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There will be a mandatory update for a ‘subset’ of Pixel 6A phones. Earlier this year, Google shipped a Pixel 4A update to some owners that lowered battery life to mitigate overheating risk, and soon, it’s going to do the same for the Pixel 6A. “A subset of Pixel 6A phones will require a mandatory software update to reduce the risk of potential battery overheating,” Google’s Alex Moriconi says in a statement to The Verge. “The update will enable battery management features that will reduce capacity and charging performance after the battery reaches 400 charge cycles. We’ll contact impacted customers next month, with all the information they need to address the issue.” As reported by Android Authority, at least two users have reported instances of their Pixel 6A phones catching fire, with one person on Reddit saying their Pixel 6A “spontaneously combusted in the middle of the night.” Android Authority also spotted code strings in the Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2 release alerting Pixel 6A users to “a potential battery overheating issue” and pointing toward a support page at g.co/pixel/6abattery that currently isn’t live. In April, Google also announced an extended repair program for battery swelling issues with the Pixel 7A. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

A Pixel 6 for the people Google is officially announcing the Pixel 6A, which embraces the company’s new design language and custom chipset but keeps the 5A’s $449 price tag. The announcement comes as Google kicks off its I/O developer conference, but if you’re itching to snag the new device, you’ll have to wait a little while longer since it won’t actually ship until July 28th. (Preorders will begin a week earlier, on July 21st.) The 6A follows the pronounced design trend that the 6 and 6 Pro set when they arrived last year with a raised horizontal camera bump and a two-tone body. Following suit, the fingerprint sensor is under the screen rather than on the back panel. And there’s good news if you think the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are too big — the 6A comes with a slightly smaller 6.1-inch OLED 1080p display. It’s a standard 60Hz refresh rate, too, so Google seems happy to let Samsung take the lead on fast refresh rate screens in midrange phones. While the design ethos is the same, the Pixel 6A offers less robust camera specs than the flagship 6 and 6 Pro. That’s a departure from previous A-series phones, which offered the same camera hardware as their pricier counterparts. The 6A includes a 12-megapixel main rear camera with optical image stabilization that appears to be the same hardware used by the 5A, rather than the 50-megapixel main camera on the Pixel 6. There’s also a 12-megapixel ultrawide and an 8-megapixel selfie camera. Interestingly, the Pixel 6A comes with a smaller 4,400mAh battery than the 5A’s 4,680mAh cell, but Google still claims it will last a full day like its predecessor. It’s also claiming three days of use in Extreme Battery Saver mode, which is a full day longer than it claimed for the 5A. That’s likely due to more efficient hardware and software integration now that Google’s in control of both variables. A single storage configuration (128GB with 6GB RAM) will be available, similar to how Google sold the 5A. And good news for anyone outside of the US and Japan (the only two markets where the 5A launched) — the 6A will be available in a lot more places, including Canada, the UK, Australia, , and . There’s a full list of countries where it will be sold on the Google Store. There’s also 5G, of course; the 6A supports both sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G. And because all good things must end, the 6A does not include a headphone jack. The Pixel 5A was the last Google phone to come with a charger, so you won’t find one of those, either. For a while, the Pixel A-series was more or less a shoo-in for the best phone in the midrange class. In recent years, though, serious competition has arrived from Samsung and challengers like OnePlus, so the 6A has its work cut out for it. Update May 11th, 3:35PM ET: Added new information about global availability for the Pixel 6A. The Pixel 6A includes Google’s Tensor chipset and costs $449

