Google Extends Pixel 4 XL Warranty Beyond One Year In Some Countries For Specific Issues

This story was originally published 2021/07/19
3:13 p.m. PDTJul 19, 2021 and last update 2021/07/20
3:43 p.m. PDTJul 20, 2021.

Google is extending the warranty for the Pixel 4 XL by one year. Before you get too excited, the expansion only covers a handful of specific power-related issues, including charging, draining faster than expected, random reboots, and not being able to turn on the phone. It is only valid for Pixel 4 XL purchased in available markets previously limited to one year of warranty support, particularly in the United States, Singapore, Canada, Japan and Taiwan. Warranty eligibility for these issues as part of the extension can be verified online or in person at uBreakiFix.

This change is curious – typically these types of targeted warranty extensions are the result of lawsuit settlements or known issues. However, Google is now opting for customers in a forced arbitration agreement by default, which may have made a dent in that. (Related: Make Sure You Don’t Take Advantage of It If You Buy a Pixel and Appreciate Legal Remedies.)

While we’re generally aware of Pixel hardware issues, we haven’t heard too many reports from our readers targeting the type of issues Google lists as the causes of this extension. However, according to tipster Bobby at uBreakiFix, the issues listed are actually quite common and quite widespread. According to them, Google has had this policy in place for some time, and repairs associated with these issues and this device represent a possible majority of Pixel-related repairs at at least one site.

The problems covered by the warranty extension, according to the support document, must be associated with:

• “Unable to turn on the phone
• Phone reboots or shuts down randomly without reboot or manual shutdown
• Charging with an adapter
• Wireless charging
• The phone battery drains much faster than when it was first used “

Other repairs are not covered by warranty and may even replace extended coverage and require a separate repair before warranty repairs for the listed issues can take place. An uBreakiFix technician tells us that the chain of repair shops are intimately aware of the problem and can deal with it quickly and easily if you’d rather ignore Google’s sometimes tedious remote support.

Pixel 4 XL purchased in the United States, Singapore, Canada, Japan, and Taiwan are covered. If your Pixel 4 XL is from Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain or the UK, it is not covered by this extension.

We originally believed that the markets could be an indicator of a SKU-specific problem, as there is a distinct global variant of the US / Taiwanese and Japanese versions of the phone, and highly overlapping in correlation. However, Google tells us the reason is actually much simpler – it’s just a matter of officially extending warranties for these power issues in markets where you’re typically limited to one year of warranty support.

Full details of the extension are available on Google’s support page here, and Pixel 4 XL owners in the US and elsewhere should note that they now have an additional year of coverage if their phone can’t. turn on or has charging problems.