Update: Google has officially admitted that the Pixel 6 series cannot be charged at 30W speeds after all. In fact, the Pixel 6's maximum power consumption is 21W, only 3W higher than the Pixel 5, while the Pixel 6 Pro has a maximum of 23W.

The Pixel 6's improved charging speed was an upgrade we were looking forward to, but it turns out it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Google's marketing and official support pages suggest (but do not explicitly state) that the device supports 30W charging, but Android Authority dug deeper and found that the Pixel 6 Pro's maximum charging speed is actually 22W and only 4W faster than the Pixel 5.

Google's support page states that the Pixel 6 Pro has "fast charging" and "can charge up to 50% in 30 minutes using the Google 30W USB-C charger with USB-PD 3.0."

Despite the implication that the Pixel 6 supports 30W charging, these two things are actually true: Android Authority found that the Pixel 6 Pro reached 50% battery in about 31 minutes, which is slightly off Google's estimate This is within an acceptable margin of error.

However, our review of the Pixel 6 showed poorer performance even when using a 30W charger. In our lab, the Pixel 6's battery display returned to 29% after 30 minutes; the Galaxy S21 got to 55% during that time, and the OnePlus 9 with a 65W charger approached full charge.

In Android Authority's testing, the Pixel 6 Pro dropped to a 12W speed by the time the charge reached 75%, and then to 2.5W on the final "home straight." This means that although the Pixel 6 Pro reaches 85% in a reasonable 63 minutes, it takes another 48 minutes to complete the last 15%.

While it is standard practice to decrease the charge rate as the battery fills up to extend the long-term life of the cells, it is still strange to see it drop to this level.

That said, in the site's tests, the Pixel 6 Pro's 5,000mAh battery went from empty to full in 111 minutes with all adaptive settings disabled. Samsung's Galaxy S21 Ultra achieved the same feat in just over an hour, and according to our own list of fastest charging smartphones, the OnePlus 9 Pro reached 99% battery in just 30 minutes.

However, battery tests on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro did not exactly inspire confidence in this regard, with results of 8:13 and 7:53, respectively.

But there is reason not to take these numbers as gospel: our battery test involved continuous web surfing at 5G, which is not how most people use their smartphones.

In fact, in his review of the Pixel 6, senior editor Philip Michaels was a bit more gentle on the battery, writing: in real-world use with a mix of 5G, LTE, and Wi-Fi, the Pixel 6's battery held up quite well." Not enough to challenge the devices with the best smartphone battery life, but enough to not have to ask for a charge during the day."

Likewise, this theoretically weak performance combined with relatively slow charging requires power users to pause before picking up a Pixel. Hopefully this will be resolved with the Pixel 7.