I got an extra 30% battery life after switching to GrapheneOS. I’m guessing whatever is saving my battery, would also bring down the load on the system.
I did notice my phone heats up much less after switching to GrapheneOS.
I’ve been runnnng GrapheneOS with charge capped at 80%. Phone has not emulated thermite.
I haven’t found any discussion about the battery issues at GrapheneOS yet.
Meaning you charge till 80% full, or at 80% max charging speed? just curious.
80% full. It drastically helps extend battery life
Is this done manually , or there’s a system thing for it ?
Many phones support it. My old mid range Samsung galaxy phone from 2020 had it, as does my Pixel 9a.
In GrapheneOS, Settings -> Battery -> Charging Optimization.
Just here to confirm this comment from personal experience.
These updates are fire!
I have one of these phones. Google has reached out and I applied for the $$ to get a tradein, but google has yet to give me the $$ or contact me further. Its been a while too. Honestly, I got the 6a because it was going to be supported for a long time compared to other phones. This rubs me the wrong way.
Already received it here, did you follow the procedure on payoneer ? That took me about a week to get my money. Got a fairphone now instead 😎
I have owned 3 pixels.
5a - bricked randomly 8 - screen failed within 6 months 6a - stuck in a bootloop, gave up on fixing it just before the battery issue made headlines
I gave them a fair shake. Never again.
The 8 had known screen issues, and they were fixed even out of warranty. After six months it would have been within warranty, so you definitely should have been able to get that fixed. I know, I had to have mine replaced too.
I’ve had a 4, 6, and 8. No issues. But I know that if I do have hardware issues, Google will address them like these screen and battery issues.
Before the pixel existed I owned a Google Nexus
54 which was manufactured by LG and to date that was the worst phone I’ve ever owned. I guess my point is it doesn’t matter who is manufacturing the hardware; if Google is involved it’s gonna be junk.Edit: it was a 4 not a 5 but either way it was such an awful experience I’ve never bought another piece of Google hardware since
The Nexus 4 was a great phone in my opinion.
Had it rooted and everything for about 6 years.
Really? The Nexus 4 was my favorite device to date. I pushed mine to its limits, it was great. Even took a trip through the washing machine and still kept ticking.
Wow. A quick dip in the toilet killed my 3a (but there might have been poop involved).
I had a Nexus 5 (also LG) and it was the best I’d had for years. Ran lineageOS on it (maybe it was CyanogenMod still I can’t remember) but that thing was the shit.
I left it on top of my car once and ended up destroying it. Swapped the modem into an EU model (the modem and GPS module survived, all other components failed) and had basically a brand new phone afterwards.
I don’t agree. Many of the cheaper phones are pretty shit and barebones. I’ve had Samsung flagship phones for years, and they have never disappointed me. Friends and family have had the cheaper Samsung phones, and they have been pretty hit and miss. You just kinda get what you pay for. Wanna pay €200 for a phone? You get something that can barely turn on, that’s it.
I think you replied to the wrong comment
I didn’t? My point was that you get what you pay for, Google or not.
Maybe they should do a recall.
A battery exchange program is not quite the same thing as an actual product recall.
Oh shit I didn’t hear about the 6a also being fucked.
I lost my 4a to their shenanigans, couldn’t get it repaired and have now a Xcover 6 pro which I bought refurbished. Best modern phone: swappable battery, headphone jack, long software support, micro sd
4a didn’t have swappable battery iirc.
Yes, that is why i switched to the Xcover which has
They’re going after GrapheneOS users!
My battery is lasting about 30% + longer with GrapheneOS. Plus my phone heats up less.
Put my IMEI into the link and it says I’m not eligible. Does this mean I’m in the clear? Should I still do something about my battery? I’d really rather not get another phone right now…
Your battery is not one of the defective ones, then.
Nice. That’s all I needed to hear.
I put my IMEI in and it said I was eligible. But then it gets stuck in an infinite loop of support links with no option out (at least when I selected to get a replacement battery). Edit: I got free of the loop, but the nearest place to take my phone into to get the battery replaced is 100 miles away!
I think I’m just going to get a new phone and move on. Not a Pixel though. Fuck this noise. My wife had a Pixel 5a and the motherboard fried itself after a couple of years. Google sent her a Pixel 6a replacement about 2 months later (long after we’d found her a non-Pixel replacement). So I upgraded to that replacement for in a 4a. But now this battery/fire bullshit? I’m done with their shitty products and their shitty support!
Look, Google, I know you’re trying to compete with Samsung but this is a little too hot.
Note 7 lurking in the distance
Just a reminder if you have a 6a you can get ~100$ or battery replacement. Its a bit of a hassle but not to hard to fill our claim. I for my 100$ ordered a 7 and installed Graphene OS.
I submitted for $100 dollars, but haven’t gotten any instructions on what to do. I read you’re supposed to register for some payment system, but the Google instructions don’t tell me how and what to do after.
After checking you qualify it should have a link telling you to create an account ( payoneer, I’m in the US not sure about others). Filling out the forum for payoneer was a pain need bank info. I had to use chrome as Firefox would not load their forums properly. Also takes about a day for payoneer to confirm my account then if you filled our googles stuff payoneer just kinda knew and dropped the money in my account.
