The year 2016 has been great for the smartphone industry in general, but not all of them have ended the year as they would have liked to.
We are talking about the likes of Samsung, Apple, and Google. The most notable tech giant is Samsung. The company suffered a huge blow when the Galaxy Note 7 failed to hit the heights foreseen before or immediately after release, bumping into an issue that would, in turn, render it hazardous. As at the time of this writing, Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is no more as it was discontinued.
Just recently, Apple users rocking the iPhone 6S started experiencing an issue with their phone’s battery. The phone just went off when the juice was still at about 30%. When plugged into a power source, the handset came back to life, with the battery showing that it is 30% fully charged – or at least where it was before switching off. Where Apple offered to take care of some iPhone 6S units suffering this problem, things started growing from bad to worse when users of iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus as well as some iPhone 5S units started complaining about the same problem.
Before even Apple can come in with a viable solution to this issue affecting some iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S handsets, the latest victims of the problem have just been discovered. Apparently, the Google Pixel, Pixel XL, and Google Nexus 6P phones are also suffering from the same battery problem. According to reports, the phones will completely go off or automatically restart when the battery is at about the same place – 30%. This is something strange for the two tech giants that are trying to outdo each other in the smartphone arena.
Even though none of them can be termed as extreme, it is about time that Apple and Google come out with explanations to what is happening with their flagships. While the #batterygate issue is affecting the latest Google Pixel and Pixel XL, there is no reported case with the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. As for the Google Nexus 6P, it appears that the problem sets in once users have updated to the new Android 7.0 Nougat OS. However, since the Pixel and Pixel XL handsets come preinstalled with Android 7.1 Nougat, it seems the problem is with the entire OS if at all the software is to blame.
If this is the case, the upcoming Android 7.1.1 Nougat security patch should come with some kind of fix for the issue, otherwise, we may be facing other recalls for the Google Nexus 6P, Pixel, and Pixel XL, just like the Galaxy Note 7. Whether the same recall procedure may also be applied by Apple for its faulty iPhone 6 and 6S handsets is unknown, but if a solution can’t be found, this could be the only way out.