Some owners of Google Pixel 7 and Google Pixel 7 Pro are reporting that their phone's cameras are shattering of their own accord, seemingly with no reason in sight.While Google has yet to publicly comment on the issue, multiple reports suggest that the company has so far refused to fix the issue under a warranty claim. And Google is said to have quoted one customer as much as $400 to get their device repaired.The issue appears to have been going on for some time now, at least since December 2022. Ars Technica notes that reports have so far been spread across Reddit and Twitter, not to mention Google's own support forums. The reports all carry a similar theme - people found that their Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro's camera glass had shattered for no obvious reason.
"Was walking the dog during a cold snap last week (below 0F / -15C) and took out my phone to take a picture," one owner says via Reddit. "Noticed a bunch of glare/reflections, so I went to wipe off the camera lens and the glass was already shattered. I found shards of glass in my pocket."
ArsTechnica does also note that this isn't the first time that we've heard about something like this happening to a phone. The Samsung Galaxy S20 suffered a similar failure a couple of years ago, with cameras simply popping without warning. The outlet suggests that the issue could be related to the way the glass is built to prevent scratching.
One Scientific American article explains that "there's a layer of compressive stress, then a layer of central tension, where the glass wants to press out, then another layer of compressive stress." If those two stresses aren't in balance, the glass explodes.
It's perhaps still too early to say how big of an issue this is in the grand scheme of things. But it's a huge issue for people whose phones are now broken. Especially if Google continues to refuse to pick up the tab for repairs.