Google Clarifies Charging Speeds Of Its Pixel Phones

Recently it seems that there has been some confusion regarding the charging speeds of Google’s Pixel phones. According to this Google+ post, it was found that the Pixel does not charge at 18W despite the supplier charger being of the 18W variety and Google’s website hinting at those speeds.

However Google has since clarified that this was a mistake. According to Android Police who got in touch with Google, it turns out that this was a marketing mistake and that it was supposed to read 15W – 18W charging, meaning that its speed could range from 15-18 as opposed to being flat out 18W.

Note that this is only for the smaller Pixel handset and that the Pixel XL can still hit 18W, but given that the battery size of the Pixel XL is larger, we guess it kind of makes sense that Google would do this. It has been speculated that the reason why the smaller Pixel charges slower is due to thermal concerns, and given the exploding Note 7s we can understand why.

Android Police also suspects that Google had initially allowed the Pixel to charge at 18W, but during the testing phase decided to reduce it before the phones were released, but the memo was not passed down to the folks at marketing hence the discrepancy. In any case that’s something to think about if charging speeds are really important to you.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Google, Google Pixel, pixel xl