Remember our earlier reports on how the Nexus 6P started to experience random and unexpected shutdowns, even when there is still more than enough battery life left? That does not look like an isolated event now, as there are Pixel and Pixel XL owners who have also reported on experiencing the same -- which is certainly something that Google should take a look into. Granted, this unexpected shutdown issue affects just a handful of these devices, but that alone is serious enough to warrant an investigation so that whatever problems faced can be fixed as soon as possible.
With the Nexus 6P being the reference point for such a case, it looks like the Pixel and Pixel XL handsets from Google are up next to suffer from such a malaise. This curious case of battery drainage has begun to hit Google’s flagship 2016 smartphones that have moved away from the Nexus branding, which further increases the complexities involved in working on a fix. The very first known instance of a reported unexpected Pixel shutdown can be traced to a Reddit thread, where user vrski_15 did ask around for help, wondering whether he is alone in this universe when his 32GB Google Pixel began to shut down by itself -- even though there is more than enough battery life remaining to last for another 4 hours, tops.
Vrski_15 posted, "Twice in last 5 days, has the phone shutdown abruptly while I am in middle of something. In both instances, battery was between 25-35% ... the customer service wasn't really helpful. All they could come up was that I should factory reset my phone and wait for it to happen again, and then visit them."
It could very well have been an isolated incident, but apparently the Reddit thread did begin to pick up momentum as more and more users started to share their frustration with their respective Pixel handsets, experiencing the very same issue as well. Another poster mentioned, "It's a shame because it was really great before this. Right now I'm at 50% and 1 hour SOT. This is unacceptable."
Apparently, the root cause for this can be traced all the way to the Android 7.1.1 Nougat update. Those with the Nexus 6P who made the jump to that version of the operating system update began to discover that their handsets start to shut down at random, and even worse for some -- those cannot be turned on again, unless the Nexus 6P is plugged into a nearby power outlet. The same cloud of darkness has now descended upon select Pixel and Pixel XL owners who have given their smartphones an update to Android 7.1.1 Nougat. Not only do the affected devices shut down unexpectedly and prematurely, there are others who experience the whole device freezing.
The kind of customer support service from Google received by the disgruntled users has so far failed to allay any of the problems, and neither did the recommendations manage to fix the issue at hand. Now that this has happened, surely Google will look into the matter more closely since the technology giant would not want to malign their flagship smartphone users, and if a fix is forthcoming, it would provide a glimmer of hope for Nexus 6P owners to obtain their fix, too.
