Google Pixel 2 battery drainage mess got worse in April

While the February security update left a large chunk of Pixel 2 users complaining about the fleeting battery of their units, Google in no time concluded that the problem wasn’t at their end, leaving affected users on their own to struggle with the dying battery. For the record, despite Google’s denial, complaints never stopped pouring, and continue to do so till date.

Current scenario

Cut to April, new reports – in large numbers – are coming to light blaming the latest security update for degrading the battery performance of both original Pixel and Pixel 2 phones (1,2,3,4,5,6). Take a look at how some of the complainants explain the excessive battery consumption despite limited screen-on-time (SOT):

I just got the phone about a week ago and the battery life has been very poor. Averaging about 2.5 hours screen time a day before the battery is almost dead. Draining even when I’m not using it.

3h12 after fully charging my Pixel 2, and after merely 21mn of screen usage (including 11mn on one app that used 1% battery) my battery was down to 65%.

1hr5m of screen time today and the battery has plummeted to 27% from a full charge
Really really poor battery life now from class leading.

This doesn’t seem right either. Down to 47% with only 31 minutes of screen on time. Something has changed in the latest update.

As reports proliferated, one of the top contributors at Google Forums addressed the issue (on April 21) saying the matter has been escalated, following which another top contributor repeated the same a few days back (on April 27). See both the statements here:

Google’s take on the matter

As far as Google Support if concerned, here’s what some affected users have got to hear from them regarding the matter in question:

I contacted Google and, at their request, sent them a bug report so they can escalate the issue. This is the response I got this morning:

“Thanks for taking the time to report this. We’re currently investigating this issue, however we do not have any resolution at this time. Google is committed to continually making improvements to our devices and regularly provides free software updates to customers. Thank you for your patience.”

After I posted here I followed the customer service link provided in an above post. If you simply choose the “Contact us” option, and chat with a representative, they have surprisingly good customer support (much better than anything I experienced with Apple). After I explained the situation and made it obvious that something in the update was draining my phone battery, the rep checked with the dev team status and said it is a known bug that they are working to fix. So not only did they admit fault in the situation (which is mostly what I wanted), they also offered a $15 Google Play credit for the inconvenience. By far much better customer support than I was expecting in the situation

In look out for more information, we found Google’s official Twitter account (@madebygoogle) has also acknowledged the issue, saying they are looking into it.

https://twitter.com/madebygoogle/status/990717194244902914
https://twitter.com/madebygoogle/status/989562424213811201

But, what’s confusing is that the link they have referred to in their tweet takes you to the forum thread discussing the battery problem originally reported back in February, which Google didn’t even recognize as a problem. If the February update did not trigger any battery glitches, then why is the company saying they are working on it?

To sum it up, it’s difficult to say whether or not the source of battery drainage issues triggered by February and April updates are similar or not, but the problem has surely grown more widespread. We hope the company figures out the root cause and fixes whatever is causing the entire Pixel/Pixel 2 battery mess sooner than later.

How is the battery acting on your Pixel/Pixel 2 unit after the recent update? Let us know in the comments section below.

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