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.
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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.
dontbe evil
<p>what a surprise /s</p>
Stooks
<p>Android = Samsung IHMO. The S10E is the phone I would use if I was going Android.</p>
wocowboy
Premium Member<blockquote><em><a href="#429494">In reply to kjb434:</a></em></blockquote><p>Launchers, nor any 3rd-party software you put on your phone that modifies the device beyond that "pure Android" are no less subject to malware, adware, or spyware than any other 3rd-party software. So if you really want that pure Android experience you will only use what came with the device and nothing else. Mess with the millions of settings all you want, just don't modify the pure Google experience, which includes the included default launcher. 3rd party software is "at your own risk", lots of software on the Google Play Store contains hidden adware and spyware that can affect your user experience even if you delete the offending app because deleting it might not remove the adware it placed deep within the system. I am speaking from experience here, I once had to erase/restore my OnePlus 5 because an app had installed adware that popped up ads all over the place, but when I figured out why it was happening, the problem did not go away with uninstalling the app, I had to completely reset the device.</p>