More info on pixel 4a battery nerf by Google

[mesamunefire@lemmy.world]

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[yggstyle@lemmy.world]

This is purely conjecture on my part but if I were a gambling man I'd say that this is an attempt to insulate a potential issue with a bad batch of cells. A bad battery charge that forces you onto another phone is probably better than a repeat of the Samsung battery issue. In essence it's a sneaky recall without the bad press.

I can't really come up with another reason that they'd be doing that.

[catloaf@lemm.ee]

Yeah that's the general consensus

[petteripano@lemmy.world]

They are offering a free battery swap if you are affected. Or $50. Or $100 off a new phone.

Sounds like they're picking the cheap route out of a full recall on a pretty old phone.

[datendefekt@feddit.org]

So happy RN that I installed CalyxOS on my daughters phone. Um... but that means it might explode in her hands?

[teppichbrand@feddit.org]

I have been buying second hand Pixels 4a's for my family. To me, they're the perfect phones. I put LineageOS with MicroG on them and use them without Google. I logged in my throwaway Google account to check if some of the IMEI qualify me for a battery swap, but it gives me an error when I enter an IMEI. Do you guys have an idea why this might happen? I'd love to get new batteries for free in them and use them another 6 years or so.

[yggstyle@lemmy.world]

It might be worth looking into what the affected serial # range is. From what I've seen / read (anecdotal) batteries are under the most stress when fast charging: you could reduce risk using lower wattage chargers in all likelihood... but I'd definitely explore all your options.

[redxef@feddit.org]

Seems like I have an affected device. No thanks to google for helping me figure that out. Their useless page shows no information regarding that. Had to look at the serial number of the battery: sudo cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/serial_number. Which contains the string from the mastodon post.

Now, I have a custom ROM, so that means I won't suffer degraded battery capacity, it just might be dangerous to continue to use my phone.

[merthyr1831@lemmy.ml]

The Linux kernel is nuts to think that MIT are the only bad actors to have ever shipped malicious code to them. Random corporate devs can break the GPL on a regular basis whilst receiving no oversight yet this wont be stopped at all

[mesamunefire@lemmy.world]

Yeah you don't want spicy pillows!