What if your phone battery isn't dying but is being slowly nudged toward retirement by design?
In a post shared in the r/Anticonsumption subreddit, the original poster claimed that recent Pixel updates intentionally reduced charging voltage and speed, making batteries appear "worn out" far earlier than expected.
The Redditor claimed Google's battery health features didn't preserve aging batteries but instead capped usable capacity so aggressively that users would think their phone was failing.
"What makes ME mad about the pixel is that the battery is damn near impossible to replace," one commenter wrote.
"Difficult to replace battery + 'accelerated' battery wear = replace phone earlier," the original poster responded.
The OP concluded that these changes forced earlier battery replacements and created more e-waste. They argued that lithium batteries can often last 1,000 cycles or more under normal conditions but that software-imposed limits may slash that lifespan in half.
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Batteries are among the most expensive and resource-intensive parts of a smartphone, relying on lithium and other materials that require significant mining, energy, and labor to produce.
When software nudges people to replace phones sooner than necessary, it wastes not just money but also the hidden costs of manufacturing from factory labor to global supply chains. Shortened device lifespans contribute directly to the global e-waste problem, where discarded electronics often end up in landfills or informal recycling operations that pollute air and water.
Instead of being reused, resold, or responsibly recycled, valuable components such as lithium batteries are lost. However, you can make money on your old electronics, showing there are better options than tossing devices that still have life left in them.
"I had a Pixel and in under a year it would just randomly restart or shutdown at any point under 50%. That was reason enough for me to be done with Google phones," one commenter noted.
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"I had the Pixel 4a and my phone was working fine until they rolled out that update. I was so pissed and will never buy a Pixel again," another wrote.
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