The stable Android 13 update has been out since the beginning of the week and that means a couple of days for you to run it and establish first impressions. I’m curious what those are, as the update is somewhat minor in new features, but huge in terms of bug fixes from Android 12.
To recap, Android 13 dropped on Monday for the Pixel 4, Pixel 4a, Pixel 5, Pixel 5a, Pixel 6, and Pixel 6a. The update was available immediately if you felt like playing in adb, plus we’ve seen it rollout over-the-air as well to some phones. Tim, for example, says he can pull it yet I can’t on my Pixel 6 Pro. Rude, Google.
We talked about all of the new features in Android 13 that you’ll want to be on the lookout for and then spent a lengthy amount of time looking through the list of 150 bugs that Google fixed. Google says it was able to improve “performance, stability, and reliability,” fixed bugs related to charging and Gboard and touch screen palm detection and so much more. Google even says it addressed fingerprint reader performance on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6a.
After browsing through reddit, I can see that a number of folks have been quick to share that their fingerprint reader is indeed faster (Do people really believe this?) and that overall performance and stuttering has improved, especially on older Pixel phones.
What about you? How has Android 13 been running on your Pixel phone this week? Or are you still waiting for it?
Stand by battery life, at least on wifi, got WAY better on my Pixel 5. I’ve never had an Android update that made battery life better. Prior to the update 7 hours of stand by over night would drain about 10% of the battery. Last night it only drained 2%.
I’m not sure about stand by on mobile data or during actual use.
P6P, Verizon, finally arriving now.
Since the update I have no 5g. My email/ Gmail is backing up 3 years in updates and promotions inboxes where I’ve been trying to deal of them and they come right back. Pixel 5a/ 5g.
P6 pro definitely snappier. Finger print reader is sooo much better. Works instantly now. Finally. Let’s see how battery is
Hopefully not dreadful
I have a Verizon P6 Pro. I just checked and my 13 update was available. It is downloading at this moment. It is 1.02 GB in size.
Same here
Same here for p6p on Verizon. Still don’t get the delay though.
Lol….can’t get their flagship right..crazy, running Android 13 Beta on my unlocked S22 +, haven’t had any issues outside of 1 reboot since installing on 8/12
Runs way better than it did previously. Faster, snappier, better overall phone. I hope pixel 7 keeps this going or it may be my last pixel and I will try Team Samsung next.
I agree. Phone is so much smoother
I have a Pixel 6 Pro on Google Fi and have not yet received the update to Android 13.
Couldn’t tell you… P6 Pro, unlocked TMobile.. nothing yet.
Pixel 6 on google fi here and nothing yet…maybe it ain’t worth downloading if something so simple as getting the upgrade doesn’t work…I’ll keep the 12 till 13 gets iron out.
Really dumb question (having already self-acknowledged it’s dumb, nobody else needs to bother pointing it out): how do you join the beta?
Did you not try to google “android beta”?
I’m VZW and haven’t seen it yet. Question, has the poor signal issue been fixed with software or will I be destroying my phone to get a replacement P7P?
I was really hoping Android 13 would fix the wireless charging issues with my Pixel 6 Pro on Pixel Stand 2 but nope. It still frequently shows “Not Charging” for no apparent reason when it isn’t fully charged. Other than that, Android 13 seems fine.
I downloaded and sideloaded the OTA image onto my Pixel 6 Pro, and then did a network settings reset followed by a factory reset without restore from backup to get the “freshest” Android 13 experience. Aside from some weird inbound text issue that contemporaneously happened with Verizon (which was fixed after time with Verizon Level 2 support), it’s been great. My P6P feels snappier, battery life seems improved, and the fingerprint reader is definitely faster. Plus my Fitibit Sense seems to be working considerably better now. While there are not a lot of new features, the granular notifications permission is very helpful when first launching apps to control notification spam. Well done, Google!
I am waiting on the OTA for my 6a…
Well my battery life seem horrid since the update, I’m hoping it works itself out
Been running it on my Pixel 5 since Beta 4. My 5 runs tons better on 13 than it did on 12, and it wasn’t bad on 12.
Seems to work fine on my P6. (Downloaded and installed the OTA myself from Google’s site on release day). I’d like to think the finger print scanner is faster, but I really don’t think it is. I think I have had fewer instances where the initial attempt wasn’t read correctly, but I didn’t really have a nagging issue with Android 12 and the finger print reader, so it is hard to say. I do like the new media notification widget.
Still waiting. Doesn’t matter if it takes 2 days, 2 weeks or 2 months. My P6P will still function just fine until I get the OTA.
I’ve been running the beta so I don’t notice anything different. Been doing well for some time now.
Hasn’t arrived yet for my 6a on Fi.
Viber doesn’t seem to see the whole camera roll, but I’m hoping that’s fixed by an update. Otherwise, haven’t noticed any other issues.
EDIT: Actually, it seems to be having issues charging on my OG Pixel Stand. It was on the stand for 7hrs this past night and only hit 80%. It was also warm when I picked it up.
Smoothest my pixel 6 has been since I got it last December. I was on 13 beta and it was solid but I even notice a difference from 13 beta 4.1 to final build.
*UPDATE* Noticing today that my battery life is def worse since the stable update. Don’t think it was draining this fast on the beta.
Success in downloading & installing 13, BUT I had to
restart the phone twice in order to see your apps list. I swiped up after installation & found search function but no apps list. After a 2nd reboot, that silliness was sorted out.
Wouldn’t know. For some reason, no one on Verizon with a P6P seems to have the update yet.
