Google’s older Pixel cameras are failing at an accelerating rate
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My wife and I have had four different Pixels and we haven't experienced this. Not saying it doesn't exist, I just wonder what the actual defect rate is.
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They decided they didn't want to be in the camera business anymore and they dropped support.
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Xiaomi, Vivo, and Nokia all use the same sensors fairly extensively, I wonder if they're experiencing the same kind of failures or if it's something specific to the Pixel firmware (build issues seem unlikely since 3 different manufacturers made the phones for Google and the PCBs are fairly different across generations).
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I just saw Artem's video of his kid's first day in the snow. He's quite pissed off. That's an unbelievably choppy video for such an expensive phone.
See here: https://twitter.com/ArtemR/status/1362101194596868097
See here: https://twitter.com/ArtemR/status/1362101194596868097
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In my experience google support will go as far as to admit all the facts of the case and still refuse to honour their legal warranty obligations.
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No, callscreen and day 1 updates is the main feature for the Pixel line, at least IMHO. If you want the best camera go with a Samsung flagship, the Pixel line is good for the price but it's far from the best, especially since they've kept the same sensor for 5 generations, algorithm updates can only do so much.
*Edit*
Oh, and wait for me will be killer once they work out a few issues
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We haven't seen this problem with either of our Pixel 3XL, though one was given to a relative when the wife went to Pixel 5.
How common is this? If rare, as appears, then it could just be to either physical damage or water intrusion.
Does it occur only on phones without a case?
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I had this exact thing happen on my Pixel 2 about a year and a half ago. I ended up buying a new phone. It didn't happen immediately after a drop, but it was a few months after one where I broke the screen. At least in my case it was almost unquestionably related to abuse/damage to the device.
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I dealt with customer support in the UK for faulty NFC and had nothing but good service (sent a phone out before I returned the defective one so I wasn't without a phone)
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This is a very cool development for a phone that was literally marketed as the best option for people who like to take photos.
I'm sure everyone will make it right through to a helpful human at customer support so no worries.
I'm sure everyone will make it right through to a helpful human at customer support so no worries.
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FYI, so far Google FI support has been pretty fantastic if you purchased that way...
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I am using Samsung S10, and compared that to my wife's Pixel 3, many times I'd prefer Pixel 3's photos.
Samsung phones have a very annoying habit of keep on telling me the pictures are blurry when taking photos of small kids instead of NOT taking those blurry photos in the first place, which Pixel seem to perform quite a bit better.
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My Pixel 3 camera failed 1 day before the warranty ran out. I called them and got a replacement, which is still working OK about a year later.
I think the failure was related to charging: the phone got really hot while charging and taking a long video recording. After that the camera never worked properly again.
I think the failure was related to charging: the phone got really hot while charging and taking a long video recording. After that the camera never worked properly again.
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I had a local shop replace the camera in my Pixel 2 on July 1, 2019 (found the receipt). Similar symptoms as described in the article--open the camera app and it immediately crashes. Shop replaced the camera and the everything worked fine until I replaced the phone last summer.
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Still got a working Nexus 5. The screen tends to go to shit after it warms up, though. It's long enough to get something like IP Webcam going, though.
That was the last Google device worth the money.
That was the last Google device worth the money.
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I thought the Google Camera app could be installed on other devices to leverage some of Google's computational photography? Is there more than one?
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I think you've got it reversed and the Pixel 2 was with HTC and 2XL with LG and using an LG OLED panel.
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As others have said, here in the UK, when I have had a problem with my Google phones (Nexus 5X (twice) and a Pixel 2), I was able to get a call back in seconds from a (I assume) US based call centre at no charge to me. They asked me a couple of questions and sent a replacement next day at no charge. The second time, my Nexus 5X was 11 months out of hardware warranty - they apologised that they could not give me an exact replacement but offered me the 64GB (rather than 32GB) version for no cost.
Obviously, I'd rather not have these issues to start with and I know friends who bought from places other than the Google Store had worse experiences when they contacted Google as they were directed to the retailer. That said, all in, I'm very happy with the support and the timely updates without waiting for a third party are valuable to me. The fact I can then only pay £8 a month for my phone contract makes it even better - much better than getting phone plus SIM contracts for me.
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We all know where that "contact" is going for Pixel 2 owners. "Hey, look at this nice new shiny Pixel 5. We'll give you a good deal on a new purchase."
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Same here... between my wife and I we've had five Pixel phones (OG Pixel, Pixel 2, two Pixel 3s and now a Pixel 5).
In general, we were very happy with Pixel photo/video experience - although I agree that Pixel has basically been resting on it's laurels for years now.
Prior to the Pixel 2, I had a Samsung S6 and Samsung S7 which also had pretty good photos/video at the time.
However... with the end of free unlimited Google Photos storage and the general slowdown of camera improvements (they are all pretty good in daylight now, and all somewhat mediocre at night)... I am considering moving back to Samsung (or even going iPhone 13 Pro Max) in the future.
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This is a waste / environmental issue when smartphones become less reusable after their end of their life.
Old hand-me-down smartphones are good as cameras, whether for photography, for webcam, or for security cameras.
There's apps that allows Android smartphones to behave like a USB webcam (connected to PC, it shows up in Device Manager, and can be used with any Windows apps).
And also apps to make obsolete smartphones behave like a standardized WiFi ONVIF security camera, so it works with your existing generic network video recorder (NVR).