In Australia, one option is a cash refund for more than what I paid for the phone when new.
Thanks for the tip, I thought it was $100 USD but just checked and I’m eligible for $452 USD for a 6a that was free when I purchased a 7pro… Insane
Oh, was it $452? They didn’t email a confirmation and I forgot to screenshot it.
Can someone screenshot it? That would be great.
Dude. I just bought a used 6A last week.
I think, but 100% on this, that not all 6a’s were affected.
Patch it to the latest update. If you get a notification about your battery then it’s probably fucked.
All 6s users hey a warning you might be affected. They give you a link you have to follow to check. Load the page, you’re in your IMEI and it will confirm if you’re affected
I just want a comeback of phones with swappable batteries.
As far as I know, this will be the case in the EU in 2027.
That’s for “easily replaceable” batteries, not necessarily swappable, as in pop off the cover and insert new battery.
The new Fairphone 6, for example, requires a screw driver to open up the phone, and that would meet the legal requirements of the EU law.
Typing this on an samsung xcover 6 pro right now. Costs less than 200 used, has a removable battery, up to 1tb micro SD card support, and a headphone jack.
Seems like it has a 778G SoC too which would be pretty solid for emulation as well. That’s an interesting option!
Does it run lineage, because that is the only way I’ll touch Samsung’s abysmal OS ever again
It does not, but I don’t sign into any Samsung/Google things and replace every system app with one from F-Droid including the launcher. The experience is fairly similar to my old pixel with grapheneos like this. I am sure it is far cry from as secure, but I am realistic about my threat model and am willing to make trades to be more sustainable and convenient. The only other difference is the system ui skin, which does its job just fine IMO
Hi, I was considering samsung as an option. Could you please tell me why you dont like samsung? I’m looking for cons but review sites only want to sing praises.
Samsung locks the bootloader, even for carrier unlocked versions traight from samsung’s website. (At least for those sold in the US, not sure about other places)
If you don’t intend to use a custom RON like Lineage OS, you wouldn’t notice a difference. But if you do, then it might be a dealbreaker. As for the Xcover series in particularx the specs are worse for the amount you’re paying. Camera is worse, SoC is slower, assuming if you are conparing the price of a brand new mainstream S or A series phones to a brand new Xcover series. But if you don’t care about worse specs for the swappable battery, then sure, go ahead. I personally wouldn’t get the Xcover series, doesn’t seem like a good deal, the screen is LCD and I’m way too used to OLED/AMOLED of the more mainstream phones.
fairphone does that.
Its 900$ where im at. I can get 3 phones for the same price. Terracube 2 apparently does too, but last time I had a Terracube, it failed pretty bad. Literally fell apart and no software updates at all.
600 euro, not so helpful. Thanks though.
I can relate to the feeling, but considering that their hardware and software support can get the phone going for twice as long (for me) as other mainstream ones, I feel tempted.
Didn’t HMD make a couple of those too? Obv not the same country of origin but from what I’ve seen they’re considerably cheaper
Didn’t HMD make a couple of those too?
Yes, the HMD Skyline has an easily removable backplate and battery.
Uh, big oof, that’s my phone model.
You might want to check if they’ve recalled it, I believe I saw an article today that said Google was recalling the pixel 6a because of this.
Yeah, the other day, I left it charging in the car while I was doing chores. I came out and the phone was scalding hot. I chalked it up at the time to it being hot in the car, and the fact probably shouldn’t have been charging at that temp. Now I’m tripping on if this thing is a time bomb.
I was thinking about going with a pixel for my next device so that I could use graphene because I’ve used pixels in the past and they were fine but with all these battery issues I’m having serious second thoughts.
They are doing free battery replacements. So at least they’re doing the right thing.
The battery of my Pixel 6 started to bloat and leak last week. I contacted support. After a bit of back and forth where they asked me to provide proof of purchase and pictures of the phone, they sent me a brand new Pixel 6 and told me to just recycle the old one.
I reported the issue on Tuesday, received the new phone on Friday. That’s not bad support for a 4 year old device that’s long out of warranty. I fully expected them to tell me to go F my self.
I just got rid of my Pixel 6a because it had one of the bad batteries. Tip to anyone taking advantage of the trade in rebate, DO NOT get the $150 Google Store credit and be like me thinking you can use it on the Google Fi Store to purchase a new Pixel. The $150 store credit is only towards the purchase of a Pixel phone via the Google Store. Take the $100 cash rebate option instead because it tells you once you choose either option, you cannot change it.
My hope was to get the Pixel 9a on my account for $249 (activation discount) on my account and then use the $150 store credit… nope.
Meanwhile they’re getting full cash back in Australia from a recall, mine didn’t even qualify for the battery rebate so I’m sitting here in uncertainty with a degraded battery. Never again.
My coworker has been fighting Google for months to get their cash rebate. So you’re fucked regardless which option you take.
Good to know, thanks. Now I’m not as annoyed as I was, lol.
Have you tried not purchasing a Google phone? I heard this works extremely well.
It’s all well and good being oh so principled like you’re making yourself out to be, but phones are expensive, and the above user is being completely rational for wanting to settle on a Pixel 9a for $250, especially when the other OEMs have plenty of their own problems.
Get off your moral high horse.
