Google has confirmed the charging speeds of its Pixel smartphones. While the Pixel XL can go for 18W via a stock USB-PD charger, the Pixel is limited to 15W of charging.
The discrepancy in the charging speeds was found by Nathan K. [a recognized tester in the Android community], via certain extensive tests. He made it clear that the restriction will ‘likely have no functional impact on the use of the Sailfish.’ The decision seemed intentional to keep the smartphones safe from heating issues.
Now, Google has updated the Pixel and Pixel XL’s technical specifications page on its Pixel website. The web page now states that the USB Type-C 18W adapter supports 15W to 18W charging. Earlier, it only said 18W. David Ruddock of Android Police claims that the Pixel team may have added the charging cap in the later part of the development or before the firmware was finalized. The marketing team might have missed that detail. It is highly unlikely that the search engine giant deliberately kept the detail about 15W-charging limitation to itself.
The 3W difference between the Pixel and Pixel XL isn’t really much of a big deal. In fact, the Pixel XL comes with a much larger 3,450 mAh battery compared to 2,770 mAh battery on Pixel. It’ll take a little longer to charge the Google Pixel XL.
The newly launched Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones come with several high-end features. The Google Pixel sports a 5-inch display with HD resolution, while the Pixel XL features a 5.5-inch Quad HD AMOLED display. Both smartphones are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor along with 4 GB of RAM and 32GB internal storage. The new smartphones come with a 12.3-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front camera. Both runs the latest version of Android operating system.