Google’s Pixel (and Nexus) lineup has often fallen short when it came to hardware quality control. Some reports from early buyers with a variety of screen defects suggest that the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro may be no different (via GSMArena).
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As this is the first day that Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro retail units are reaching buyers, it’s impossible to say whether any of these issues are widespread or if we are just looking at a few isolated hardware problems. However, as you’ll see, some of these definitely don’t fall into the category of acceptable hardware quirks. Perhaps the most troubling is a second hole-punch on the display of a Pixel 6 Pro that belongs to Mark Schramm, the Lead VR Dev at Superhot VR. He has verified that it isn’t due to damage to the display and cannot be eliminated by drawing over it, so it is almost certainly a hardware defect that occurred during manufacturing. While that one should be pretty immediately obvious from the moment that you power the phone on out of the box, the other two are a little more subtle. The least problematic of the issues is this screen flickering problem that a Reddit user posted in the Pixel 6 subreddit. It is only present when pressing the power button with the phone turned off. While an official explanation for what is happening hasn’t been offered yet, the general consensus is that it isn’t damaging, merely a partial connection being made without powering the phone on fully. The last issue that is cropping up is one that we’ve seen on many OLED phone screens before. It’s a green tint that in the image posted again to the Pixel 6 subreddit originates in the upper-right corner of the phone. This one is obviously enough of a problem to warrant a return as well. While you hate to see any defective hardware make it to consumers, we’ll need to wait and see as more retail units reach buyers if Google has an actual problem on its hands or if this is simply a few isolated problems. We’ll keep you updated as we find out more.
