This Forgotten Pixel Braved Snow, Rain, And Mud For Six Months — And Still Works!
TL;DR
- A man recovered his fully functional Pixel 6a six months after it was lost in heavy snow in France.
- Google has detailed its rigorous durability testing practices that may have led to the phone’s survival.
- While not designed for extreme scenarios like prolonged submersion in harsh elements, the IP67-rated Pixel 6a proved highly durable.
In a major flex about the durability of its Pixel phones and tablets, Google has shared a surprising survival tale of a Pixel 6a, which was recovered successfully by its owner after being buried in the snow for half a year! The phone not only braved snow but also withstood rain and mud and lived to tell the tale.
The story goes like this — In February 2024, a man named Andrew Prag went skiing in Serre Chevalier, France, where he dropped his Pixel 6a in the snow on a mountain. He managed to geolocate the phone and planned to retrieve it the next day, but heavy snowfall overnight derailed his plans, snuffing out any hope of ever recovering it.
When Prag returned to Serre Chevalier six months later, he had the wild idea of going to the location where he lost his Pixel 6a in a last-ditch attempt to find it. Lo and behold, not only did he find the device, which was covered in mud and hiding in foliage, but he was also pleasantly surprised to find that the phone was still functional.
See also Google's Circle To Search Could Add Product Comparisons To Its Bag Of Tricks (APK Teardown)
“I just plugged it in and switched it on as though it had been sitting in a drawer all that time,” Andrew said.
That’s quite an impressive survival story for the Pixel 6a, especially considering it lacks the more robust IP68 rating and comes with the less protective IP67 certification.
Google’s Product Integrity Engineering team lead, Ajay Kamath, shared a similar story in the blog post. His daughter’s Pixel 6a survived five days in the snow after being dropped from a ski lift. “The phone was actually still on in battery-saver mode,” he said.
Google’s durability tests
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
While sharing these crazy Pixel 6a survival stories, Google also took the opportunity to detail its durability testing processes in the blog post.
“We start by trying to really understand all the scenarios in which a customer is going to use our products. Then we design tests that have to be repeatable and explainable to our design teams,” wrote Kamath.
As an example of some “fairly out-there trials,” Google described a process wherein a robotic arm repeatedly slides a tablet in and out of a backpack to simulate unpacking or packing. Another such test involves the team dropping several tablets from a low height over and over again to judge the impact of such a fall. Google has also designed a test that uses a motor to vigorously shake devices to see how they would survive.
Don’t go burying your Pixels in the snow for fun!
The Googler goes on to list the practical scenarios for which the company tests, including survival in high altitudes and extreme temperatures. He opined that the Pixel 6a units that survived under the snow did so because they were relatively sealed from water and dust thanks to the IP67 rating. “The snow cover kept them relatively protected, and the charging circuit was most likely disabled, saving the battery,” he added.
However, he cautions that Pixels aren’t specifically designed for such extreme scenarios, so don’t go intentionally burying your phones in the snow for fun. That said, if it ever happens accidentally, looks like there’s a good chance your Google phone will come out unscathed.
