Google’s Pixel handsets have been dogged by reliability issues since the line’s inception. But there were hopes that the Pixel 3a would be different.
Maybe not.
According to multiple reports—I first learned about this from Android Police—owners of the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL are reporting that the devices randomly shut down and then require a hard reset before they will come back to life. The good news? After this reset, everything seems to work normally, and no data is lost. Of course, it will just happen again, randomly.
Naturally, enthusiasts are testing various theories to see if they can figure out what’s triggering the problem and circumvent it. But some obvious choices—a specific third-party app, for example—have not panned out.
Having finished my Google Pixel 3 XL review, I just switched to the Pixel 3a XL so I can review that next. And, so far at least, my experiences have been overwhelmingly positive: Aside from some acceptable compromises, the 3a XL seems like an excellent smartphone, and a great value, and it even solves some of the issues I had with its more expensive sibling, including phone static and call quality.
But I’m no stranger to Pixel issues and will, of course, be on the lookout for this. Fingers crossed.
Tagged with Google Pixel 3a, Google Pixel 3a XL