Again in late March, on the finish of my protection of Google’s Pixel 9a smartphone launch:

I discussed that one in all my Pixel 7 telephones had began swelling, indicative of a failing battery:

I teased that my lucky upfront buy of an prolonged guarantee for it ended up being fortuitous and promised that the “remainder of the story” would observe shortly. That point is now, and on this piece, I’ll additionally distinction my most up-to-date expertise with an earlier, less-positive final result, as a method of extra broadly assessing the patron electronics guarantee matter.

The smartphone case examine

First, the Pixel 7. Gadgets containing swollen batteries can rapidly rework into dangerously flammable sources, so I instantly eliminated the smartphone from its charger and powered it down. I then reactivated my Pixel 6a backup telephone, the identical one I’d quickly pressed into service round a 12 months earlier when my different Pixel 7’s rear digital camera array’s glass cowl spontaneously cracked, and swapped the SIM into it. After which, I jumped on-line with Asurion, reported the difficulty, paid a (bogus, IMHO) $138.68 “service charge”, was directed to a native restore location (Asurion had purchased uBreakiFix in late 2019), dropped the swollen Pixel 7 off, and ~24 hours later had a present card sitting in my account for the unique buy worth!

Let’s do the maths:

• I purchased the 128 GByte model of the telephone in early June 2023 for $499, promotion-bundled (on the time) with a $100 Amazon reward card, for an efficient worth of $399.
• For the subsequent 20 months (Asurion additionally auto-refunded my most up-to-date month’s fee, though I needed to then manually cancel the general coverage via Amazon, the place it was handled as a subscription), I’d been paying $7.83 per thirty days inclusive of tax for prolonged guarantee protection…a bit irritating, because the telephone was redundantly coated by Google’s commonplace guarantee for the primary 12 of these months, however…for $156.60 whole.
• I paid a $138.68 (as soon as once more, ridiculous, however…) “service charge” to course of the guarantee
• And I ended up getting a $499 reward card.

If my arithmetic is correct, I ended up utilizing the telephone for almost 2 years for a complete fiscal outlay of $195.28 (plus the price of the alternative telephone, which I’ll point out subsequent). I’m a bit stunned, actually, that Asurion didn’t simply have uBreakiFix swap in a brand new battery and provides it again to me. That stated, the show or internals might need gotten careworn by the swelling, so it was possible extra easy for them from a long-term buyer retention standpoint to simply give me my a reimbursement. And to be clear, contemplating the burgeoning marketplace for refurbished telephones and different shopper electronics gadgets, they most likely went forward and swapped the battery themselves after which, after working diagnostics on the telephone to verify all the things else checked out, resold it on Amazon Renewed, eBay Refurbished, or elsewhere.

Talking of which, eBay is the place I ended up selecting up my alternative smartphone. I might have gone with a newer-generation Pixel system (or one thing else, for that matter), however I already had a bunch of additional Pixel 7-tailored instances, display protectors and such in storage. And, because of Google’s lately expanded 5 years of software program protection for the Pixel 7 (and my Pixel 6a spare, for that matter), it was now assured to get OS and safety updates till October 2027 (versus the unique October 2025, i.e. just a few months from now as you learn these phrases). I ended up with an eBay Licensed Refurbished 128 GByte Pixel 7 in claimed glorious situation, full with a 1-year bundled guarantee, for $198.95 plus tax.

And certainly, when it arrived, it was in glorious situation (reflective of the extremely and abundantly rated provider I’d deliberately, fastidiously chosen), cosmetically not less than. It seems to have had a case and display protector on it for its complete ownership-to-date, each of which I instantly replicated. And functionally, it additionally appears to be tremendous, albeit with one attribute that gave me preliminary pause. Try the to-date battery recharge cycle depend reported for it:

At first look, that appeared like lots, provided that Google paperwork that the Pixel 7 “ought to retain as much as 80% capability for about 800 cost cycles, after which battery alternative is “really helpful,” and significantly provided that my different Pixel 7 solely has 40 to-date cycles on it:

However I’m an admittedly atypical case examine. I earn a living from home, the place I even have VoIP, and barely journey, so my smartphone utilization is way decrease than the norm. Conversely, provided that the Pixel 7 first grew to become accessible on October 13, 2023, 531 cycles virtually precisely match a extra typical one-recharge-per-day cadence. Going ahead, now in my possession, this telephone’s incremental-cycle cadence ought to dramatically lower. And to additional prolong usable life, I’ve belatedly taken the additional step of limiting the height cost level to 80% of whole capability on each Pixel 7s.

The soundbar case examine

So, all good, proper? Not precisely…there’s that different case examine that I discussed upfront I needed to share. Two years again, I informed you about my Hisense HS205 soundbar:

which I’d lately snagged on sale at Amazon for $34.99 to exchange the BÖHM B2 precursor that wouldn’t settle for beyond-Crimson E book Audio digital enter streams:

Properly…about six months after I purchased it, and after little or no use, it stop working. It nonetheless toggled among the many varied audio enter sources utilizing each the aspect panel buttons and the distant management:

however nothing got here out of the audio system from any of them (and no, it wasn’t in “mute” mode). Given its low worth and compact type issue, I assume that the ability amplifier fed by all of these inputs through a preamp middleman was based mostly on cheap class D circuitry and had failed.

Excellent news: though it was past the one-month Amazon return interval, it was nonetheless coated by the one-year manufacturing unit guarantee. Dangerous information: that guarantee was “restricted”. Translation: I used to be liable for the associated fee and energy of return transport to Hisense, together with any loss or harm en route, which meant that I’d must each bundle it in a cumbersome/closely padded/dearer vogue and pay for elective insurance coverage on it. Additional translated: it’d possible value me as a lot, if no more, to ship the soundbar again to them as I’d paid for it initially. And I’d most likely find yourself with an already-used alternative, with even extra “restricted” guarantee phrases.

Finally, after I complained lengthy and onerous sufficient, Hisense’s buyer help people relented and emailed me a postpaid transport label, adopted by transport me a seemingly brand-new alternative soundbar. Candidly, I think that though I all the time attempt to keep away from such “media particular therapy,” somebody there did an Web search on my title and discovered I used to be a “press man” who ought to get “dealt with with child gloves”. Would the common shopper have achieved the identical final result, regardless of how lengthy and onerous they complained? No. Which, once more, is why I all the time attempt to keep up anonymity. Sigh.

Comparable experiences, good and/or dangerous? Different ideas on what I’ve mentioned? Pontificate within the feedback, please!

—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Imaginative and prescient Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the corporate’s on-line publication.

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• Designing for an unsure future
• Playin’ with Google’s Pixel 7

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