
|
| VISIT 5: They come with a new fingerprint sensor
|
| They used the truck again with the same senior tech who swapped
| the battery in visit 1 and visit 4.
|
| I ask the tech to do an exhaustive test in front of me at the end
| to ensure everything is in working order.
|
| The tech says he can't do any tests and told me basic things like
| turn the phone on, take a picture, etc.. It was up to me to walk
| him through my definition of an exhaustive check based on limited
| knowledge so I did everything I could think of and it all worked,
| except charging was very spotty which turned out to be due to his
| charging cable being bad, it worked fine with mine.
|
| The fingerprint sensor worked when I tried it a few times on that
| visit.
|
| However, after using the phone for a few days I noticed something
| really weird. The fingerprint sensor is literally moving behind
| the back piece of the phone. In fact, if I took my fingernail I
| could probably pick it up and lift it out. It does not feel
| normal.
|
| ---
|
| I called corporate and explained all of this. Someone was
| supposed to call me back yesterday but they never did. Now it's
| near end of day on Friday so I doubt I'll get a call back until
| next week.
|
| This whole ordeal has been like ~80 Google emails of which for
| the last 3 weeks, Google stopped responding to them. All of my
| responses are objective, asking for assistance, non-
| confrontational, non-emotional and completely reasonable. I just
| want a resolution where I have a working phone that I can depend
| on without me needing to buy a new one because a 2 trillion
| dollar company forcefully broke my phone.
|
| This whole experience has jaded me in ways I never thought was
| possible from witnessing a massive amount of incomptenance and
| complete lack of care towards someone who has been using Google
| products since Google was invented.
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