The Nexus 6P was a phone made by Huawei for Google. I bought my Nexus 6P when it first went on
sale. I anxiously waited for it to arrive in November 2015. I was excited at the time to get an Android
phone with no bloatware installed on it.
It would be my first Android phone with stock Android.
I have to admit the 6P was a total disappointment for me. The monthly updates Google sent out for the 6P made me feel like a beta tester. The updates frequently had Bluetooth updates that royally broke the phones ability to connect to other Bluetooth devices. One of Google’s Bluetooth updates caused my Toyota 2015 Highlander’s Entune system to reboot continuously while I was driving the car (It used to work perfectly before the update). I was ready to make an appointment with the car dealer assuming the radio had a loose wire but I researched the program and found out it was the Nexus 6P causing my car to reboot!! Once I unpaired the phone from the car, my Toyota was working perfectly. I paired my Toyota with several other branded cell phones and they all worked fine, it was the 6P causing my issues.
Google sent out monthly updates, it was comical to see how
my Toyota could work for one update and then go broke for the next update. My background is software development, it was
clear to me Google was doing a lousy job testing their software.
Then in August 2017 came a total surprise when I discovered
my Nexus 6P screen had pushed itself out of the phone! For the first few seconds I thought my 6P
came out of my Spigen case. Once I took
the case off it was clear the glass display had separated from the phone. My 6P had never been dropped or
serviced. There was no reason for the
screen to lift off like that….. Well
there was. My first thoughts were the
glue/tape had simply let go. But when
you tried to push the screen back on the phone it resisted you like a strong
spring. Then the bell went off in my
head, the Lithium battery most likely had puffed which would cause something to
have to give. In this case the glass
screen. It could have been much worse,
sometimes when a Lithium battery expands it could push against a sharp edge and
damage the thin foil casing the battery is made of. If it were to get punctured the battery could
catch on fire.
Lithium batteries when they start failing have a nasty habit
of expanding in size, commonly known as puffing. I have seen this in old Apple iPods that used
the click wheel. I had done a video on
how to repair a stuck click wheel on an older iPod which was caused by a
Lithium battery that had puffed over the years. In that case the battery was
many years old and it was understandable that it eventually failed.
The surprising part here is my 6P was not even two years
old. How could a Lithium battery start
to puff so quickly? I suspect the amount
of faulty battery failures in the 6P can be blamed on the ‘Rapid charging’
technique that Huawei used. It was not
based on the Qualcomm’s quick charge technology which is what most modern day
mobile phones use. More than likely the
technique that Huawei used to rapid charge the 6P is a design flaw. Charging Lithium batteries quickly is a
tricky set of logic that monitors amps, voltage and temperatures.
What came next really bothered me. I decided to call Google even though my one
year warranty had expired. My reason for
calling them was I felt the Nexus 6P’s battery failures was a manufacturing
defect and should be covered by Google since it's their brand.
With no surprise the person from Google support was not in the USA. It was some overseas support member who
dazzled me with total stupidity. She
asked me where I got the phone and I said directly from Google. I tried explaining to her that my glass
screen had separated from the phone due to a puffed battery and was well aware
that these batteries were failing prematurely. I had informed her this was a
common problem and was well documented from many complaints online. She informed me that there had been no issues
with batteries or screen coming out. That was clearly a lie and I told her to
use Google’s search engine to see how many customers were having issues. Her next
statement was a jaw dropper. She asked what recent apps do you have installed
on the phone, the screen probably got pushed off from an app you installed ……… Yeah think that one over for a second. She is claiming an app from the Google Play Store has the ability to push the screen out of the phone…….
Ok Houston we have a problem, I got a bonafide dumb ass on
the line. I told her no app would cause
this sort of problem, this was a hardware problem and not software. It did not matter to her, she basically shut
me down. She stated the phone is out of warranty and you have to contact Huawei
and pay them to repair your phone. So
Google does not even arrange for the repair! It’s the usual finger pointing
game. I was not happy with her answer
and requested a supervisor. She told me
none were available and I could be put on a call back and the maximum wait
would be 30 minutes. I waited 5 hours
and no call was ever made. They never
called me back.
So I did my research on Huawei’s repair process and was not
surprised to find out they stink. You
don’t get your own phone back. It will
be someone else’s phone that they ‘maybe’ repaired. It was common to read user experiences where
they sent back a phone in perfect cosmetic condition and get back a phone with
scratches and dents. And in most cases
Huawei does not even replace the battery!!!
They can send you back a refurb where the battery won’t even hold a
charge for half a day. So clearly Huawei’s
refurb process is poor. I’m used to
companies like Apple where their refurb process includes a new battery and a
new shell. The device looks like new. After reading all the complaints it was clear
to me sending my phone back was not an option.
There are numerous articles that explain how to get a Nexus
6P apart. I watched several videos and
decided to try it. I ordered a new OEM
battery on eBay and some double sided stick tape to bond the glass back to the
phone. You will need a heat gun or hair
dryer to successfully take the 6P apart. The heat gun is required to help melt the glue
that holds the back glass on by the camera and the lower edge which is plastic.
You will need a hobby knife, some old credit cards or guitar picks and a small Philips
screwdriver. It’s a royal pain to get
the 6P apart but it’s doable.
Once I got the phone apart, it was surprising how difficult it
was to remove the battery. They glued the battery in. And you cannot use a screwdriver or knife on
the battery, if you puncture that thin layer the battery could easily catch on
fire. I used a credit card very
carefully to wedge under the battery to release the glue.
Once I got the battery out and installed the new battery the
screen easily went back into the phone.
So the battery was puffed enough to force the screen out. I used some
double sided tape to hold the screen down and used a couple of strips on the
new battery. Reassembling the phone was
easy.
The new battery is doing a lot better than my original. I can only hope this battery will last maybe
18 months? But will the Nexus 6P last
that long? While researching all the
battery issues another hot topic was discovered – boot looping. It’s a huge issue, the Nexus 6P won’t finish
booting and gets stuck in a loop. It’s
not software, the motherboard has a CPU issue.
There are many possible reasons for this problem but they all point back
to another manufacturing defect caused my Huawei.
So where is Google on this?
This is where I feel Google is a total failure. They contracted Huawei to manufacture their
flagship phone for 2015. The Nexus line
is Google’s brand. But in spite of that
fact, Google passes the buck and tells their customers to call Huawei. Does Apple tell their customers to contact
Foxconn when their product fails? No, of
course not. And just this year (2017)
Google has surpassed Apple in worth yet Google offer’s support that feels like
a 3rd rate company.
This is what my phone looked like with the puffed battery:
And a video:
