We typically like Pixel phones a lot, but we have some reservations about Google’s quality control

  • blindsight@beehaw.org
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    9 months ago

    My Pixel 7a’s battery life was so terrible I just gave up on the phone. I was literally charging it 2 times a day from sub-10% to 100% with light use (no games, no intense apps, under 2h SoT for the full day). I lost 7%+ per hour idle. Days when I actually needed to use my phone, I’d need to bring my charger for a third mid-day top up to 100%.

    I bought a Sony Xperia 10 V to replace it. It’s not perfect (it doesn’t support all the NA carrier bands so signal is a bit spotty in big stores), but the battery life is amazing. Same usage patterns and I only go from 80% to 50% most days. I only 100% charge once/month for battery health. I frequently go 1½-2 days without charging. I don’t know how well it plays games, but with 8GB RAM, it’s snappy with app multitasking. Oh, and I can plug it into my car (3.5mm). And it’s a 68mm wide, so quite easy to use one-handed.

    I had been buying Google phones exclusively since the early Nexus days, but I’m unlikely to buy one again. At least for the foreseeable future.

    I hope Google can figure their shit out. It’s bad for everyone when Apple and Samsung capture increasingly large marketshare, and Google’s fuck ups are turning people off smaller vendors.

    • Papamousse@beehaw.org
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      9 months ago

      Were you using Firefox? On my phone, FF browser takes ~5% battery per hour, even if I force close it, there is some background task eating battery. I uninstall it and bam! No more 40% drain during the night but only 2-3% drain in 8 hours.

      • blindsight@beehaw.org
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        9 months ago

        Might have been Firefox. My phone reported it was Amazon Photos, so I uninstalled it, but then it was another app instead, which I uninstalled, then it was a third one (which I think was Firefox?). At that point I gave up, assuming it was a problem with the G2 Tensor chip not cycling down while idle, not a specific app. Even if 3 apps that I’ve never had a problem with on other phones all have problems on the Pixel 7a, that’s just not good enough.

      • shapis@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        Were you using Firefox? On my phone, FF browser takes ~5% battery per hour,

        Mine drains about 6% per hour, it’s absolutely unsustainable. Just uninstalled firefox, let’s see. I regret getting it so much (pixel 7) lol.

        edit. wasnt it, what a piece of shit this phone is.

      • Pantherina@feddit.de
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        9 months ago

        I am using Mull (on a Pixel 6a) and it took 3% with 40min screen time. Thats great.

        I have no idea what is causing that for you.

        I am also using

        • ublock origin
        • noscript
        • dark background light text (saves a ton of screen energy)