Mine either. I bought my P6P from the Play Store and put a VZW sim in it. I tried the old trick of removing the VZW sim and it didn’t update so I figured I’ll wait for the official roll out after they satisfied that there isn’t a huge problem with bugs. After what happened in December I’m a little shy of jumping on something new. Especially since we can’t roll back to 12.
Yeah, sideloading doesn’t seem wise. No one is explaining the delay though.
I’m on Verizon with the P6P (from Google) but I was also in the Beta and got the Stable on Release Day.
My P5 has been unusable since beta 2. The official release is much better. But the phone is still unusable. The screen is unresponsive in some spots. It automatically selects things on the screen and the notification bar slides up and down by itself. It has been a nightmare. Keyboard barely works at all.
Any one using it pixel 4a?
It has been great since beta 1 for me on the 4a. Using it as my daily driver ATM since my P5 is not working at all on 13 for some reason
Yes, installed it the day it was released. Update was pretty quick and everything seems fine after some initial stuttering in the UI after the post-install restart. I had no issues before the update, performance or otherwise, to say update “fixed” or improved anything. The new features are so minor I barely noticed anything – well besides the “swimming sperm” media progress bar…
On my P5 it’s running pretty good*. Yesterday on a 101°F day I was able to take nearly 5 minutes of video while outside in direct sun. Before 2:20 seconds in my P5 would start warning of over hearing. Today came inside from mowing my lawn and my P5 restated on it’s own 8 times before I could get it to stop
I got tired of waiting for it to be an OTA update on Verizon so I decided to join the beta program and got the update that way. Question. If I were to leave the beta program now I’ve heard some people have had their phones bricked? At what point will it be “safe enough” for me to leave the beta program that way I get monthly security updates?
I left the beta program yesterday without any issues.
Thanks ????
If you are already on the final build then you just have to go back to the android beta website and opt out. Nothing will happen to your phone because you are already on the latest stable build.
If you opt out after the new qpr beta in Sept, then your phone will be wiped as it needs to be to go back to an older stable build.
I’d been running the final Beta for the past couple of weeks and received the stable release to my surprise on Monday. No issues with my P6P but then again, I didn’t have any of the “issues” that people had been complaining about since it was released. Other than the slow fingerprint reader. And I don’t really see any difference on 13 there.
Seems fine so far on my Pixel 5. Though I never had any big issues with Android 12. Pixel 5 has always been stable as a fairly large rock for me!
Opted in when the final 13 Beta was released (and got the Stable 13 on release day) and have pretty much had zero issues that were directly related to 13 (some non-Google apps that didn’t play well on 12 still don’t play that well) but I can report that I have fewer rejected fingerprint reads on my right thumb (which was somehow the ONLY finger that got constant rejects). Otherwise, it feels great; I was fortunate enough to have minimal amount of issues from Day 1 outside of my right thumbprint.
It’s running good so far on my Pixel 5.
My impression is slightly worse battery life & slightly jankier chrome. (6pro, uk, chrome dev)
Surprisingly well. I’m just a little disappointed that the battery life never got any better.
It took a noticeable hit during the 13 betas and never seemed to recover for me…
It is running way smoother than 12 ever did on my pixel 5. It does seem to have a memory leak or something, after about a day i have to switch apps for the display to update unless I restart. I’ve dealt with worse things in betas so this is minor.
My pixel 5 feels a lot smoother as well
I keep smashing that Check for Update button on my P6 waiting…
The beta version is now the stable version. Opt into the beta you’ll get the stable release (beta). And then once downloaded and installed opt out of the beta. Since the latest beta is the stable release opting out won’t require you to wipe your phone. And you’ll only get stable release software updates from here on out.
As I do with every version update, I downloaded the factory image, and flashed. My Pixel 6 Pro is running better than it ever has. IMHO this is what the Pixel 6 Pro and Android 12 should have been from day 1. Too bad it took them almost a year to get it right, but I’m overall happy with the device now
I agree. Everything I had a problem with has been fixed
Me too – A13 was mostly decent during the beta and now with the final release I have no lingering issues – even the fingerprint reader is almost as good as my old 4a. It just took an entire year to achieve…
Agreed. I’m going to charitably attribute it all to Google needing to learn to understand the Tensor chip in real world conditions themselves.
Still hasn’t shown up on my P6P (Google Fi).
Join the beta, let it give you the OTA for stable, then leave beta.
Works perfect.
So far so good. First thing I did was disable the 2 line clock on the lock screen. I don’t love the location of the settings button (now between a power button and background apps button in the top pull down) but I’ll get over it. Overall seems fine and largely the same as Android 12.
That’s hilarious because I have Android 12 on my Pixel 6 pro and I have already disabled the 2 line clock. That option’s been available on 12 for months
It’s pretty good. I like it.
Still waiting … But Im a patient guy. P6P on Verizon
Same
Verizon gave it to me (if they matter) on Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 5 and my wife’s 4 XL within an hour of announcement.
Join the beta, let it give you the OTA for stable, then leave beta.
Works perfect.
Stop telling people to join the beta. It is not required. Download the actual Android 13 release (not beta) directly from Google.
That’s the same thing as joining the beta, getting the stable release, and immediately exiting the beta.
Join the beta, let it give you the OTA for stable, then leave beta.
Works perfect.
Still waiting for the OTA to hit my Pixel 6 Pro. Purchased direct from Google, and using on T-Mobile.
same
Join the beta, install and then opt out of beta. No factory wipe needed ….until Google releasing the QPR beta.
I got tired of waiting and installed the OTA’s manually. That said no consistent bugs found. Some chopped screen oddities and transitioning from private CBRS back to cell data has had issues. Not convinced it’s the phone tho.