Original Pixel Phone Users Are Suing Google Over Microphone Defects (fastcompany.com)

Google is facing a lawsuit over the original Pixel. From a report: In a class action complaint filed this week, plaintiffs allege that the microphones in their Pixel and Pixel XL phones were defective from the start, and that Google knowingly sold defective phones amid widespread complaints immediately after launch. The lawsuit also claims that some warranty replacement phones continued to have problems, though neither of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit had their phones repaired within Google's standard warranty period. Google acknowledged the Pixel phones' microphone issues in March 2017. An employee on Google's support forums attributed the problems to "a hairline crack in the solder connection on the audio codec," and said the problem can come and go depending on the temperature of the phone or the way it's being held.

Comments

Hairline Crack

[Khyber]

Most often caused by shitty cold solder joints being flexed. Learn to use the right fucking reflow temps and use enough solder paste.

Re:Hairline Crack

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, just use #1 from the excuse notebook... Your holding it wrong.

Re:Hairline Crack

[Khyber]

Plenty of solders I use in jewelry making are RoHS and can withstand 180 degree bends.

This is simply a shitty soldering job.

Even if they win

[sixsixtysix]

the plaintiffs will just get an extra 5gb of storage.

Had 3 of these phones

[Tinfoil]

I had 3 of the first gen pixels. All RMAs and returned and replaced before finally getting one that, so far, works fine and has been for a few months. All with random reboot & lockups, microphone & bluetooth issues.

Still, I really do like this phone.

Re:Had 3 of these phones

[DigitAl56K]

Google's recent phones have all had problems:

* Nexus 5X: Notorious for just dying by going into a cycle of endless reboots one day, totally out of the blue. Refurbed replacements do the exact same thing.
* Nexus 6P: Notorious for battery issues where after 1-1.5 years of use it will just start shutting down with 25-30% battery remaining
* Pixel: Notorious for microphones breaking

The bizarre thing is that it seems rare for manufacturing rev's to happen, and with the Pixel's prices are high and price drops are rare (Play store still sells Pixel 1 for $549 base even today). They are trying to hold Apple-like prices on devices that have questionable quality issues. Fortunately Pixel 2 seems to be faring better, although Pixel 2 XL has been noted for LG's quality variance regarding the display viewing angle and burn-in. As an owner of some of these (mainly due to desiring a phone that gets regular security updates), Google appears very arrogant in their pricing.

Re:Had 3 of these phones

[Tinfoil]

Exactly. I would love to have a phone from another manufacturer that has the software support Pixel has, but without the lousy build quality. The hardware support from Google is so absolutely horrible. The Nexus phones, those were never really marketed as a premium phone, but the Pixels definitely are and Google really needs to do better for their users.

Where's all the 'your holdin it wrong' bots?

[Imazalil]

Someone better add Google to the list (ok, a one-item list) of story key words their bot floods with 'you're holding it wrong derp derp' posts.

Why is still a problem then?

[MeNeXT]

If they knew about the issue back in March 2017 why is it a problem with the Pixel 2 and XL in February 2018. The headphone dongle supplied with the Pixel 2 is not fit for the purpose sold. The pixel 2 was also defective from the release. It seems that the Google brand of phones has difficulty being a phone. Their forums a filled with people having issues and the only solution that is offered is that you buy yourself another phone so you can send your current phone in for a replacement which may or most likely not fix the problem.

Now there are people here who are going to argue that the Pixel problems are not the same as the Pixel 2 problems but the Nexus line didn't have issues with the microphone or headphones and you would think that the fix would come from a tested solution than an untested one. Both Pixel and Pixel 2 were released before they were ready and at the the price that this should never have been an issue.

It has a great camera but if I wanted to carry around a second camera it would be my DSLR not my Pixel 2.