Faster charging means I’m buying the Pixel 9 Pro XL

Robert Triggs / Android Authority

There aren’t many surprises left with the upcoming Google Pixel 9 series, but I was pleased to learn that the Pixel 9 Pro XL will sport faster charging when it launches in just a few days time. Initially, I was drawn to the obvious appeal of a smaller and more pocketable Pro, but faster charging is seriously pulling me towards the XL.

See, I love my Pixel 8 Pro but it’s still painfully slow to fully charge, despite gradual generational improvements. My phone floats worryingly below the 50% mark most of the time (it’s on 31% right now) — the Battery Saver chime no longer phases me, and I’m no stranger to Google’s Extreme Battery Saver prompt either. Battery anxiety? What’s battery anxiety?

It’s not that the phone’s battery life is bad — far from it. The “problem” is that I only ever leave my Pixel to charge for half an hour or so at a time, but the phone takes about 80 minutes to fill. This isn’t an issue on work days when I have a charger close by, but I’ve lost count of the weekends I’ve silently prayed to the battery gods to extend 10% into a couple more hours.

Robert Triggs / Android Authority

Faster charging means the Pixel 9 Pro XL is the pick for chaotic chargers (like me).

I can go a whole week without my Pixel hitting 100% charge, which I know is abnormal. I could charge my phone overnight like a regular person (sometimes I do), but I’m afflicted with doom-scrolling my way through the night (the curse of a restless toddler) and rolling like a crocodile after eventually passing out from boredom. It’s a recipe for a USB-C necklace.

Clearly, I’m a quick-top-up guy more suited to the blazing-fast speeds of a OnePlus handset than Google’s conservative approach, but I can’t leave that Pixel camera and software behind. I long for a Pixel that can hit 70% after 30 minutes on the plug rather than 50% to keep those Battery Saver notifications at bay. Thankfully, that’s exactly what the Pixel 9 Pro XL promises. Unfortunately, the smaller Pixel 9 and 9 Pro will only hit 55% in half an hour, exactly the same as I recorded for the current-gen models.

C'mon Google, why leave the broader Pixel 9 series stuck with sluggish power levels?

We still don’t know the exact power level, but the info we have suggests that the Pixel 9 Pro XL has roughly 5-6W more peak power than the 8 Pro, so something like 33W. The Pixel 8 Pro pulls around 27W from the wall, by comparison. The only downside is that you’ll need Google’s new 45W charger to hit those levels unless you already have a powerful USB PD PSS plug lying around.

33W is not a huge jump and probably won’t reduce the phone’s time to full by all that much. It’s certainly not going to rival the likes of SuperVOOC-powered phones and maybe not even Samsung’s 45W Galaxy S24 Ultra. I’d still like to see the Pixel series as a whole charge much faster too, but it looks like that’s not happening this year.

Still, a boost to the early stages should leave chaotic chargers like me with more juice in the tank from just a quick top-up. I’d be happy with that. Pixel 9 Pro XL it is then, I suppose.