Google faces lawsuit in US for allegedly selling defected Pixel smartphones

Google claims that only 1% of Pixel devices sold were affected by the defect.

Google’s Pixel smartphones are defected with microphone issues (AP)

Google has been hit with a class action lawsuit in the US for issues with microphone on the first-generation Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones.

The class action suit filed in the US by Patricia Weeks and Waleed Anbar against Google claims that Google was aware of the microphone issue but still went ahead with selling the defected devices.

The issue as explained in the lawsuit reads, "The defect compromises the phone's core functionality, preventing consumers from communicating by voice call and from using features like Google Assistant."

It is worth mentioning here that Google Pixel users have been complaining about the issues with microphone ever since Pixel smartphones were launched in October 2016. Google's support page is filled with numerous posts by users seeking a resolution to the problem.

Interestingly, Google acknowledged the issue and announced an investigation. Google said that this was due to a "hairline crack in the solder connection on the audio codec". The search giant also said that only 1% of its Pixel devices sold were affected with this hardware problem.

The company also offered replacement units for the defected devices. However, the lawsuit further states that even the replaced units were defected and the microphone issue persisted on the Pixel smartphones.

The latest response from Google on this matter is available on its support page.

Users who are experiencing similar issues with their Google Pixel (under warranty) can contact Google 1:1 support. Pixel users can find this option under the Settings menu on their Pixel devices or simply by clicking on the Help Center. As for Pixel users out of warranty can visit Google's authorised service centers.

Since there is no walk-in service center for Google devices in India, Pixel users will have to contact the company. Google has also included Pixel 2 smartphone users in the list. Google's Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL also suffer another hardware problem of display burn-ins. Google promised software updates and also extended the smartphones' warranty by two years.