[PSA] The Pixel 3 limits charging power to 5W on third-party Qi pads

[D13H4RD]

One of the Pixel 3's added features over the Pixel 2 (though was present on some Nexus phones until the 6) is Qi wireless charging with support for 10W fast wireless charging.....except there's a caveat.

 

As found out by a Pixel 3 user, when putting his Pixel 3 on an Anker 10W charging pad, Ampere reports that the phone is only getting about 5W in charging power even though it should be drawing closer to 10W. After contacting Anker, he received the following response;

Quote

Also, what we learned is that Google's official wireless charger can provide 10W for the newly-released Pixel 3 and Pixel XL 3, however, according to our quality engineer, Pixel sets a limitation for a third-party charging accessories and we are afraid that even our fast wireless charger can only provide 5W for these 2x devices. Our quality team is to purchase this new models to have a try, once we get a test answer, we will keep the product page updated.

Google's stance on this is that due to a 'secure handshake', only the Pixel Stand is able to deliver 10W of power to the P3, whilst third-party chargers (ones that fast-charge just fine on other phones with Qi support, even iPhones) will be limited to 5W.

 

So if you have a Pixel 3 and have one of those fast-charging Qi stands that isn't a $79 Pixel Stand, just use the cable. 
 

Source: Android Police

[Mooshi]

Considering Google is try harding to be Apple at this point, may as well get the real deal these days. And I'm not an Apple person.

[D13H4RD]

4 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

Considering Google is try harding to be Apple at this point, may as well get the real deal these days. And I'm not an Apple person.

They're not even good at it. I wished Google just stopped and did their own thing instead of aping all the bad stuff about iPhones while leaving the good stuff behind.

[Mooshi]

2 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

They're not even good at it. I wished Google just stopped and did their own thing instead of aping all the bad stuff about iPhones while leaving the good stuff behind.

I miss the Nexus series and wished Google stuck with that tbh

[vanished]

7 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

Considering Google is try harding to be Apple at this point, [...]

No kidding, this is exactly something Apple would do, but look who it actually is...

[D13H4RD]

3 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

I miss the Nexus series and wished Google stuck with that tbh

I wished they'd just do the same thing as OnePlus.

 

Great value offerings. Google doesn't seem to be able to compete in the high-end.

[rusins]

Would be interesting to see if you can trick the phone into charging with 10W by first placing it on a verified charger, and then quickly moving it over to, say, the Anker charger. Google claiming that they have their own proprietary wireless charging solution (source: Google's response to arstechnica) seems like bs to me.