Original Pixel Phone Users Are Suing Google Over Microphone Defects (fastcompany.com) 62
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.
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Hairline Crack (Score:4, Informative)
Most often caused by shitty cold solder joints being flexed. Learn to use the right fucking reflow temps and use enough solder paste.
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Nah, just use #1 from the excuse notebook... Your holding it wrong.
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Or blame ROHS and not using leaded solder.
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Plenty of solders I use in jewelry making are RoHS and can withstand 180 degree bends.
This is simply a shitty soldering job.
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The accumulated evidence linking lead exposure in children to criminality later in life is overwhelming [motherjones.com].
I'm not a reflexive treehugger or chemicals-are-bad kind of guy, but I am open to reading the data and making a case-by-case decision. In this particular case, it's a slam dunk.
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Compared to the amount of heat and flux required to solder without lead (minute amounts as well)? It may be a tossup.
Also add that rohs has made electronics more unreliable - which means more of this stuff ends up in landfills (without lead, but plenty of other harmful chemicals) I'm not totally positive its a good thing - or at the very least a slam dunk.
Also lead free makes reworking way more difficult - the heat requirements for reworking bga components makes it pretty much impossible to do with lead fre
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Those are all very real problems. I've lost video cards, laptops and motherboards, especially those made right after the cutoff.
Nevertheless, they pale in comparison to the social costs of violent crime.
Even if they win (Score:4, Funny)
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"You're holding it wrong"
Not just for iPhones anymore.
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I think it is also from Google trying to copy Apples keep it secrete until release day.
While it is good way to get some early marketing buzz and more entertaining keynotes also to try to prevent an Osborne 2 problem where the hope of a future item will kill the sales of the existing one. In terms of user testing it really sucks. Because normal people under normal conditions will not be able to test out these products. An Apple or Google employee isn't a good sample of normal use, especially in thick cases
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A codec is an (en)coder/decoder; this can be done in hardware or software. There are plenty of 'codec chips' out there.
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A codec is a device or computer program for encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
for example:
http://www.ti.com/product/PCM3... [ti.com]
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QQ
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That's true, but it's probably still a DAC (and it would be a stretch to call it a codec).
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Citation? I go look at a place selling 5,000 units wholesale and it's called a DAC. The datasheet says DAC. Nothing on there says codec.
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Product on Alibaba... description includes CODEC
https://www.alibaba.com/produc... [alibaba.com]
Even the Datasheet says it's a CODEC
http://www.vlsi.fi/fileadmin/d... [www.vlsi.fi]
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Had 3 of these phones (Score:3)
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.
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Yet, if you had those experiences with an iPhone it would be all over the media and class action suits would be apprearing from every state in the Union.
People are far more forgiving of Google. Beats me why. They are just as objectionable as Apple.
Price of success. Google sold a few million Pixels at the most optimistic. Apple sell hundreds of millions of iPhones.
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Absolutely agreed. I don't get it either.
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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
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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.
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Refurbished Pixel XL (128GB) ~$399 [ebay.com].
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Have you tried RMAing your defective phone? It's difficult for them to fix something that's broken in hardware with just software. Just look at Intel.
Welcome Pixel Owners... (Score:1)
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Where's all the 'your holdin it wrong' bots? (Score:3)
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.
Users are NOT suing. Law firms are. (Score:1)
another class-action money grab by law firms setup to do this kind of thing repeatedly.
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It's Girard-Gibbs. The same firm involved in last week's article about the LG Bootloop arbitration case.
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Two plaintiffs and a known issue reported widely on the Internet is enough. Two plaintiffs, but the class would have more members than that.
Both tried to contact Google under warranty:
Dr. Weeks contacted Google on March 2, 2017 to report her microphone failure and
seek assistance. A Google representative tried to troubleshoot the problems, but was unable to fix her
phone. The Google representative acknowledged the phone was defective and admitted to Dr. Weeks
that Google was aware of the problems.
17. Dr. Weeks asked Google for her money back or for a new, non-defective replacement.
Google refused.
18. As a result of the microphone defect and Google’s failure to provide warranty service,
Dr. Weeks no longer uses her Pixel and instead uses a replacement phone.
Mr. Anbar contacted Google on January 23, 2018. Google refused to refund Mr.
Anbar’s money or replace his phone with a non-defective model, and instead referred him to
uBreakiFix—Google’s designated third-party repair provider—for paid repairs. After learning the
repairs would cost as much as a brand new device, Mr. Anbar bought a replacement phone.
Or just Read the filing [girardgibbs.com] yourself.
Why is still a problem then? (Score:3)
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.
Google hardware quality is shit (Score:2)
or the way it's being held (Score:2)
After the LG G4... (Score:1)