To start with, I had a Huawei p20 that had been working fine for many years, but the screen suddenly died. I had long been thinking about buying a Pixel to load GrapheneOS on since I wanted a more privacy-focused phone.

So I bought a Pixel 8 (256GB) and it went pretty smoothly, some things were a little different and sometimes more difficult, but overall it went well. But after a few weeks the screen turned almost completely green, I could still see some of what was on the screen. After hit the phone with an open hand repeatedly it went back to normal. But after a few days it started again and there was now a permanent horizontal green line about 1/3 in from the left. I tried updating my phone, but it didn't help. So I reset it back to Google OS and handed it in and got a new phone after a few weeks.

I installed GrapheneOS on this new phone and thought it the previously ohone had been a faulty phone. But after a month it started again, I used the phone a little until I repeated the same thing as the previous phone.

I'm now on my third phone in just a few months. I was now a little afraid to trust this phone too much since I hadn't had a good experience with this type of phone yet. But now there were no problems for several months, but then after about 6 months the phone was finally green again. I hit the phone again and it went back to normal, I thought I just have to see how long it lasts this time. But it didn't come back, I thought. As soon as I had forgotten that this could happen, it would happen again. Usually with an interval of 1-2 months. I figured I'd have to take it back if the problem persists.

But today when I was just looking up something I had taken a picture of, the phone froze. It didn't respond when I held down the power button. I put it aside for a few minutes and when I picked it up again, it wouldn't wake up again. It doesn't respond at all, no sound, picture or vibration. PC doesn't respond when I plug it in and it only draws 0.2A when plugged in to charge.

I don't really know what to do with this phone. I live in Norway and I think I will be able to get my money back at this point. Phones have a 5-year warranty and companies are only allowed to try to fix a problem 3 times before you can demand your money back. I don't understand why I've had so many problems with these phones when it seems like so many others don't have these problems. The only thing I can think of that is different from most other phones is that I use a wallet case for my phone, but I feel like I'm dragging it out a bit. I'm careful with my phone, I never dropped it on the floor, it never got wet and I only charged it with a slow charger and never overnight.

This became a bit more of a venting about my frustration with this phone now. The one thing I was wondering is if there is any hope of being able to get the pictures and files out of the phone when it seems so dead. I always intended to take regular backups of my phone, but the last one was 2 months ago and there was a lot of important info for work on the phone.

My only experience so far is that the Pixel is garbage and I'm the only one with problems. Is the Pixel 8 garbage?