Google reveals why the Pixel 9 series doesn't support Qi2 charging
Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) announced the Qi2 wireless charging standard in January 2023 and released it in April of the same year. HMD Skyline is the first (and only) Android smartphone to have Qi2 support. While many expected Google's Pixel 9 smartphones to have it too, that's not the case.
The Google Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro XL support the old Qi standard. This means that while these phones can charge wirelessly up to 23W with the Pixel Stand, they can only go up to 12W with a compatible Qi-certified EPP wireless charger instead of the 15W supported by Qi2. No Qi2 also means you cannot use MagSafe-like magnetic accessories with the non-folding Pixel 9 phones.
The folks at Android Authority asked Google why they skipped Qi2 support on this Pixel 9 trio, and Google said that "the older Qi protocol was more readily available on the market and that there are no tangible benefits to switching to Qi2."
The biggest benefit of Qi2 is improved charging rates and reduced energy loss, achieved through better alignment between chargers and devices. Here's hoping the Pixel 10 series - and the upcoming flagships from other brands - will have Qi2 support. Until then, the HMD Skyline is the only option on the Android side. You can read our HMD Skyline review to learn more about it. We also have a video review attached below.
Reader comments
They mentioned that only HMD Skyline has it, so they kind of mentioned that none other has it. But google was supposed to have it too, i presume that that's the reason why.
- 17 Aug 2024
- swE
Throwing more watt while splitting the battery in smaller cells or more megapixels in a camera while the photos are less then meah, is not innovation, is just chinese gimmiks because they have nothing else to come to market with, ah yeah, and paper s...
- 17 Aug 2024
- swE
Actually most of the android users use widgets and care about them, so much so, that apple needed to copy them, because it's users were interested, so i am not sure why you think it to be otherwise.
- 16 Aug 2024
- mJ}