Pixel Stand release date: What is Google’s new wireless charger?

9 Oct 2018

Alan Martin

At the Made by Google event, Google unveiled its own take on the wireless charger for its new Pixel 3 handsets

The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are the first Google phones to feature wireless charging since 2014’s Nexus 6. And what good is a phone that charges wirelessly without a charger to put it on?

That’s Google’s thinking with the Pixel Stand. But it has a few tricks up its sleeve beyond just charging your Pixel 3. Here’s everything you need to know.

Pixel Stand: What is it?

The Pixel Stand is a wireless charger for the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. Google says it charges the phones quickly and efficiently – even if you’re using a case.

But much like the Show Dock for the Amazon Fire 8 HD tablet, it also turns the Pixel 3 into a smart screen. In Amazon’s case, that was a cheap Echo Show; in Google’s case, it’s an expensive version of the Google Home Hub. Ask Google Assistant questions, get it to play music (complete with album art on full display) or control your smart home.

That may sound less useful than Amazon’s integration on the surface of things – after all, you tend to carry a phone around with you more than a tablet – but it has some neat tricks up its sleeve. As well as charging the Pixel 3, it will display the time, notifications, pictures from Google Photos, and even show who’s at the door if connected to a Nest Hello.

But most pleasingly of all it will work as a smart alarm clock overnight: the screen will go black when you go to sleep and slowly brighten to a yellow sunrise as your alarm goes off, naturally filling the room with light and saving you the trauma of an abrupt wake-up call.