Taylor Kerns / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Pixel phones’ optional 80% charging limit works differently than it used to.
- As of the March update, phones with the setting enabled charge to about 77% at a normal rate, then slow charging drastically from that point to 80%.
- Some users don’t like the new charging behavior, complaining that it makes bypass charging more difficult to achieve.
Like many other modern gadgets, Google’s Pixel phones offer a setting to limit battery charging to 80 percent of maximum capacity to protect long-term battery health. Over the past few days, users have been reporting that with this setting enabled, getting to that 80 percent mark is taking a lot longer than it used to.
A bunch of Pixel users have taken to Reddit (via Android Police) to speak up about this new behavior. It seems like the change is affecting multiple Pixel models and started with the March Pixel Drop that started rolling out earlier this month. As it turns out, though, the new behavior doesn’t seem to be a bug, but rather a conscious change on Google’s part.
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Following the March update, with the 80% charging optimization feature enabled, Pixel phones are reaching a charge percentage in the high 70s at a normal rate, but once the phone reaches 77 or 78%, charging slows significantly. One Pixel 10a user on Reddit says their phone is taking “about an hour” to get from 77 to 80%.
Another user shared a screen recording showing that with the 80% limit imposed, their Pixel starts pulling less than one watt at a 77% charge, versus 12 to 14 watts at the same charge level with the setting turned off.
Despite some users’ displeasure with the new behavior, a Google IssueTracker entry about the behavior has been marked as fixed, with a Googler sharing that the new charging pattern is intentional “to manage battery health.”
While the difference in usable battery life unplugging at 77% rather than 80% is down to a few minutes of screen time, plenty of users are calling on Google to roll back the change, or at least make it optional. A common complaint is that the new behavior makes so-called bypass charging — where the phone operates on power from the charger without actively charging the battery — harder to achieve. As the battery sips power at a very low rate near the 80% ceiling, it might never reach a full charge if the phone is in use while charging.
Have you noticed this new charging optimization limitation on your own Pixel? Do you care one way or the other? Let us know in the comments.
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