A few weeks ago, a couple of hardcore Android users complained about their recent issues with the Pixel 2 XL, describing the laggy experiences that you don’t normally associate with high-end phones, especially Pixels. Those reports caught Google’s eye, and the company has been investigating the matter, saying that it’s not a widespread issue. However, Artem Russakovskii, who got Google to examine his slow Pixel 2 XL, now says his three-weeks-old replacements behaves similarly.
“Sorry to report: 3 weeks or so with a brand new Pixel 2 XL, and it’s already a laggy mess that needs daily restarts,” the Android Police founder tweeted a few hours ago. “So NAND is not the issue, and neither is storage being close to full (it’s only 49% full).”
“Google, the ball is in your court – it’s clearly software issues,” he said.
Sorry to report: 3 weeks or so with a brand new Pixel 2 XL, and it's already a laggy mess that needs daily restarts. So NAND is not the issue, and neither is storage being close to full (it's only 49% full).
Google, the ball is in your court – it's clearly software issues.
— Artem Russakovskii (@ArtemR) September 4, 2018
Before that, Russakovskii retweeted a similar complaint from a different user, which also happens to be an Android blogger:
Okay I've officially shelved my Pixel 2 XL. For some reason, my phone has gone from occasionally laggy to a straight up brick in the last 24 hours. Not so patiently waiting for @madebygoogle to address the issue after looking at @ArtemR's handset
— Justin Duino (@jaduino) September 4, 2018
Ever since this started, I’ve seen plenty of comments that defended the Pixel 2 XL performance, and it’s very likely that the issue isn’t widespread. After all, it’s usually Android savvy people who buy Pixel phones, so we’d have witnessed a large number of complaints on Twitter, Reddit, and other places, about laggy experiences.
But, as you can see above, other people do complain about the Pixel 2 XL being slower than usual. A rumor a few weeks ago said that Google might replace some of the faulty units, but Google is yet to explain what causes lag, and what will fix it.
Hopefully, when the Pixel 3 phones launch next month, they won’t be affected by the same lag issue.
