[Android 0]

If there are two pieces of tech I have a love-hate relationship with, it’s USB-C charging and Google’s Pixel smartphones. At their best, both can be brilliantly hassle-free, but at their worst, they’re a parade of seemingly unnecessary compromises. Based on my previous experiences with Pixels, testing the 45W wired charging capabilities of the new Pixel 11 Pro XL was almost certainly going to cause a headache or two, but it quickly descended into a full-on migraine.

Let’s start with the good USB-C news for the Pixel 11 Pro XL. After years of underperforming the headline charging figure, Google’s latest large flagship comes much closer to hitting its 45W marketing claim. While still not quite there, I was able to hit a peak of 40.7W for about the first 9 minutes on the Google Pixel Flex 67W charger (). That’s a reasonable power level and far better sustained than rivals that claim up to 100W capabilities, plus it exceeds the 35W peak I’ve observed on the previous two generations of XL smartphones. So a pat on the back there.