Even a 3-year-old phone now usually has a camera sensor greatly superior to a $150+ 4K webcam or security camera. It's amazing how my old smartphone outperforms Logitech's top of the line USB webcam when connecting it to the PC as a webcam. In addition to better sensors, the GPU in most semi-recent(ish) smartphone completely utterly obliterates the video compressor chip built into sub-$500 webcams. Higher frame rate, higher bit rate, better picture quality, better dim-room picture, sharper video, etc.
Smartphone camera sensors doesn't seem like it should ever be the durability weak link. Even a phone with a cracked screen & dead battery, still works as a PC webcam!
Hopefully this is just a model-specific issue (e.g. weak soldering or firmware bugs) rather than a flaw of smartphone camera sensor design.
This was important during 2020 COVID crisis, with Zoom video meetings, when webcams sold out and some of us dug out spare smartphones to be converted to USB webcams for video conferencing!
Old hand-me-down smartphones are good as cameras, whether for photography, for webcam, or for security cameras.
There's apps that allows Android smartphones to behave like a USB webcam (connected to PC, it shows up in Device Manager, and can be used with any Windows apps).
And also apps to make obsolete smartphones behave like a standardized WiFi ONVIF security camera, so it works with your existing generic network video recorder (NVR).
Even a 3-year-old phone now usually has a camera sensor greatly superior to a $150+ 4K webcam or security camera. It's amazing how my old smartphone outperforms Logitech's top of the line USB webcam when connecting it to the PC as a webcam. In addition to better sensors, the GPU in most semi-recent(ish) smartphone completely utterly obliterates the video compressor chip built into sub-$500 webcams. Higher frame rate, higher bit rate, better picture quality, better dim-room picture, sharper video, etc.
Smartphone camera sensors doesn't seem like it should ever be the durability weak link. Even a phone with a cracked screen & dead battery, still works as a PC webcam!
Hopefully this is just a model-specific issue (e.g. weak soldering or firmware bugs) rather than a flaw of smartphone camera sensor design.
This was important during 2020 COVID crisis, with Zoom video meetings, when webcams sold out and some of us dug out spare smartphones to be converted to USB webcams for video conferencing!
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I'd bet the manager at their neighborhood Google store will be willing to help them out.
Apple does it. Can't see Google not doing the same.
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Plural of anecdote is not data.
And yes, that applies to the problem detailed in this story too.
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I am not sure what they mean by 'camera issues' but they have definite hardware problems/ defects. Unless people face the problem themselves they don't care for a research but as I was one of the victim, I did, and there are way too many users for whom the Pixels (Pixel 1 XL 128 GB, Pixel 3) just die at random, largely around the 18-24 months mark, basically when the warranty is over. It's the same story world over. Same problem. And google customer support will just say motherboard needs replacement and that there is corrosion in USB-C port which also needs to be replaced, they charge you arm and length, and eventually send you a device which then again die after few months of use.
Just google Pixel sudden death/ motherboard dead and you should be able to see how many affected users there are. It's absolutely shocking that they never acknowledged it.
Take care of your hardware, Google. Because despite my nightmarish experience I have had with your product, I still wanna come back to it.
Just google Pixel sudden death/ motherboard dead and you should be able to see how many affected users there are. It's absolutely shocking that they never acknowledged it.
Take care of your hardware, Google. Because despite my nightmarish experience I have had with your product, I still wanna come back to it.
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It's not officially supported on other devices, but various third-party devs have been able to get them working for people to side-load them.
WRT to the main article: I'm a current 4XL user who got mine fairly close to launch day. Thankfully haven't run into any issues yet, and keeping my fingers crossed that it remains that way. Been pretty happy with the phone overall.
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Someone asked me about her Pixel 2 and it's intermittently having the same problems with the camera. It's OK for a few pics then, the app hangs and just stops working for awhile. Trying to stop and restart the app gives a black screen and an error. Just weird. I'll be sure to pass on the info if anything about this develops.
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A friend has a Pixel 2, and her camera started doing this maybe a month before the warranty was up. She bought through Verizon, so went into the Verizon store and they processed the the return without hassle and shipped a new phone to her. Since then, been working fine.
She didn't drop it bad shortly before or anything, and it was in a case, but everyone's phone get jostled a fair bit. If there was some connection on the sensor that wasn't very robust, I could see this being a problem that increases over time. Did this issue just start happening en mass?
She didn't drop it bad shortly before or anything, and it was in a case, but everyone's phone get jostled a fair bit. If there was some connection on the sensor that wasn't very robust, I could see this being a problem that increases over time. Did this issue just start happening en mass?
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I'm not surprised to be honest, I had a Pixel 2 that I had to replace because dust got into the rear camera's housing and from there into the body of the phone. Presumably this could interfere with sensitive connectors or other small electronics, and if it happened once it could always happen again. The camera assembly doesn't look to have changed meaningfully to my untrained eye, but of course it's hard to see things like improved sealants/gaskets, so that is possibly a universal potential problem to Pixels these days.
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I confess I had a good chuckle reading this, especially after the back-and-forth in the comments on the Facebook v. Apple article.
I feel badly for those affected for whom "Well, have you seen our very nice 4a/5 line of phones?" will probably be the extent of Google's customer support response. I had a Nexus 5X, so I get it.
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To be fair, if you google "Phone XYZ sudden death"...you're going to find people talking about that model of phone dying suddenly. Certainly works for Samsung Galaxy and even iPhone. They are complex electronics - some percent will end up having problems (whether it's caused by something specific or not).
The key is what percent that ends up being. It's still not clear how prevalent this is. 900 comments across 4 models of phones doesn't seem that much to me (as mentioned in the article). And I don't know anybody personally who's had this problem yet. Of course I'll be singing a different tune if my 3a fails!
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