Some Pixel 7 users are finding the glass on their rear camera bar is randomly shattering

Google learned plenty from the issues that sprung up last year with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. While the laggy under-display fingerprint scanner was a major issue, so was the problem that many users had staying connected to their wireless provider's network, or even their own Wi-Fi network. We haven't heard about this happening with the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro.

The Pixel 7 series is more refined than last year's models and includes Face Unlock. The facial recognition system is being driven by the Google Tensor 2 SoC but is not secure enough to verify mobile payments. The Super Res Zoom on the Pixel 7 Pro delivers 30x digital zoom with 5x optical zoom capabilities.

It's probably a cliche to say that the Pixel 7 series turned out to be exactly what Google had hoped for with the Pixel 6 line. But for the most part, it has been a drama-free two months for the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro although some Twitter and Reddit subscribers are complaining about a serious problem affecting their phones.

A Twitter user with the name of Heydon Faber (@CSThrowaway) posted a photo on Twitter that shows damage to the rear camera glass on his Pixel 7. Writing on Christmas he said, "Not even a month, no drops just regular use. Have a case on the phone. Been told Its my problem. Is this really the quality control backed by google? It's clearly a manufacturing defect, and I know I'm not the only one. Please fix this google! @madebygoogle #pixel7brokencamera."

On Reddit, a subscriber with the handle dalitortoise wrote, "I pulled my phone out of my pocket and the back camera glass was broken. I must have hit a corner while it was in my pocket. Has anyone else had this problem? I called around to the phone fixing stores and nobody has the replacement parts yet. Don't really want to have to mail this phone in to have it fixed as it's currently the only phone I have." 

Responding to the post, another Redditor with the same problem said that he was told by a uBreakiFix store that the entire back panel would need to be replaced at a cost to him of $200. But this Pixel 7 owner sent photos of his device to Google and was offered a replacement unit.

This is not a totally new issue. As far back as Thanksgiving (Ok, it seems like more than just a month ago), another Pixel 7 user on Reddit complained about the glass breaking on his phone's camera bar. He wrote, "I'm flying to the parents house today for Thanksgiving (gobble gobble). I pulled my phone out of my pocket to scan my boarding pass and what do I see? Cracked camera glass over the ultrawide side of the lens (so much so that glass is actually flaking off). A nice TSA lady gave me a piece of tape to prevent further flaking."

He added, "I'm running a case, haven't dropped the phone once, and it was literally fine 30 minutes ago. I'm quite pissed considering I don't know what I did to crack it/what happened...."

And yet another Pixel 7 series user told others on Reddit that he had the same problem. His story sounds familiar as he wrote, "I took my pixel 7 out of my pocket today, and the rear camera glass in front of the ultra wide was shattered. Didn't drop my phone or anything like that at all, my phone has a good case as well. Seems to be a defect on the pixel 7 series of phones, many people on the subreddit are having issues with this. Contacted Google support, past preferred care buy period but this is almost certainly a material defect of the phone so we will see if they cover under limited."

If this has happened to your Pixel 7 series device, contact Google ASAP. And yes, use another phone to take photos of the damage.