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Some folks have reportedly received Pixel 2 XLs with no operating system
August 16, 2025
I wouldn’t say thatGoogle‘sPixel 2 XLhas beenplaguedwith issues from the beginning, but fromdisplay issues to odd device noises, you can’t say the phone is devoid of them either. Unfortunately for Google, the bad press train continue to chug along with recent reports that the search giant shipped out the Pixel 2 XL without an operating system.
According to some folks on Reddit, when they turned on their Pixel 2 XL devices, they were greeted with a black screen and text that stated, “Can’t find valid operating system. The device will not start.” Funny enough, a link is provided on that same screen for folks to visit on another device, since, well, there is no operating system on the device they were currently using.
One Reddit user in particular even uploaded an image of his Pixel 2 XL with no operating system:
It’s hard to say how widespread of an issue this is, however. Another Reddit post, along with some comments on that post, purported the same issue, but I couldn’t find much more than that. Also keep in mind that, whether justified or not, Reddit tends to be an echo chamber, so problems usually sound worse than they actually are.
Even so, the last thing Google needs right now as it pertains to the Pixel 2 XL is more negative attention, and with the above image having been seen almost 32,000 times, that certainly qualifies as negative attention. Also, it boggles my mind how even one Pixel 2 XL left the warehouse without an operating system.
The Next Webreached out to Google for a comment on the matter, with the search giant saying that “we’re looking into it.” The outlet further reported that, according to a source familiar with the matter, the problem has been rectified.
As such, we shouldn’t see this issue pop up anymore, but it’s not as if Google hasanything more positive to deal with.
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