Investigations reveal Pixel 2's rapid charging depends on battery temperature

The Pixel 2 XL's "Charging rapidly" notification isn't always an accurate statement. In low temperatures, Google's flagship will claim to be charging quickly (10W+) when, in fact, it's actually charging at less than 4W.

 

[TheBobert]

Why does this not surprise me? Google is the new shitty Microsoft

 

[mlrz24]

Well duh! This is with anything with a battery. He'll my Ridgid drill battery won't start charging until it cools down a little after hard use.

 

[Hadron]

All phones will cease charging if they get too hot. If there is one that doesn't you should avoid it.

The article reports the opposite: reduced charging rate when cold. But batteries do have a minimum temperature for charging as well as a maximum, and it makes perfect sense to reduce charging rate as it cools (because it isn't going to be the case that you are find down to some temperature and then it abruptly stops).

If your read the article and look at the numbers in the table yourself rather than AP's interpretation of them you'll see thatwhen cold the Pixel 2 XL, Essential and OnePlus 5T all reduced their charging power to about the same value. The difference was that when warm the Pixel 2 XL charged at a higher power than the others (and hence the difference, which they focussed on, is greater). What that tells you is that this isn't a bug or "Google being crappy" as posted above, but a design feature based on battery chemistry. I'd worry more about those that don't do this.

The other thing it tells you is that the "charging rapidly" message is currently telling you what charger is connected rather than what speed it's charging at.

 

[Xavier Black]

I find relation this with the fact that while the battery still hot some functions of the phone cease to work, like the camera, the phone itself starts freezing, and some times even turns off by it self..and does not turn on no matter how many times you play with the power button until it cools down..I believe it's a defense mechanism..same happens to cars when the gage is all the way up..even to human beings too..

 

[mlrz24]

Oops didn't see it said when cold. My bad. Maybe if Google can stick with one phone company to make the Pixels these random problems wouldn't hapoen?

 

[Hadron]

I don't think there is any problem here. It's just that the lock screen says "charging rapidly" when it really means "rapid charger connected".