Google Offers Free Pixel 2 XL Replacements To Select Owners Due To Extreme Lag
The Google Pixel 2 XL was released in October 2017 as one of the tech giant’s two newest flagship phones, but it was only a few weeks ago when Android Police founder Arte Russakovskii and YouTuber Marques Brownlee called attention to the device’s slow and severely lagging user interface. These two well-known device owners were then joined by several other users who also felt that the Pixel 2 XL was lagging too much. As a new report has suggested, Google is now aware of the issue and willing to replace qualified devices for free.
According to BGR, Google is currently investigating the issues that appear to be affecting some Google Pixel 2 XL units, as the company appears to have taken quick action due to Russakovskii and Brownlee’s status in the tech community. In a series of tweets, Russakovskii said on Tuesday that he was visited by a Google engineer and “PR person” who both examined his defective device for about two hours to determine what might have gone wrong. The Android Police founder stressed that both Google employees were shocked by how slow his device turned out to be.
“Unlike a car that stops making noise when you take it to a mechanic, the phone was extremely laggy to the point that both of them were visibly surprised,” Russakovskii tweeted.
Phone Arena also provided some examples of the Google Pixel 2 XL’s laggy performance, citing a user who double tapped on the unit to activate the camera and had to wait 10 seconds for the camera app to open, and others who claimed that apps or animations, in general, would take some time to load up in full.
Severe lag discovered in some Pixel 2 XL models; Google will reportedly replace some units https://t.co/cu5ieh5Iyx pic.twitter.com/xMZW0p9cM9
— TacticalPromotions (@TacticalPromo) August 19, 2018
While Google has yet to issue an official statement on the purported bug, the operative word when it comes to the possible replacement devices is “qualified.” Citing an anonymous tip, 9to5Google’s Stephen Hall tweeted on Thursday that Google has identified three potential causes for the lag, but only one of these causes would require a defective Pixel 2 XL unit to be replaced. No further information was provided on what specific type of issue would warrant a replacement phone.
Given the possibility that Google’s new flagships for the current year, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, are expected to arrive early in October, BGR suggested that users might want to wait for the newer devices to launch, in lieu of contacting Google to see if their laggy Google Pixel 2 XL units can be replaced for free.
