Google Pixel 4A: A farewell update for the phone?
The case does not end. Since January 8, Google has been entangled in a controversy concerning its Pixel 4A. Many owners of this 2020 mobile have recently been offered an update that reduced the capacity of their battery. Google remaining reserved on the subject, experts have looked into the subject and concluded at security risks concerning certain batteries.
New information Data by the Android site Authority seem to come and confirm this thesis. They also offer a little more complete lighting on the case.
The loading speed also limited
According to the discoveries of the English -speaking media, the small tension adjustment made by the update reduces the battery load capacity by half. But that's not all. The loading speed was also limited to 50 % of what it was. In addition to holding less long, Pixel 4A batteries are more slowly responsible.
But software, the update has also changed some menus details. The estimation of the remaining charging time has for example been deleted, undoubtedly due to the difficulty of the bone to recalibrate to the “amputated” battery capacity. The recharging optimization functionality (supposed to preserve the battery by not exceeding 80 % load) has also been deleted.
Google Pixel 4a
Launch price 349 €
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Finally, strangely, the option to display the percentage of battery in the status bar is also not found from the fatal update. Those who have activated it can still benefit from it, but the others no longer have access to it. A way no doubt not to display erroneous percentages as has happened to certain owners of Pixel 4A.
An update concocted out of conventional circuits
On the more technical level, it would seem that the very origin of the update supports the thesis of the security problem. The specific image sent to the Pixel concerned has been labeled “Emergency Maintenance Release (EMR)“. This means that it was started outside the conventional circuits to be deployed as quickly as possible.
In the bug tracker dedicated to Android, this update also has the sweet name of “Sunfish Sunset Emr“. If Sunfish is the code of the Pixel 4A internally, the mention of”Sunset” – which can mean” sunset “, but also” twilight “,” decline “or” farewell ” – no longer leaves many doubts about Google's intentions with this update.
