Users of Google’s Pixel 2 XL are now reporting what seems to be a new bug, following the latest OTA update which delivered the June 2018 Android security patch. The issue appears to only show up when users have the device’s Always-on Display (AOD) disabled and the result is a significant delay in the screen waking up. Perhaps worse, that lag is reportedly between two to three seconds and happens regardless of whether the power button or fingerprint scanner is used. Enabling AOD and allowing it to activate before turning the screen on, after pressing the power button to turn the screen off, causes the problem to disappear. Some users on the board are questioning whether the new bug is the result of a fix which was implemented with the update to stop AOD screen flickering issues on some handsets. For now, Google is taking information from those reporting the issue on its Issue Tracker boards.
There’s no word as to whether or not the issue is exclusively affecting the Google Pixel 2 XL or if the smaller Pixel 2 is also having the same problem. It’s also impossible to gauge the full scale of the bug’s impact but for the most part, this seems limited to the larger of the devices. None of the reports mention issues with the older original Pixel-branded devices or even earlier Nexus-branded devices either. That, coupled with the generally smaller size of security patches compared to full updates, should make it much easier for the search giant to narrow down the problem. With that said, if the issue is related to the earlier screen flickering bug, there may not be a straightforward solution.
In the meantime, Google has yet to officially comment on this new bug and there’s no guarantee the company will need to. This is hardly the first issue the company has encountered with its latest Android reference devices. So it makes sense that the company would want to get the problem dealt with and it’s probably going to simply work on getting a fix implemented as quickly as possible. At very least, the Pixel-branded handsets are updated on a fairly regular basis. So it shouldn’t take too long to roll out once the company figures out what, exactly, the problem is.