While it remains a popular phone, the Pixel 2 XL has had its fair share of technical problems. Several users have reported muted colors, display burn-in, and faint clicking sounds coming from the earpiece. Now, another audio issue has been discovered: rattling speakers.
A number of owners have taken to the Pixel User Community forums to report speaker distortion and rattling/buzzing sounds. It's said to start when the volume level reaches around 70 - 75 percent.
Most users have reported the problem arising from the handset's bottom speaker, but a small number claim the earpiece speaker is suffering from the same issue. And while most people say their Pixel 2 XL is affected, a few have reported the same audio distortion in the Pixel 2.
Check out the video below, recorded by Android Police's Artem Russakovskii, to hear the problem. If you turn it up and listen closely, you can make out the same type of rattling sounds that appear in cheap speakers when boosted to their maximum volume; not something you would expect to find in Google's high-end smartphone.
Back in November, Google released the first software update designed to fix the Pixel 2 XL's color, burn-in, and audio issues, along with a security patch for the KRACK (Key Reinstallation Attacks) vulnerability.
Google has yet to release an official statement regarding this new problem. Affected owners are being advised to try booting into Safe Mode or performing a factory reset to see if that fixes the audio, but it doesn't seem to be helping. It appears that an RMA, while inconvenient, is the only option right now.