If you’ve been experienced consistent lag on your Pixel 2 XL, you might not be the only one. We learned that in recent weeks, when two prominent Android users, including Artem Russakovskii and Marquees Brownlee, detailed their experiences with the handset.
Google is aware of the issues and is investigating them. And if you experience the problem, you might qualify for a full device replacement.
There’s no official position from Google on these defective Pixels, and it’s likely the issue only affects a limited number of users. But Russakovskii’s phone was so slow it surprised the Googlers who came to his rescue:
The Google engineer and PR person just left after spending about 2 hours analyzing the laggy Pixel 2 XL.
Unlike a car that stops making noise when you take it to a mechanic, the phone was extremely laggy to the point that both of them were visibly surprised.
— Artem Russakovskii (@ArtemR) August 13, 2018
However, after Russakovskii and Brownlee raised awareness about the Pixel 2 XL’s potential lag, it sure looks like Google is taking it very seriously.
Google has identified three possible causes for the slowdown, one of which would require hardware replacements, the news comes from an anonymous source who informed 9to5Google’s Stephen Hall about the matter:
https://twitter.com/hallstephenj/status/1030100601303179264
Google will likely offer fixes soon to anyone affected, including replacements if they’re warranted.
If you think your Pixel 2 XL is laggy compared to when you bought it, you should probably contact Google for more information — also check out the videos at this link to see what qualifies as lag on the Pixel 2 XL.
As a reminder, the Pixel 3 series launches in a couple of months so you might want to trade-in your Pixel 2 for a next-gen phone, regardless if it’s laggy or not if the opportunity presents itself.
UPDATE: Google reached out to BGR to say that, while it’s still investigating these issues, not many users are affected by slowdowns, and it’s too early to draw conclusions:
We have teams who constantly manage and monitor performance on our devices and our data indicates this is not a widespread issue. Getting bug reports is a normal part of our process – as is common for most consumer devices. We use these to evaluate what might be wrong and work on any necessary fixes. We are still in the process of investigating this report so it is too early to draw conclusions.
