The one feature missing from most wireless charging hubs that drives me crazy

22 Dec 2025, 13:00 by Mark Jansen · Android Police

I've made no secret that I've really been enjoying the magnetic qualities of my Google Pixel 10 Pro. Chargers, rings, e-readers, I'll stick anything to my new phone, and I love it.

But I've had one recurring issue, and it's with wireless charging hubs. It seems a lot of them suffer from the same flaw, and while it's easily fixed, it's rare to find one without the issue.

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Charging hubs are the perfect home addition — or they would be

Charging hubs are great. For a tech lover like me, a 2-in-1 charging hub is good, but a 3-in-1? Well, that pushes it to the next level.

A good 3-in-1 charging hub allows me to charge my phone, earphones, and smartwatch all at once, in the same place.

What's not to love? As a charging solution, it's neat and extremely tidy, and it means I don't have to worry about the battery levels of all my devices.

This is especially true for my earphones, which last just long enough for me to forget they have a low battery sound, and leads to me wondering what keeps making a sad sound.

Charging hubs are plentiful, but I'm a fussy man. Since I love my Pixel 10 Pro's Pixelsnap feature (MagSafe, but Google-flavored), I will only settle for a magnetic wireless charger.

And it seems that almost all magnetic wireless charging hubs have one big problem that stops me from buying them.

And like any good Android fan, I'm blaming Apple for it.

Apple is ruining charging hubs

That may seem a little unfair, but it's because of the Apple Watch.

The Apple Watch is no longer the dominant force in smartwatches, since it now shares the worldwide top spot in a back-and-forth tussle with Huawei, but it is still the best-selling smartwatch brand in North America, commanding a significant lead over Samsung.

But sales numbers don't really matter, because this is all about vibes. The Apple Watch is the smartwatch anyone on the street could name with a moment's notice, and that cements it as the smartwatch where most are concerned.

Why does this matter?

Because it means the Apple Watch is always the first choice when it comes to designing a 3-in-1 charging hub — and because the smartwatch market is a wild west where anything goes, Apple has its own special charging method that nobody else can use.

Even if your charging puck looks identical to that used by the Apple Watch, nope, sucks to be you, bucko. Your 3-in-1 charging station is now a 2-in-1.

To some extent, this is my fault. As mentioned, I want a magnetic wireless charger because I'm a huge mark for Pixelsnap.

But magnetic charging is synonymous with Apple, thanks to MagSafe. So the charging hubs I want are often marked with MagSafe.

On the plus side, Qi2 means that MagSafe chargers work perfectly well with my Pixel 10 Pro, but I'm still stuck with an Apple Watch I no longer want or can use.

I can just go for a 2-in-1 then, right? Well, I can, but even most of those are missing a helpful extra addition.

Just slap a USB-C port on it

I feel like yelling the above at my screen every time I find a really nice charging hub and then realize it's lacking such a simple function.

Sticking a USB-C port onto your charging hub ensures there's an extra port in case of need — in this case, my need. It's such a simple idea, and yet, it's vanishingly rare to find magnetic charging hubs with this small addition.

That is, except for Ugreen. I won't pretend that Ugreen's accessories are perfect. They're not, and I've had issues with them over the years. But they're consistently the charging hubs I find that have everything I need.

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More often than not, they're 2-in-1s rather than 3, but I can live with that if there's a USB-C port I can hook my smartwatch charger to.

And honestly, that seems to be the best solution. Because this reveals a much larger problem within the smartwatch market as a whole.

Smartwatch chargers are a mess

I was being a little unfair earlier.

It's not really Apple's fault. Well, it is. But it's also Samsung's. And Huawei's. And Polar, Garmin, and OnePlus. Pretty much anyone who makes smartwatches.

Why does everyone need to use a different charger?

Some have pins, some are wireless, some use pucks, and others just have little clips. But they all have an unwillingness to share.

Thankfully, all that's needed as a workaround, is a little USB-C port. Which makes it all the more frustrating that so many charging hubs lack one.