Déjà vu: Pixel 8 owners report 'terrible' battery and connectivity issues

The Pixel 6 series was infamous for its poor connectivity and reception problems. Google improved things a lot with the Pixel 7 series, but it too reportedly suffered from low signal strength issues for several users. It seems the Pixel 8 series is also affected by similar connectivity problems, including a larger issue that causes the battery on the phones to drain rapidly when using mobile internet compared to Wi-Fi.

There are numerous reports on Reddit and XDA Forums (via AndroidPolice) about the “terrible” battery life of the regular Pixel 8 model. Affected users believe the Exynos 5300 modem on the Tensor G3 is to blame because most of them are experiencing unusual battery drain when using mobile data. Some say the phone barely provides five hours of screen-on time before requiring a charge when using mobile internet as opposed to around eight hours on Wi-Fi.

“My 8 Pro was using so much power doing nothing but Google Maps for less than an hour it used 40% of the battery walking around on 5G. I got at most 7 hours of battery on Wi-Fi. Less than three on cellular,” a user complained on Reddit.

“I just returned my P8. Battery life was horrible on 5G. After two weeks, I was still getting around 2h30m of SOT on mobile data. Some days, my P8 would lose 50% of its charge while sitting on a desk for 8~9 hours connected to 5G,” wrote another.

Several Pixel 8 series users are also noticing signal drops and unreliable mobile data connections on both phones. Some even go as far as saying that the connectivity issues on the new Pixels are as bad as the Pixel 6 series.

“My Pixel 7 Pro had much better battery life and a stable data connection at most times. The Pixel 8 Pro lasts far less, and the data connection is way more unreliable. I’m hoping they fix some of this with an update because it’s completely unacceptable for a third Gen $1,000 phone,” said a Redditor.

It seems the new Pixels are unable to maintain a stable connection in areas that usually have good connectivity. For what it’s worth, we didn’t notice any such issues on our Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro review units.

Perhaps this and the battery drain issue is something Google can resolve with a software update. We’ll write to the company and update this article if and when we hear back. In the meantime, take our poll above and let us know if you’re also experiencing battery drain on mobile data and connectivity issues on your Pixel 8 series units.