Google will pay $ 500 to each defective Pixel owner after a class action

Google has accepted a settlement in the context of a class action brought by the owners of its original Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones.

"Google's total financial commitment under this agreement will be $ 7,250,000," the regulation says.

The phones concerned were manufactured before January 4, 2017, their owners sued Google in February 2018 after claiming to have been intentionally sold to defective phones.

The original complaint indicated that hundreds of customers have complained to Google about "serious microphone problems".

"Instead of repairing defective Pixel phones, providing refunds or replacing devices with non-defective phones," the complaint said, "Google has replaced defective phones with other defective phones, which has repeatedly provoked microphone failure in many consumers. "

The regulation divides the affected Pixel users into four categories, with the group experiencing multiple audio defect failures, including a replacement pixel, eligible for Google's $ 500 compensation, and those that have registered 39, a failure that can receive up to 350 USD.

People who have not reported the audio problem still have the right to receive compensation of 20 USD per Google. Persons who have received a third party insurance payment for the audio defect will be judged on an individual basis.

The search giant unveiled the original pixel in October 2016. This device was the company's first flagship phone. Previously, Google distributed phones through its Nexus program, which provided the software and worked with a handset manufacturer such as LG or Huawei to create the hardware.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement but stated in March 2017 that a "crack in the solder connection on the audio codec was affecting about 1% of the original pixels.

"This will affect all three microphones and could lead to other audio processing issues," said Brian Rakowski, a Google employee. "Depending on the temperature changes or the way you hold the phone, the connection may be restored temporarily and problems may disappear.

"It's particularly frustrating as a user because at the very moment you think you've solved the problem, the problem is happening randomly," Rakowski wrote.

The Google Pixel 2 XL then experimented burn-in problems later in 2017.