How to add wireless charging to the Pixel 4a and Pixel 4a 5G
Wireless charging technology has been featured in smartphones for nearly a decade now, allowing smartphone owners to charge their phones by placing them on a Qi wireless charging pad or stand without having to hassle with a charging cable. Wireless charging in smartphones is extremely cheap, adding less than $5 in hardware costs, but manufacturers still reserve the feature for their most expensive devices. In 2020, you’d be hard-pressed to find wireless charging listed as a feature on a smartphone that costs less than $700.
Google’s 2020 Pixel lineup is no exception. The top-of-the-line Pixel 5 comes with wireless charging, but the Pixel 4a 5G and the Pixel 4a do not.
Fortunately, you can add wireless charging to the Pixel 4a and Pixel 4a 5G for roughly $10. If you do a quick Amazon search for “wireless charging adaptor” you’ll find a few dozen products that allow you to add Qi wireless charging to nearly any smartphone. Prices range from $8 to $20, but they all do the same things: plug into your smartphones charging port to transfer power from their Qi wireless charging coil to your phone. Some of the more expensive models may deliver faster wireless charging.
I first started using wireless charging adapters in 2014 since the HTC smartphones I owned featured metal bodies which didn’t allow HTC to add wireless charging to them. Since then, I’ve used wireless charging adaptors with over a dozen smartphones since manufacturers still refuse to make wireless charging a standard feature.
Setting up a Pixel 4a 5G or Pixel 4a with a wireless charging adapter is simple:
- Remove the charging adapter from its packaging
- plug the wireless charging adaptor into your Pixel 4a’s USB charging port
- Wrap the wireless charging coil around the back of the phone
- Secure it in place with the included adhesive or your favorite Pixel 4a case
- Place the phone on a Qi wireless charger and your Pixel 4a will start charging