4 min read

Monday morning comes something most of us dread anyways, so imagine my reaction when I look over to see my Nexus 6P with the Google logo stuck on the screen. I think to myself “great, how long has that been there?” OLED screens are notorious for burn in so I jump up to power it down, only to find it won’t power down and it starts to loop. My Nexus 6P has now joined the ranks of many other users by getting stuck in a boot loop. This Huawei is why you are being sued.

Rewind back late 2015, Huawei is looking to break into the US market and has teamed up with Google to create the best Nexus ever, especially considering it was also the last Nexus ever it will go down with that title as well. The Nexus 6P had everything you could want in a phone at the time with a premium build, stock Android, stereo front facing speakers, a QHD AMOLED screen, high-end SoC, an amazing camera, all at a reasonable price.

I had always avoided Nexus phones due to the poor camera performance and lack of microSD support, but the Nexus 6P won me over with a fantastic camera and reasonable price. I had always wanted a stock Android phone and now there was no excuse to not buy one. Little did I know, three months out of warranty the phone was going to choke and die on me.

At the time it was hard to find the Nexus 6P in stock. The majority of people were ordering from Google due to their great support. In order to get the color and storage I wanted I decided to order from Huawei. Surely, they were going to give this phone great support. This was their big push into the US market and they are going to want to do it right. Unfortunately, that is not what happened.

After the Nougat update, I, like many others noticed a pretty huge decline in battery life. Some even experienced their phone shutting down early. I was lucky to never experience the early shutdown, but I did see my Nexus 6P take a drastic hit in battery life, losing at least 45 minutes of screen on time when I could already barely make it through the day before Nougat. The phone became mostly unusable, but I still carried it to use as a camera. Even by today’s standards, the Nexus 6P has one of my favorite cameras.

Fast forward to present day. I contacted Google hoping their support would be better. After clearing the cache from recovery they forwarded me to Huawei. I contacted Huawei and they asked me to clear the cache and then factory data reset the phone. Afterward, I was still left with a boot looping Nexus 6P.

The agent asked for my IMEI and then I was essentially told by Huawei “Sorry, you’re three months out of warranty, enjoy your shiny brick.” Of course, it was said in a much nicer way but it doesn’t make the pill any easier to swallow.

Now the only option I have is to join the class action lawsuit against Huawei and Google. The suit covers not only boot looping but the battery issues as well. If you’ve had either issue then I urge you to join the suit.

I understand mine was already out of warranty, but this is also happening to people who are still under warranty. Some of them only getting the runaround instead of a solution. It’s ridiculous when you cannot produce a phone that will survive two years or more. This is no way to make a name for yourself in the US market, nor is it a way to build any sort of brand loyalty. I certainly don’t see myself recommending Huawei any time in the future, at least not until they prove themselves in terms of support. Huawei wants to get into the US market and they can do great here, but support is an incredibly important of buying phones in the US, and Huawei’s lack of effort here is part of the reason the company has not seen true success yet, and it won’t until that changes.