Don’t just buy a Pixelsnap Charger without thinking about your USB ports

Charging phones is finally exciting again! Well, maybe “exciting” is overselling it — and not so much “again,” we guess — but charging is absolutely having a moment. With magnetic Qi2 support on the Pixel 10 series, and fast 25W wireless charging on the Pixel 10 Pro XL, Android users are getting in on that MagSafe fun and having a blast doing it.

While new Pixel 10 owners have no shortage of options to turn to for their charging accessories, the allure of Google’s own Pixelsnap devices is easy to understand. Unfortunately, some users appear to be buying Pixelsnap Chargers without checking the power requirements first, and are understandably having a pretty frustrating time as a result.

Over on Reddit we’ve spotted posts from users like Arkaon who bought a Pixelsnap Charger expecting to be able to plug it in to whatever convenient USB port was around, like one from their computer or on an existing device, and get full performance. As many of us are painfully aware, not all USB ports are created alike, and especially if you’re not using a dedicated charger, it can be incredibly hit-and-miss whether you’ll get fast USB-PD performance.

When it comes to technology, details matter, and shoppers visiting the Google Store would be well advised to pay attention to the footnotes outlining the Pixelsnap Charger’s performance:

Savvy shoppers should know that “up to” means that something specific needs to happen for us to get the full package, and tapping on any of those superscript numerals shoots you down to the footnotes where Google clarifies exactly what the deal is with the charger’s power requirements: Unless you’re putting in at least 35W, you can’t hope to get full 25W speeds.

It would definitely be nice if more of our devices would clearly label the power capabilities of their USB ports, but that still tends to be the sort of detail that shows up the most when we’re dealing with dedicated charging hardware. If you’re not getting the speeds you expected out of the Pixelsnap Charger — or any wireless charging accessory, for that matter — make sure you actually check what kind of power input it requires, and confirm that you’re using a source capable of actually providing it.