Pixel 10’s best feature set for key upgrade – but you’ll have to wait

Qi2 50W set for 2028

Summary created by Smart Answers AI

In summary:

• Tech Advisor reports that Google’s Pixel 10 series will be an early adopter of Qi2 magnetic wireless charging technology.
• The Wireless Power Consortium is developing a new 50W Qi2 standard that doubles current speeds and improves stability and safety.
• This enhanced wireless charging won’t arrive until 2028, potentially benefiting future devices like the Pixel 13 and iPhone 20.

One of the standout hardware features of the current iPhone and Google Pixel series is about to get even better.

Future Apple and Google phones look set to benefit from an improved Qi2 standard. Chinese tech site ITHome has reported on a meeting of the Wireless Power Consortium at Xiaomi’s Beijing headquarters, at which the likes of Apple and Huawei convened to discuss verification of a new 50W Qi2 standard.

The idea (via machine translation) was apparently to move Qi2 charging from “usable” to “faster, more stable, and safer.” Sounds good to me!

While we love the Google Pixel 10 series for its clean software, tidy design and great cameras, there’s one particular feature that sets it apart from its Android rivals and places it alongside the iPhone 17 range with its MagSafe magnets.

At launch, it was the only mainstream Android phone series to emulate the iPhone and adopt Qi2 magnetic wireless charging. We haven’t seen much movement on that front ever since, with manufacturers like Samsung taking the half-baked approach of releasing compatible Qi2 cases rather than implementing the technology into their phones.

When to expect Qi2 50W

The new Qi2 50W standard will represent a straight-up doubling of the current Qi 2.2 standard, which can hit up to 25W. However, there’s a catch – it’s not expected to be officially released until 2028.

Don’t expect the Google Pixel 11 or iPhone 18 to feature this new faster form of wireless charging, then. It’s possible the Google Pixel 13 and iPhone 20 would be in line for the standard in late 2028.

This would presumably prompt an associated uptick in wired charging speeds, given that the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL maxes out at 45W and the iPhone 17 Pro Max is on 40W.

Hopefully, by that point more manufacturers will have implemented Qi2 charging as a standard flagship specification, though the current RAM pricing squeeze is likely going to make such progress somewhat tricky.

Google Pixel 10

Rating of this product is 4.5 out of 5
Read our review