Why I love (and hate) the Pixel Watch 4’s utterly bizarre new charger

A leaked render surfaced yesterday showing the upcoming Google Pixel Watch 4’s new charging mechanism, and it’s safe to say that it received a lot of gut reactions from us here at Android Authority. From “… interesting,” to “I strongly dislike that,” to a clear “I hate this,” my colleagues’ thoughts weren’t all that positive, but I took one look at it and… liked it?! I guess.

There’s no denying that the contraption looks bizarre and unlike most smartwatch chargers we’ve seen in recent years. It certainly doesn’t resemble the Pixel Watch 1, 2, or 3 chargers that I’ve used, nor does it look anything like the Galaxy Watch, One Plus Watch, or Apple Watch chargers. But with that new design come many net positives, and some clear negatives, too.

Every time I’ve tried to charge my Pixel Watch (1, 2, or 3) on its charger, I’ve hit a real snag. The watch, with the included rubber band, doesn’t really like staying flat on any surface; it tends to bend up. If I’m in a hurry, this will result in the watch flopping on its side, with the cable sticking up. It looks so awkward and unsteady that I end up flipping the watch back on its display to make sure the cable stays put and doesn’t get yanked away by an errant gesture.

I’m not comfortable rubbing my glass watch on any surface, even my apparently clean desk — who knows how many dust particles are hiding there — but this face-down position has been the most stable way of charging a Pixel Watch for three generations now. And if you have any other one-piece, no-buckle watch band, such as the Pixel Watch Stretch Band, this is practically the only way you can charge your watch without detaching the strap every day.

The rumored Pixel Watch 4’s side charger fixes that by design. The watch no longer has to be forced to lie flat, which it can’t, nor will it flop back on its screen. It can stand sideways and should remain stable like that because the charger holds it in place. I appreciate that improvement.

Switching to a side charger should also bring more benefits to the Pixel Watch 4. For one, you don’t need to buy a third-party dock anymore. The charger is the dock; it’s designed to hold up the watch instead of letting it lie flat. So that’s a $10-20 savings for those who buy docks for their smartwatches.

Two, the watch’s display remains visible while charging, and you can set it up to face you. The leaked render also seems to imply that Google has finally set up auto-rotate on the charging screen, so you can finally see the time and percentage in the correct orientation. (Those who bought docks for previous Pixel Watch models know the struggle of the sideways charging screen, as shown in the image above.)

So you could use this setup as a bedside clock if you charge your watch when you go to bed or keep an eye on it during the day when it’s at your desk. Perhaps one of my biggest pet peeves with the current Pixel Watch 3 is that I leave it on the charger for too long — mostly because I lay it screen down and can’t see what percentage it’s at — so seeing the charging level head-on should help me take it off the charger sooner.

Three, the leaked render shows an upcoming alarm, so I’m curious to know if Google has implemented more functions on the charging screen. Will we see timers? A missed notification counter? Music playback? After all, Google is making the always-on display on Wear OS 6 more usable, so it could just as well borrow those modifications for the charging screen.

Finally, and most importantly, this new charging mechanism should make the Pixel Watch 4 more repairable than its predecessors. Previous Pixel Watch models were basically destined for a landfill when something went wrong because they were impossible to open and repair due to their charging pins. Moving the pins to the side apparently fixes that.

I really can’t believe that in four years, Google is getting ready to change the Pixel Watch’s charging mechanism three times already. That is incredibly inconsistent, especially when you consider that the Apple Watch Series 10 is still backwards compatible with the first Apple Watch’s charger from 2015. And we wonder why we can’t have nice accessories in the Android/Pixel world!

I’m sure every accessory maker is throwing their hands in the air now and wondering if it’s worth going back to the drawing board and making yet another new set of third-party chargers, pucks, and 2-in-1 or 3-in-1 chargers for the Pixel Watch 4. It took three whole years for someone to make a decent 3-in-1 charger for the Pixel ecosystem, and soon I won’t be able to use that anymore because my Pixel Watch 4 won’t be compatible with it. Meanwhile, accessory brands have been making chargers, docks, pucks, and stands for the Apple Watch for 10 years, and they all still work with the latest model.

Not to mention e-waste… Google can’t tell me it’s worried about the planet and then make a bunch of proprietary chargers and cables irrelevant and destined for the garbage bin for the third time in four years! That’s senseless.

I also reserve judgment on this new charger until I use it. Will it be stable enough, or will the watch topple over? Will it charge it quickly and dissipate heat well enough, or will we return to the first-gen Pixel Watch’s slow and hot charging issue?

And finally, I’m certainly not a fan of seeing Google adopt another proprietary charging approach. I just wish we had a universal standard for smartwatches, like we do with USB-C for phones. And in the absence of that, I’d want Google to separate the charging puck from the cable like OnePlus has done with the Watch 3. This creates less e-waste, allows me to use any USB-C cable I have to charge the Pixel Watch 4, including shorter cables for less mess at my desk and easier carrying in my backpack.

We’ll know more about all of this come August 20 when Google announces its new Watch 4 officially, so until then, I can only hope that Google has thought about the negatives of this charging change as much as it has worked on its positives. At the very least, separate the charger and cable, Google; it’s the only logical step here.