Google has messed up. For the past few months, one story keeps coming back again and again to haunt the Pixel line-up, and it’s all centered around battery woes. Specifically, something fishy around the Pixel 4a’s and 6a’s batteries, with mandatory updates, restricted battery charging, battery replacement programs, cashbacks to buy a new phone, and the odd exploding battery or two.
Throughout this entire mess, one thing has been abundantly clear: Google is trying to sweep the news or pretend it isn’t happening. No matter how often we reached out for comment or how bad the news got when the Pixel 6a, then the 7a joined the 4a in the battery-of-doom scenario, Google has remained unnervingly quiet about it all, only sharing official communication around updates and compensation.