Some people like to dance around it, but let’s all just stop pretending for a moment, if we can. Google’s Pixel smartphone is practically a carbon copy of Apple’s iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone 7. Take an iPhone, slap a big weird glass plate on the back, move the fingerprint scanner from beneath the display to the back of the phone, and you’re pretty much left with a Google Pixel. It’s okay, it’s a nice design. In fact, more smartphones featuring Apple’s iPhone 6/6s/7 design have been sold than any other smartphone design on the planet. If you’re going to build a phone and copy another phone’s design, this is definitely the design to copy — especially if you’re going to partner with a copy that already rips off the iPhone’s design all the time.
As it turns out, however, Google may have copied more than just the iPhone’s design when it created its new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. The company might also have copied one of the worst problems that’s currently plaguing iPhone users.
If you follow tech news at all, you’ve undoubtedly read about the problems Apple is currently having with the battery in some iPhone 6s, iPhone 6 and older iPhone units. In a nutshell, the phones are shutting down as if the batteries died, but they still have about 30% of their charges remaining. Apple has a battery replacement program in place for the iPhone 6s following involvement from a Chinese consumer watchdog, but owners of other models are out of luck.
The company has said that an upcoming software update might fix the problem, but that was quite some time ago. Several updates have been released since then and none of them have fixed the issue. In fact, many users are saying that the most recent iOS 10.2 update actually makes the battery problems even worse.
Well, if you’re an iPhone owner who has been experiencing these aggravating issues, know that you’re in good company. It turns out that some Google Pixel owners are also finding that their new Google phones are powering down when the remaining charge reaches about 30%. A recent thread on Reddit covering the issue is one of several conversations around the web discussing the problem.
Google has not yet commented on the problem, which also appears to be impacting last year’s Nexus 6P smartphones in some cases.
