The Pixel 10’s wireless charging is a disaster, and you can’t fix it

The Pixel 10 series has been with us for a few months now, and I’ve loved using my Pixel 10 Pro since launch. The Pixel 10 hasn’t been short of some controversy, though, especially around battery life and charging. People are disappointed by Google’s approach to battery health, as well as the max wireless charging speeds these phones can achieve, and it’s the latter that disappoints me the most. I’m coming from Samsung phones that charge faster and more consistently across a wide range of Qi accessories.

In case you haven’t memorised the Pixel 10 series spec sheet like I have (I envy you), I’ll remind us all of what the wireless charging specs for the Pixel 10 devices are. All phones support Qi2, with the Pixel 10, 10 Pro, and 10 Pro Fold maxing out at 15W, while the 10 Pro XL, thanks to better cooling, can achieve 25W. Those on-paper specs aren’t what I’m upset about. All of the Samsung phones I’ve used max out at 15W over the old Qi 1 standard, so it’s what I’m used to. The issue here is that, unlike my Pixel 10 Pro, a Galaxy S25 Ultra can consistently charge at the advertised 15W. In fact, Samsung phones have been able to do so since the Galaxy S10 launched in 2019.

My colleague Rita has done some extensive testing of the Pixel 10 series wireless charging speeds, and I’m not going to repeat all of her work here. The short version is that the Pixel 10 series can only reach their max charging speeds with certified Qi2 chargers, rendering Qi 1 and older MagSafe chargers effectively useless.

While the Pixel 9 series supported up to 12W on compatible EPP wireless chargers, our testing shows that the Pixel 10 maxes out at just 5W, sometimes dropping to 3W, and even then, charging fails frequently. To put into perspective how useless that charging speed is, my Pixel 10 Pro told me it would take eight hours to charge to full from 27% on one of my wireless chargers, and that’s provided the charging doesn’t suddenly stop, which it usually does.

Let’s contrast that with the Samsung phones I’m used to using. Samsung, much to my annoyance, hasn’t adopted Qi2 yet, but it gets the rest of the formula right. While writing this piece, I tested a Galaxy S23 Ultra with my Basesus 15W Qi2 charger, using a case that added the magnets to the phone, and it charged at the full 15W, just as it does on every other wireless charging accessory I have in my home. That means a nearly three-year-old phone has more consistent and usable wireless charging than a brand-new Pixel 10. If that isn’t bad enough, over the weekend I realised this is a bigger problem than I already realised.

At first, I was annoyed that I’d have to replace all of the wireless chargers in my home if I wanted to continue with my usual charging routine. That’s especially annoying when it comes to Samsung’s Wireless Charger Duo, which has a cooling fan and secondary pad for Galaxy Watches. As stupid as it is to have to replace perfectly working wireless chargers, I realised over the weekend that this situation is worse than I imagined.

Recently, my wife and I stopped at McDonald’s for a quick bite before heading home. I wanted to charge my Pixel 10 Pro and, lucky for me, almost every McDonald’s in the UK has wireless chargers built into the tables. For two glorious minutes, I thought my phone was charging, but then it stopped and refused to start again, regardless of how I placed it on the charging pad. Do you think a company like McDonald’s is going to replace all of the chargers in its locations just so the Pixel 10 can charge properly? What about all of the gyms that include wireless chargers on a lot of the fitness equipment?

Even worse than that, though, is your Pixel 10 not charging in your car. Most modern cars can be optioned with a wireless charging pad to keep your phone topped up when you’re using Android Auto, and I don’t know of any that are Qi2 certified. I can’t imagine car manufacturers are going to change the wireless charging technology in their cars to support one series of phones.

The Pixel 10 series is breaking sales records for Google, and it feels like the Pixel is starting to become popular with everyday consumers. As a Pixel fan, I think that’s a good thing, and I hope that Pixels continue to do well and put pressure on Apple and Samsung, but problems like this will only hold the Pixel back. Your average user doesn’t care about why the Pixel 10 doesn’t charge properly with the accessories they have — they expect it to work, and will no doubt be frustrated when it doesn’t. If Google wants to be a major presence in the smartphone market, it needs to stop making stupid decisions with its phones.