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Ian in Apex, North Carolina listens on NewsRadio 680 WPTF and asked: “I own an original version one Google Pixel. I’ve had it about two and a half years. Now the battery goes dead after about 4 hours. I’ve deleted all apps except for the system and the normal apps that come with the phone. Doesn’t seem to be an app that’s draining the battery. But the battery lasts – maybe if I’m lucky – four hours. And that is it. “
Ian, it sounds like your battery is just getting old.
Smartphone batteries are chemical devices and they do wear out. They tend to have a lifespan of around 500 charge cycles but the charge they’re able to hold starts to degrade, but that’s not a hard rule, it varies a little bit from device to device.
That doesn’t mean that you can only charge your phone 500 times, 500 cycles means the equivalent of 500 charges from empty to full, so smaller charges from 90% to 100% are not the same as a full charge from 0% to 100%.
The Pixel in particular seems to have a shipped with a pretty mediocre battery and some users reported a noticeable drop in charge retention after just 200 cycles.
Unfortunately, Pixel phones don’t make it easy to swap the battery, but if you’re not opposed to taking some tools to the device, you can do it.
You can also bring it to any of those stores that will fix your cracked screen and ask for a quote. Those repair shops will usually do battery swaps as well.
Like you’ve discovered already, there’s not much you can truly do with software alone to fix the situation and if you intend to keep the phone a little longer you’ll probably want to get that battery replaced.