Ausdroid reader TT has drawn our attention to a defect he observed with his new Pixel XL from Google, which you can see in the photo above. It might not be clear, but let us point it out to you; in the top right corner where the white casing meets the aluminium framing, you can see that there’s a small gap. It doesn’t appear to be large, possibly not more than a couple of hair’s thickness, but none the less it’s there, and it’s annoying.
TT isn’t alone; users have taken to Reddit and XDA to voice their concerns, and at least in TT’s case, he was able to obtain a RMA (returned merchandise authorisation) to send his phone back to Google in order to obtain a replacement without the defect.
This isn’t the first instance of issues with the Pixel XL that we’ve seen. Our own Scott Plowman noticed issues with the oleophobic coating on his phone, observing that the top of the front face (basically where the screen ends and the top bezel begins) was missing the fingerprint-resistant coating, and was thus looking very unpleasant. Scott, too, was able to obtain an exchange from JB HiFi where he purchased from.
Are we seeing a significant number of manufacturing issues, or are more simply coming to light because of the relative popularity of Google’s phone range? My guess would be the latter.
Have you noticed issues with your Pixel or Pixel XL?
