Sure, the new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL don’t have headphone jacks. But their USB-C charging and data port might be more versatile than most.
According to Google engineer Benson Leung — the man who’s been saving us from crappy USB-C cables, by the way — the new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL phones support up to 27-watt charging.
Leung says the phones currently come with an 18-watt USB-C PD charger, meaning you’d have to find a charger that specifically advertises a 27W USB-C Power Delivery charging mode (look for both “PD” and “9V/3A”) to take advantage of faster speeds.
I don’t know if I’d run out and do that quite yet, though, because Leung doesn’t say how much faster 27W charging might actually be. Google advertises that the included power adapter already provides 7 hours of battery life after just 15 minutes of charging, which might be fast enough for you, anyway.
Update, 1:13 p.m. PT: The answer is: not faster at all. Google has just pointed us to an update from Leung, who says he was wrong about 27W charging. The USB port is capable, but it sounds like the charging circuitry or battery are not. The new Pixel phones will not charge faster than they do with the included adapter. We’ve corrected small portions of this story.
