Googles new Battery Health assistance will intentionally shorten your Pixel 9as battery life and you cant turn the feature off

Date:
Thu, 03 Apr 2025 10:17:33 +0000

Description:
The Google Pixel 9a has a new feature that will intentionally reduce your phones battery life over time.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Google Pixel 9a phones come with a new Battery health assistance tool It will intentionally drop your phones maximum battery life every 200 charge cycles
It turns off after 1,000 charges, and you cant switch it off before then

The Google Pixel 9a has a new feature that will intentionally reduce your phones battery life over time and theres nothing you can do about it.

While theyre never the most exciting features, battery health tools are some of the most useful youll find on modern smartphones. Following best practices can ensure your phone doesnt become a massive battery sink after a year or
two of use and can extend how long you can go before buying a replacement lithium-ion cell for your handset.

And with its latest Google Pixel 9a release, Google looks to be taking
battery health seriously with a new Battery health assistance feature that
(at launch) will be exclusive to the new handset.

But rather than giving you a choice on how your phone charges such as manually setting your device to cut charging off at 80%, or only reaching a full charge just before when your phone expects you to unplug it according
to Googles official help page Battery health assistance will automatically lower your batterys maximum charge every 200 charge cycles.

This gradual decline will continue every 200 cycles until your device completes 1,000 cycles. (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Whats more, while Google has confirmed to 9to5Google that the feature will be voluntary for any customers using previously launched devices, (i.e. the
other best Google Pixel phones ) its help page for the Pixel 9a reveals that for its latest device, Battery health assistance settings on Pixel 9a arent customizable by the user.

Now, some of you might be worried that this will mean your Google Pixel 9a runs out of battery more quickly than if you could switch this feature off, but the silver lining here is that this feature will probably mean your phone battery lasts longer.

Over time, most batteries degrade anyway, so 100% charge after several months wont last as long as it did when the phone was brand new.

The hope is that while youre still losing some battery performance over time, Googles controlled descent will mean your battery lasts longer per charge
than it would if you didnt use Battery Health assistance.

Though we can understand that the lack of control over how you can manage
your device is likely to rub many the wrong way, even if it is an upgrade. It also doesnt do much to assuage concerns surrounding intentional performance throttling from smartphone manufacturers to encourage you to upgrade your smartphone more regularly.

Its looking like this feature is an upgrade in disguise, however, and if its
a success well likely see it appear on other Google smartphones going
forward. You might also like Google Pixel 9a: five of the biggest upgrades
The Google Pixel 9a is already available to preorder in the UK - and you can save up to 500 Older Pixels just got a big performance boost, while the Pixel 9a is lacking a key feature



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/google-pixel-phones/googles-new-battery-healt h-assistance-will-intentionally-shorten-your-pixel-9as-battery-life-and-you-ca nt-turn-the-feature-off


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)