Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Ditch the wires with these Pixel 4 charging pads

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Wireless charging on Pixel phones has only been around for a year now, and after being hobbled on the Pixel 3, Google has answered our prays and made the Pixel 4 more widely compatible with fast Qi charging by supporting 10W charging on far more chargers through the Extended Power Profile. Whether you prefer vertical stands that you can use with Motion Sense’s swift face unlocking and flat pads, there’s ample options now for the Pixel 4.

Nme-brand quality

Anker PowerWave Pad

Staff pick

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Anker’s got a lot of wireless chargers out there, but this is one of the few of them that users have reported consistently fast charging the Pixel 4. Just make sure you use it with a QuickCharge 3.0 AC adapter to get that top speed.

$42 at Amazon

Looking slick

Yootech 15W Wireless Charger with Cooling Fan

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This 15W stand is more conducive to sitting next to your laptop at your desk or keeping your phone propped up in the kitchen while you’re working on that new recipe, and the built-in fan should help keep things cool while your Pixel 4 charges.

$24 at Amazon

Fancy photo slideshow

Google Pixel Stand

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$72 at Amazon

This was the only charger for the Pixel 3 that would charge at top speed, but the Pixel 4 isn’t limited anymore. If you want the Google look, though, the Pixel Stand is designed for the Pixel line, looks quite clean in white, and has a special slideshow mode when docked.

Thin but powerful

Choetech USB-C 15W Wireless Charger

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Choetech’s got a couple of wireless pads that should charge the Pixel 4 at top speed, but this model is the best-looking of the bunch, as well as being one of the thinner Qi pads around if you like to bring your Qi pad on trips. It also comes with an AC adapter.

$27 at Amazon

Outfit your home

Yootech 10W Wireless Charging Pad Stand Bundle

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This bundle features a 10W pad and a 10W stand, allowing you to jumpstart your Qi charger collection without breaking the bank. Just keep in mind to reach top speed these pads need to be powered by a QC3.0 wall adapter.

$25 at Amazon

On the go

Aukey Wireless Power Bank 8,000mAh

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If you find yourself needing to charge-up away from an outlet frequently, this power bank won’t charge a Pixel 4 at 10W, but it will charge wirelessly at 5W or wire at 18W if you’re in a hurry.

$30 at Amazon

Wireless adaptability is here!

FINALLY! We can use more regular Qi chargers for fast charging the Pixel 4! This is awesome for so many reasons but most especially because that means we can save some money buying chargers that aren’t 80 bucks like the Pixel Stand! The Anker PowerWave Pad is compact and affordable while still giving us the fast charging we want, and Anker is a name we trust to the moon and back. You’ll want to make sure you’re using a 24W Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 wall charger with the PowerWave Pad to get the higher charging profiles.

If you’re looking for a stand but don’t feel like paying big bucks for Google’s version, Yootech’s 15W stand is a great alternative that should be able to fast-charger just about every phone your throw at it, and the built-in fan should keep things from overheating when you’re charging for longer periods. I like stands for the living room and the office were I can perch my phone next to my laptop or my drink coaster, whereas flat pads are great for the bedroom where they’ll keep the screen from shining into your face if your get a notification in the middle of the night.

As a note: the Pixel 4 supports EPP, but finding EPP Qi chargers can still be somewhat few and far between at the moment, hence the appearance of some 5W chargers in this roundup. I’d rather steer you towards higher-quality lower-speed chargers than no-name chargers that I don’t have confidence in, but expect to see more chargers added as we can verify that they work with the Pixel 4.

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