The Pixel 11's battery drain has been traced to a sneaky WiFi firmware bug

Published Sep 21, 2026, 10:50 AM EDT I've been covering Android and other mobile technology for close to ten years now, with a specific interest in phone accessories, e-readers, and what makes each individual phone different from another. I delight in looking at the phone market from as many angles as possible, and while my opinions may be odd, at times, they're always from the heart as much as the head. I have a background in the mobile accessories world, which explains my odd enthusiasm for cases and things that clip onto smartphones. I worked for Digital Trends from 2017 to 2025. Sign in to your Android Police account It seems the Pixel 11 is having some serious battery drain issues, as owners are already reporting problems with how well Google's latest smartphones handle their battery capacity. Thankfully, it seems like some curious Reddit users have helped to pin down what might be the root of the problem. And oddly, it might be down to the WiFi firmware you use. Yet more Pixel battery drain problems Google's batteries really do take a beating Pixel owners really can't get a break. The were never really solved, and now there's also a problem with the Pixel 11 as well? That's Reddit user's Albamen13's theory anyway. According to Albaman13, their Pixel 11 was losing a staggering 2.5-3% of charge per hour when on standby. For context, it's more common for battery to drop by around 1% per hour on standby — for instance, if it's on your night table while you sleep. Posting a comprehensive breakdown of their, Albaman13 quickly discovered a likely culprit: the phone's WiFi chip. Supposedly it was waking the phone 135 times a minute, stopping the phone's sleep mode from engaging. This lack of ability to fall into sleep mode caused the much higher battery drain. It initially seemed WiFi 6 was specifically to blame, as a test on WiFi 5 lead to a much lower battery drain, and the Redditor happily left it at that. Only for other users to dispute their findings, and specifically point out their WiFi 6 routers weren't causing this issue. Extra digging later, and it emerged that it wasn't the wireless standard at fault, but appeared to be the firmware running on the router. Specifically, any WiFi 6 router using Tenda firmware seems to cause the problem. It's an incredible view of how the troubleshooting process can grow from one small problem, and slowly reveal the true culprit. According to the post, routers from Tenda Mesh3X, TP-Link Omada, and Fritz!Box are suspected to caused the battery drain, whereas certain Huawei and Asus routers are clean. However, it's worth pointing out that this may not be the full truth either. Not only has this saga had its fair share of twists and turns, but it's also an extremely small sample size. But all is not lost. It's very likely this story will make its way back to Google, who may, hopefully, be able to diagnose the problem and fix it. It's also entirely possible this is linked to the notorious Pixel 10 battery drain bug. After all, no-one said there had to only be one cause for the Pixel 10's problem. This may explain why so many were adamant the problem still existed .