Google's Pixels have an audio issue that's causing distortion at high volumes.!

Dull design aside, the Google Pixel and Pixel XL are two of the best premium Android phones (if not the best) you can buy right now. But there might be an issue with their speakers, especially at high volumes.

Reddit user Mark "badmark" Buckman brought to attention the problem after posting a video of his Pixel and Pixel XL exhibiting audio distortion when the volume is turned to their highest levels.

With the volumed cranked all the way up, the Perfect Piano app is virtually unusable. As you drag your fingers along the keys, the keys sound more like static with lots of audio popping.

The issue also only rears itself when the volume set to its loudest with the Perfect Piano app and the audio is played through the speaker; headphones seem to work fine.

Mashable was able to replicate the same audio problem on a Pixel and two separate Pixel XLs. The issue remained even when we updated the phones from Android 7.1 to 7.1.1. The same tests on a OnePlus 3T running Android 6.1 Marshmallow, and an iPhone 7 running iOS 10.2, however, had no such audio distortions.

Pixel owners have been reporting on audio popping and clicking issues since late October.

A post from a Pixel XL owner, Ryan Lestage, on Google's official Pixel user community forum, from back on Oct. 24, suggests the audio issues extend to all audio including "talk radio or music played in Chrome, Facebook, TuneIn Radio, YouTube, etc."

Mashable wasn't able to reproduce the issues in other commonly used music apps such as YouTube, Chrome, Spotify or Pandora.

Given the different user reports, it's unclear exactly what's causing the speaker problems.

Mashable has reached to Google for comment regarding the audio problems some users are reporting. It's possible a software update could fix it.

Pixel XL have audio issues.!

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For the cost of a brand new Google Pixel XL or iPhone 7 Plus, you can buy a pair of Huawei Mate 8s and still treat yourself to a decent dinner.

Mobile computing in 2016 was quite literally explosive, but when you look beyond the schadenfreude of watching Samsung mishandle its defining crisis of the year, the past 12 months have hardly set the world alight.

The best example of the current state of affairs is the Google Pixel XL. Technically, this is the best Android phone on the market at the moment. Its 5.5-inch AMOLED screen is fantastic, the camera lives up to the hype, and the battery on it is immense.

Not only is the hardware top notch, but being a proper Google phone means it is going to receive the newest and greatest Android versions long before those of other Android handset makers -- and if you are OK with handing over vast amounts of personal data to Google, you might find its virtual assistants useful.

But all that said, it's not a phone that I would unreservedly recommend to the average person, and that's because of its cost.

In Australia, the Pixel XL starts at AU$1,270 to buy the 32GB unit outright, or AU$1,420 for the 128GB version -- for the same amount of money, it is possible to buy a pair of Huawei Mate 8s or P9s and still have enough change for a good night out.

For the spec-driven consumer, or smartphone user who absolutely must have the newest and shiniest device, opting for slightly slower device may not be palatable, but the incremental improvements in hardware in recent years have not resulted in any must-have performance gains.

Getting by on a year-old device is hardly slumming it in 2016, in fact, the state of mobile hardware is resembling the real-life performance plateau that PCs have long exhibited -- newer hardware is faster, but refreshing hardware because it cannot keep up with the latest apps is less and less of a factor.

Even if you demand a great camera, the latest hardware, and premium build quality in a new smartphone, as long as you are after an Android device there is probably a device from a Chinese brand that fits the bill.

The reputation of Chinese hardware and software has been tarnished by some very questionable practices, and thoughts of Chinese companies sending data to servers in their own country is enough to cause another round of security-induced panic. Such responses are not without solid reasoning and history, but Google and the United States are not without their own questions to answer as well.

If we dismiss Android as a security nightmare, that leaves the folks at Cupertino as our only phone option. In his review of the iPhone 7 Plus, Matthew Miller said: "The hardware may not visibly be revolutionary, but the internal improvements and the continued advancement of iOS 10 make it an amazing smartphone."

Once again, there is no doubting the merit of the device, but does that merit stack up to AU$1,400? Especially if you are moving over from Android where many of the advances of the iPhone 7 were available in some way, shape, or form -- it's a tough call without a standout feature to rely on.

All the fuss in 2016 at the top end of the market seemed to be about phones exploding, or the removal of a headphone jack.

Meanwhile, low cost handset makers have been quietly munching on the lunch of flagship phone makers, and in China, Oppo and Vivo have streaked ahead while Apple has slumped.

Samsung and Apple appear to have pinned their hopes on bezel-free phones in 2017, to keep the other players at bay. They better hope these devices are gorgeous enough to warrant a AU$1,500 spend.

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Google's mobile payment system has taken its first step into the Japanese market.

 

Japanese owners of an Android phone running KitKat or higher are able to make use of Android Pay today, provided they use Rakuten Edy.

 

In its announcement, Google said Rakuten Edy is available at over 470,000 locations, with users able to create a new Edy card or use an existing card.

 

Google said that over the next year it plans to work with Felica -- which Apple activated on its devices in October -- as well as Visa, Mastercard, and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

 

Over recent months, Android Pay has rolled out in Ireland and New Zealand.

 

Irish users need to have a Mastercard or Visa card from AIB and KBC to use Android Pay, while Kiwis need to have a BNZ flexi debit Visa card.

 

In October, Mastercard said it had reached agreements to intregrate MasterPass tokenisation with digital wallet services from Google, Samsung, and Microsoft.

 

Earlier this year, the New South Wales government said it would accept Android Pay at its service centres.

 

ANZ became the first major Australian bank to make Android Pay available and the only bank in Australia to make Apple Pay available to customers earlier this year.

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