Google Hardware Complaints Remind Me of BlackBerry Classic

I read an article on マリウス.com titled I Do Not Recommend Google Hardware. The author, Marius, goes through the issues he has had with various Google phones and tablets over the years. One of the issues, the Google Pixel 6a battery problems, struck a chord with me since my Pixel 6a was affected by the same issue (that is the reason I am currently using my 3a XL, which has been solid after I purchased it refurbished on Ebay). But one passage jumped out to me not because of Google, but rather my own BlackBerry Classic memories. The author was describing his Google Nexus 5 (I never had a Nexus 5). He explained it had battery issues:

The battery, which had been mediocre to begin with, became unreliable and the phone would report 40% charge one moment and shut off entirely the next, and over time it began to randomly reboot and power off without any obvious trigger. The decline was not gradual either and once the battery started misbehaving, the device was effectively unusable within a matter of weeks.

This anecdote almost perfectly describes my BlackBerry Classic experience. I purchased a refurbished BlackBerry Classic at the end of February 2018 after my BlackBerry Bold broke. It worked fine until about November 2018, when, on a walk to meet a friend in Williamsburg, it became non-responsive and randomly turning on and off. After a clean reset, it “mostly” worked, but the battery had issues similar to the above paragraph describing a Nexus 5. It would sometimes report 40% or 50% and suddenly turn off. The battery was especially unreliable in cold weather. By late 2020/early 2021, the phone’s performance began to slow, which was a factor prompting me to switch to a mainline Android phone in March/April 2021 (see the story of how I rescued photos from my Classic).

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