Author: DOuG pRATt

Should I, or shouldn’t I? For a New Year’s project, I’m contemplating replacing the battery in my 5-year-old Google Pixel 4a. As recounted here early last year, I was forced by Google to get a new phone because of a mandatory update that crippled the battery as a safety precaution. The 4a is no longer supported by Google, but it can still do almost everything I want it to do, at least inside the house. Text messaging is available through Device Pairing with my Pixel 8a. Lacking a SIM, the only thing I can’t do with the 4a is use it for phone calls.

I prefer its size and weight to the 8a, and besides using it indoors, I take it with me on walks to listen to downloaded podcasts. The headphone jack means I don’t need to bring a DAC adapter. The only problem is the unpredictable rate the battery drains. If I’m lucky, it lasts a few hours. A new battery is promised to be unaffected by the update.

IFIXIT has a 4a battery replacement kit for not too much money. It isn’t an easy job, but I successfully replaced the trackpad in the Lenovo laptop PC. Although doing that didn’t fix whatever the problem is, I didn’t break anything in the process.

https://www.ifixit.com/products/google-pixel-4a-battery-genuine

Removing the 4a’s OLED screen, without breaking it, appears to be the trickiest step, but it’s worth a try. Having the 4a run throughout the day would make it possible to go easy on the 8a’s battery in the long run.

A bigger project for the New Year will be getting one of my Pioneer LaserDisc players working again. If I’m lucky, belts and lubrication will be all that’s needed, as was the case with my Sony dual cassette deck and 300-disc CD changer.