Paul’s Pixel 10 Diaries: The Magic of Pixelsnap ⭐

Google’s adoption of the Qi2.2/MPP wireless standards is inarguably one of the best new features in the Pixel 10 series smartphones. And that becomes more and more obvious the more I use it.

That said, the language around this feature, which Google markets as Pixelsnap, is a bit tedious. And Google’s implementation differs a bit depending on which Pixel you get.
Terminology
Like everything hardware related—USB, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth being other great examples—there’s a lot of confusing terminology tied to Qi wireless charging that I feel undermines the brand. But here goes.

Qi is an open standard for wireless charging developed and maintained by the Wireless Power Consortium, with members that include tech companies like Apple, Google, Huawei, Microsoft, Samsung, and Sony. Qi-compatible products use electromagnetic induction to transfer power between a base station (the charger) and a receiver (mobile device).

The original Qi standard dates back to 2009, with a low-power implementation that could charge devices at up to 5 watts. The problem with early Qi charging solutions was that users had to precisely line up the device on the charger for it to work properly. Fun historical fact: Nokia brought Qi to smartphones with its Lumia 900 in 920, offering a variety of wireless charging solutions. (I looked at a subsequent generation version on this site in 2015.)

In 2023, Qi2 added a Magnetic Power Profile (MPP) option that was based on Apple’s MagSafe technology for iPhone and introduced a key innovation: Magnets in the charger and mobile device would ensure that they aligned for reliable power delivery. Qi2 also supported wireless charging up to 15 watts.

This year, we got the Qi2.2 standard, which supports 25 watt power transfer, and a new Qi2 25W brand that no one seems to use yet. But this is important because companies can sell Qi2-branded products—chargers and mobile devices—that don’t support 25-watt charging. So it’s important to know what you’re getting.
Me and Qi
Because wireless charging has always been so slow, relatively speaking, compared to wired charging, I haven’t used it much at all over the past several years as I moved between the latest iPhone and Pixel (and sometimes Samsung) phones. But these companies also moved slowly in beefing up the wired charging speeds these phones supported. And so I moved over time through a series of USB-based chargers and cables that supported whatever the fastest possible speeds these phones supported. Typically, I buy third–party chargers, almost always from Anker.

But the value of MagSafe in the Apple ecosystem is undeniable. There is an ever-growing market of MagSafe-compatible chargers, especially, but also mounts for tripods, cars, nightstands, and whatever else. Recent iPhones support a smart screen-like experienced called Standby that kicks in when the device is charging and oriented in landscape mode that’s quite interesting. And many third parties sell multi-device...