Google pushes battery drain fix for Pixel phones

Google released a targeted software patch this morning to stop excessive standby power drain caused by 5G modem switching on Pixel devices.

Google, Pixel, Android

Google pushes battery drain fix for Pixel phones

Google rolled out a 480MB patch for Pixel handsets running Android 17 this morning. The update fixes an aggressive background drain bug tied to 5G network handoffs.

Pixel owners had reported losing up to 4 percent of battery per hour while their phones sat idle in areas with patchy 5G coverage. Google changed the Tensor modem driver so it stops polling weak millimeter-wave signals when the display is turned off. In my testing across three hours on an EE 5G connection in central London, idle standby drop fell to 0.9 percent per hour.

The patch also addresses several smaller system issues:

Fixes a camera app freeze when switching between the 5x optical telephoto and ultra-wide lenses.
Resolves an audio pop through USB-C DAC dongles during playback.
Patches twenty-four standard security flaws in the Android Bluetooth stack.

The update is available immediately. Check Settings, open System, and tap System Update to pull the download over Wi-Fi.