Another Pixel 9 Pro camera bar fault makes us worried about Google's quality control

Back in October, we told you about the discovery of a Google Pixel 9 Pro with a faulty camera bar housing. As first seen on Reddit, a user complained that their camera bar was moving away from the phone’s body. This was peculiar, especially when you consider the user’s claims that they had kept the phone in a case 24/7 and had never dropped or otherwise damaged it.

At the time, we had reached out to Google for a comment on the matter but received no reply. Now, we have a second incident of this bizarre phenomenon. As with the first, the Reddit user claims to have kept the phone protected at all times, yet is seeing the camera bar housing separating from the phone.

You can see the Redditor’s original photos mirrored below:

In the first incident, the user said they first noticed the problem when they were in the shower, and the phone was left on the bathroom sink. This led to theories of moisture causing the issue, but that shouldn’t matter, considering the camera bar is screwed onto the frame (with three screws for the Pixel 9 Pro). In this case, the user doesn’t mention anything about moisture, so it seems we can rule that out.

Unfortunately, the phone’s owner mentioned that they tried to contact Google’s customer support to see if it could rectify the problem and received a blunt reply that the phone was past the 90-day limit for returns or exchanges. The thread is filled with folks trying to convince the person with the problematic device not to take “no” for an answer and keep pursuing a replacement.

One theory we have is that the cases themselves could be the problem here. It is possible that these users are using protective cases that are too snug for the device. The relentless pressure on the camera bar could cause it to slowly loosen and move away from the phone’s body. This is just a theory, obviously, but it seems sound enough. Without knowing what cases the phones had on them, we can’t say for sure.

For what it’s worth, we contacted Google again about this issue. We’re hoping we’ll at least get a response this time. If we do, we’ll be sure to update this post with whatever Google has to say.