Pixel 6a survives after braving the elements for six months

Google has shared a random tale of a man, the snow and his Pixel 6a.

In February 2024, Andrew Prag was skiing in Serre Chevalier, France, when he lost his Pixel 6a in the snow at the end of his last day on the mountain. He could not geolocate the handset, and as it snowed that night, he figured he’d never find the device again.

When Andrew went back to France six months later to visit his family, he decided to look for his lost phone.“Sure enough, after poking around for a bit, I found it nestled in the grass and wildflowers, covered in mud,” said Prag. Even after months of the device being buried in the snow, mud, and rain, it still worked after he had charged it.

Ajay Kamath of Google’s Product Integrity Engineering team says, “We can’t say Pixel phones will always survive in these extreme conditions, but I’m not surprised that some have.” Kamath leads the team that puts Google hardware through various stress tests to ensure durability and temperature can survive day-to-day wear and tear.

Google says they put the devices through some “fairly out-there trials,” which include a test of a robotic arm sliding a tablet in and out of a backpack repeatedly to simulate unpacking or packing your bag at the end of the day. There have also been repeated drop tests from a low height and another machine that uses a motor to shake devices to see how they survive. Google will also test how the device survives temperatures rating from -30 degrees Celsius to to 75 degrees Celcius. This test measures how your phone will feel if you leave it on a hot summer day or if rapid temperature changes from when you leave your device in your home to the freezing cold outside. 

“So the phones are relatively sealed from the elements, the snow cover kept them relatively protected, and the charging circuit was most likely disabled, saving the battery,” Kamath says. “Our phones aren’t designed for that scenario, but everything else they’re tested and designed for might help them survive.”

I wouldn’t suggest leaving your Pixel in the snow overnight, but if you leave it outside and it’s in the cold on your driveway or something, the device should survive. 

Source: Google Blog