Google announced the Pixel 5 on September 30, 2020. This is the first 5G phone released by Google (The Pixel 4a 5G is has been announced the same day, but will be released later in November).
The Pixel 5 5G starts at $699 for the 128GB version and embed a Snapdragon 765G and 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM. It packs a 5G Sub-6 chip in a 6″ OLED display and have a (big) 4000mAh battery.
Google’s Pixel 5 scored a disappointing 120 points in photography by DxOMark experts. Google is no longer the king of photography. With its limited hardware, the Pixel 5 finds itself behind other smartphones with better performance on points such as bokeh, zoom, texture or noise, where additional sensors and lenses are useful.
Google Pixel 5 Specifications:
| Model | Pixel 5 |
|---|---|
| Announcement | September 30, 2020 |
| Release Date | October 15, 2020 |
| Starting Price | $699 |
| Colors | Just Black / Sorta Sage |
| Storage | 128GB |
| Display | 6 in |
| Processor | Snapdragon 765G |
| RAM | 8GB |
| Rear Camera(s) | 12.2 Mpx |
| Battery | 4080 mAh |
| Android Version | Android 11 |
| Weight | 151g (5.3 oz) |
Pixel 5 pictures:
This is some of the Pixel 5 5G official photos from Google.
List of Pixel 5 issues:
It didn’t take long (less than a week) for the first problems concerning Pixel 5 to begin to emerge. The most common issues (as of February 2021) are the battery drain, and some construction flaws like the gap between screen and frame, or the mark caused by the wireless charger.
Pixel 5 defective ambient light sensor
Many users reported a weird behavior with their screen adaptive light sensor. The screens either goes really dark, in a bright room, or really bright in a dark room. It does happen randomly and need to be reset by manually adjusting the light level from the home menu.
Pixel 5 fingerprint reader issue
After 9 months only, some users started to see a deterioration of their pixel 5 fingerprint. As a matter of fact, from time to time, the fingerprint reader will not recognize your finger print, and after 5-10 quick tries, the phone will deactivate the fingerprint and ask you to unlock the phone with the code. Not a big deal, but it really show how Pixel phones hardware deteriorates quickly.
Pixel 5 battery drain
Unfortunately, like many Pixels, the Pixel 5 seem pretty hit by the battery drain problem. hundreds of peoples have reported it on Google Support website and Reddit. We, at pixelissues.com are also seeing a significant battery drain after only two months. on the first days, our Pixel 5 unit were taking us to almost two full days. Now, (as of June 2021), our Pixel 5 does not last more than a day! We definitely saw a battery deterioration over a few months period.
Edit: After almost one year, the battery is getting worse and worse. I personnaly have to charge my pixel 5 twice a day! This is unacceptable, Google is really bad at hardware.
Pixel 5 gap between screen and frame
Some users have indeed spotted a worrying gap between the screen and the frame. A manufacturing defect that could alter the waterproofing capabilities and weaken the overall structure. It appears that the issue (only) affect “Pixel 5 Just Black” models as we did not see any “Sorta Sage” pictures having this complication yet.
You can read this Google Pixel Support thread to see more pictures of the gap problem and see how many people upvoted it (312 as of October 21, 2020) !
Google announced they were investigating the issue, ans should communicate in a few days or weeks. They will probably offer a replacement unit to all affected users.
Pixel 5 system volume issue
Some users reported volume control problems with Pixel 5 system sounds. Some others have reported a random drop in volume when watching a video. It seems to affect a lot of people and Google said they are investigating.
You can find more on this Google support thread.
Pixel 5 permanent mark from Pixel stand wireless charging
A reddit user found out that the wireless charger( Pixel stand) was leaving a permanent mark on the back of his Pixel 5. He says he keep it on the stand most of the day (Google says it’s fine to do so in their marketing material).
Pixel 5 charging pause (still investigating)
We started to noticed some weird behavior with the battery while charging. Sometime it get stuck at 87% or 88% charging, for like 20 minutes. Then it jump quite fast to 90, 97, 100%. We really hope that this is just a “display” bug and not a battery problem. We will monitor Reddit to see if a similar issue is reported by redditors.
Pixel 5 poor quality sound (saturated)
We noticed the sound of our Pixel 5 was very poor quality, even at low levels. We suspect the under the screen speaker to be very bad. We noticed the phenomena in Pokémon Go for example, the music, even at moderate level is overly saturated and poor quality (compared to previous Pixel 3).
Pixel 5 overheating issue
Some users reported an overheating problem with their Pixel 5.
Some other users stated that a reboot seems to fix the overheating problem.
Pixel 5 Apps stopped working
A user reported from the report an issue page, that is Pixel 5 apps stopped working. He tried different solutions but nothing fixed it. He has to reboot the phone in order for the app to work again. He also cannot receive calls. We’ll monitor this issue closely to see if it starts appearing to other users too.