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The Pixel 2 Twoscore hasn't had a smooth launch. The phone'due south display has had diverse bug, including distorted or undersaturated OLED panels (our own Ryan Whitwam argued this was never a problem at all), a "black smear" problem, and a chop-chop appearing event with burn-in that surfaced well before it was expected to appear. Some phones too emit high-pitched clicking sounds and poor audio recording quality. Google has promised various fixes for these bug, including:

  • An option for more saturated colors (at reduced brightness to offset display loading)
  • A bottom bar that fades out to preclude screen burn-in
  • An update to gear up the problem with NFC that's causing the high-pitched noises
  • A software patch to fix the poor sound recording quality

Y'all can argue that a company that's been in the business as long as Google has shouldn't be making these kinds of mistakes (and I certainly would). Merely so far there doesn't seem to exist annihilation on the table that isn't covered by either warranty or Google's upcoming updates. These are reasons to delay buying a Pixel 2, just not reasons to junk the thought, provided Google makes expert on its repair promises. But apparently some users are also receiving Pixel 2 Forty's that either lack an operating arrangement altogether or have cataclysmic storage damage that forbid them from booting properly.

Android Law has rounded up complaints from Reddit, Ars Technica, and Twitter, all with the aforementioned issue: Their phone arrived without an operating organization. In that location'south no manner to know, only from that message, if the effect is a corrupted bootloader, a literal lack of any Os image, or a NAND storage failure, in much the same way that your PC's inability to discover an operating system on a drive that'south supposed to accept 1 could reverberate physical damage, file system corruption, or that the previous image had been accidentally formatted or never installed.

Could the HTC Acquisition Be to Blame?

One obvious explanation for why the Pixel two Xl seems to be in such crude condition is that it was caused by the inevitable milk shake-ups and uncertainty that occur when one company buys a major part of another. That'due south what happened on September 21, when Google and HTC announced a bargain in which Google would acquire HTC's contract manufacturing business concern. There are several problems with this argument. Being owned by a company is different than working with one as a partner, but Google would've known that the smart affair to do was to finish the Pixel 2 XL (which is had already given to LG), and then make major organizational changes associated with its new HTC employees and any future telephone development. Second, many of these bug should have been caught long before the Pixel 2 XL shipped to customers. Remember, phones typically go through an extensive qualification process to allow carriers to do their own testing. Phones with these kinds of quality control issues should've been stopped expressionless long earlier the launch event.

The time frame for this launch wasn't particularly curt; Google launched Pixel two and Pixel ii Xl roughly a year subsequently Pixel. Nevertheless, the issues that go on popping up suggest that someone has fundamentally dropped the quality command ball. It'southward not unusual for smartphones to have problems later on launch (anyone remember "You lot're belongings it wrong?") but it's adequately rare for a smartphone to have multiple OLED issues, a completely unrelated storage or Bone trouble, a separate loftier-pitched whining and squeaking apparently related to its NFC implementation,and an issue with its audio recording quality.

To the best of our noesis, there's no causal factor that explain whatever two of these bug, much less all at in one case. And that suggests someone at either HTC, Google, or both tried to cut corners and ship devices that but weren't ready. Could Google have been worried that the iPhone X would suck all the air out of the high-cease market? It'south not a crazy thought. Absent-minded a critical component supplier issue or a highly unusual confluence of factors, it'due south about all we've got. The rate of incidence on each problem may be quite small, but we all the same shouldn't exist seeing quite so many different problems.

Nutrient for thought: What do you call a Google phone without an OS? A Nondroid?