Google’s Pixel ‘a’ series is a toned-down variant of the original flagship Pixel series. This year, it won’t be any different as the company is readying the Pixel 6a to be available in July in various markets. We’ve already started getting indications of that as the Pixel 6a is currently being tested privately, according to leakster Mukul Sharma. In one of its previous tweets, Sharma said a new Google Pixel smartphone was undergoing private testing in India. Per the tipster, this is the much-awaited Pixel 6a, though he was not fully sure of it. If true, Pixel 6a will mark the return of Google to the Indian smartphone market after almost two long years. Sharma also claimed that series production had begun in several Asian countries, hinting at an imminent launch. However, the leaker shared nothing on the official launch of Pixel 6a in India. Pixel 6 and 6 Pro were two of the best flagship phones last year but aren’t available in Indian markets. If the 6a comes to India, it will be a relief for every Pixel fan in the country. If rumors are to be believed, the 6a will come with all the best features of the Pixel 6 series, and yet it will cost less than the latter. GOOGLE PIXEL 6A RUMORED SPECIFICATIONS Google Pixel 6a will reportedly feature a 6.2-inch flat OLED display with a single centered punch-hole camera. The 6a is also expected to have dual rear cameras and a single LED flash. Rumor has it that the Google Pixel 6a will use the same 50MP Samsung ISOCELL GN1 sensor as the original Pixel 6. The tipster hasn’t given us the complete information about the smartphone’s specs. For example, details related to cameras and processors are not known. But it’s being said that the company might use the Tensor GS101 chipset in the phone. It’s expected to be available in 6GB or 8GB of RAM with up to 128GB of storage. Other features include a USB Type-C and an in-display fingerprint sensor. According to rumors, the Google I/O event will start on May 11 and continue until the next day, May 12. However, Pixel 6a is said to be available from July 28 in most markets. Pixel 6a could go official in India soon

One improvement over the bigger model: The battery comes out via pull tab. The Pixel 6a back is very flexible. PBK Review What's in the Pixel 6a? PBK Reviews has gotten ahold of the device and ripped it apart. It features fairly basic innards for a fairly basic phone. The screen is glued on and has plastic reinforcement clips. Once that's heated up and pried off, you'll be greeted with a large graphite heat sink. Like the bigger Pixel 6s, the motherboard has the USB-C port soldered onto it, which will make repairs on the port more difficult than a plug-in solution. The back is plastic and comes off just like the front, with some glue and plastic clips to defeat. Once you pry the back off the frame, it's super bendy. There's also a suspiciously large cutout in the Pixel 6a frame that PBK Reviews says was at one point meant for wireless charging, but the phone never shipped with that feature. For whatever reason, iFixit doesn't do Pixel teardowns anymore (despite an official collaboration with Google for parts, oddly), but PBK gives the phone a repairability score of 7 out of 10. The phone gets dinged for the soldered-on USB-C port and a fingerprint reader that probably won't separate from the screen without being damaged. For the Pixel 6 Pro, PBK Reviews took issue with the copious amount of glue used to hold the battery down. Removing it required soaking the battery in alcohol and a lot of prying. On the Pixel 6a, the battery just comes off when you pull the pull tab, which is a nice improvement. We also see the first sign of Google's shaky quality control, with PBK saying his unit arrived scratched due to some debris in the box. We'll know more when the phone starts shipping on July 28. Pixel 6a teardown shows off bendy, plastic back, soldered-in USB-C port

MmWave is optional, and four models point to a wide rollout, unlike the Pixel 5a. OnLeaks' render of the Pixel 6a. Here you can see the flat screen and the low-profile camera bump. OnLeaks x 91Mobiles As pointed out by Droid-Life, Google's next midrange phone, the Pixel 6a, has popped up at the FCC. What's most surprising about the listing is the timing. The Pixel 6a's April FCC arrival is the earliest we've seen for the A series in a long time. The Pixel 5a was listed at the FCC in July 2021 and launched a month later in August, while the Pixel 4a hit the FCC in June 2020 and was also released in August. The first Pixel A phone, the Pixel 3a, had a February FCC listing and launched at Google I/O in May. This year, Google's (virtual) I/O event is May 11, 2022, so that day is currently the odds-on favorite release date for the phone. There are four different models at the FCC, with only one unit having mmWave functionality. mmWave adds $50-$100 to the price of a phone and has almost no real-world use because carriers haven't rolled out mmWave to many places. Given the immense cost of mmWave, we'd rather save the money. The listing of four US models also points to a wide rollout, and we could see the phone land at several major carriers. Hopefully, this will translate to more international support as well. The Pixel 5a is only for sale in the US and Japan, presumably due to the worldwide chip shortage. The variety of listed models may indicate that Google has sorted out its stock issues and can go back to the more normal 13-country Pixel rollout. We already know a lot about the Pixel 6a. The design leaked in November, and it showed Google continuing the excellent Pixel 6 design in the midrange model. The Pixel 6's trademark camera bar stores the cameras while providing a solid base to rest on a table, avoiding the unstable wobbliness you get from an off-center camera bump. This will be the first Pixel A phone with an in-screen fingerprint reader, which will mark a big change from the rear capacitive fingerprint reader in previous models. The Pixel 6 is the first phone with a Google-made SoC, the Tensor, and a report from 9to5Google in November said the Pixel 6a would also ship with a Tensor chip. In March, a Geekbench listing for a Pixel 6a popped up; it showed a Google Tensor SoC and 6GB of RAM. The score and frequencies are identical to the more expensive Pixel 6, indicating that it's the same Tensor chip, which would make for a seriously competitive midrange phone. We're simply looking at specs, but the Pixel 6a seems like it might be a little powerhouse of a phone, and it could even push people to reconsider buying the flagship Pixel 6. The Pixel 6a's only big "downgrade" is its smaller 6.2-inch screen size, compared to the 90 Hz, 6.4-inch screen on the Pixel 6 and the 120 Hz, 6.7-inch screen on the Pixel 6 Pro. If the Pixel 6a display is 60 Hz (the refresh rate is not clear at the moment), that could be a major deciding factor. The other downgrade is the camera system, which only has two sensors, and the main camera is reportedly the tried-and-true 12.2-megapixel Sony IMX363, which was the primary camera on the Pixel 2, 3, 4, and 5. It should still be a great camera, though. The Pixel A series is a fantastic buy if you're searching for a no-frills Android phone. If the price is right, Google may have another winner on its hands. The Pixel 6a lands at the FCC with four different models

The right-to-repair specialists now stock genuine parts and bundles to handle the most common repairs to the Pixel 6A yourself. Thanks to a partnership with Google, the right-to-repair champions at iFixit have begun stocking parts for Google’s midrange phone, the Pixel 6A. While iFixit has stocked genuine parts for just about all of Google’s Pixel phones since June, replacement parts for the Pixel 6A have only recently become available. While you can purchase the parts you need piecemeal through its site, iFixit also offers kits that bundle all of the necessary parts and tools you’ll need to solve a specific issue. The most expensive kit, priced at $99.99, is meant to repair the screen, but other kits are also available to replace the battery ($39.99), wide-angle camera ($56.99), and ultrawide camera ($36.99). The tools and other supplies provided can vary depending on the kit you’ve purchased but largely mimic iFixit’s $19.99 10-piece iOpener tool kit. iFixit doesn’t just provide the necessary tools and parts to repair all of your expensive technology but also provides detailed instructions on how to replace everything from your screen to the battery on your phone, laptop, or camera. While sending your device back to the manufacturer is usually an option if your device is still under warranty, sometimes fixing something yourself is the fastest (and cheapest) option. That’s saying nothing for the feeling of pride you get from solving a problem by yourself. The kits featured on the iFixit site only represent the genuine replacement parts provided by Google and aren’t a comprehensive list of all the potential hardware issues your phone could have. iFixit provides teardown instructions to replace the 5G antenna, loudspeaker, and even the motherboard but currently doesn’t provide the necessary replacement parts. I probably do more than the average amount of tinkering with my devices at home, but I can safely say that investing in an iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit was one of the wiser purchases I’ve ever made. In addition to including bits for every type of screw imaginable, the Pro Tech Toolkit comes packaged with everything you need to take a handheld device apart and put it all back together. iFixit starts selling parts for the Google Pixel 6A