The Google Pixel XL Phone Has Many Compliance Issues Despite Supporting USB Power Delivery Charging

The Google Pixel XL debuted alongside the Google Pixel in late 2016 as the original Pixel branded flagship phones sold by Google. The Android based Google Pixel XL Phone supports standard USB Power Delivery 2.0 fast charging over USB Type-C similar to the Google Pixel Phone. The Pixel XL ships with a Google 18W charger supporting USB Power Delivery to keep itself charged.

Using the USB Power Test App from Granite River Labs with the Granite River Labs USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester, we can verify the power capabilities of the Google Pixel XL by running the following tests.

The USB Power Test App first negotiates a power contract emulating the Source to determine the Power Delivery Sink capabilities of the Pixel XL. The USB Power Test App then reports out the voltage and current supported by the phone for each of the Source PDO's advertised to the phone.

Sink Cap.	Voltage (V)	Current (A)
5V	5.12	1.9
6V	5.12	1.88
7V	5.11	1.9
8V	5.12	1.88
9V	9.12	1.85
10V	5.11	1.84
11V	5.11	1.82
12V	5.11	1.81
13V	5.12	1.81
14V	5.12	1.82
15V	5.11	1.83
16V	5.11	1.8
17V	5.1	1.78
18V	5.11	1.83
19V	5.12	1.82
20V	5.11	1.82

The USB Power Test App from Granite River Labs also produces a voltage, current trace plot which graphically shows the voltage and current requested by the Pixel XL for each advertised Source PDO throughout the power negotiation.

Using the USB Power Delivery Compliance C2 Tester from Granite River Labs to run just a subset of the full USB Power Delivery compliance test suite for the Pixel XL, unfortunately we found a lot of problems with the phone as seen through the compliance failures below. Note the Pixel XL was also observed to support charging using the following fixed PDO's- 4.5 watts (5 volts @ .9 amps), 15 watts (5 volts @ 3 amps) and 18 watts (9 volts @ 2 amps) as well as battery operating power of 18 watts @4-10 volts.

Power Capabilities

Parameter	GetCapabilities
PD_POWER_AS_SOURCE	4000
NUM_SRC_PDOS	1
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Peak Current #1	0x0(A)
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
Max Current #1	0x5A(.9A)
PD_POWER_AS_SINK
NUM_SNK_PDOS	3
Supply Type #1	Fixed
Voltage #1	0x64(5V)
OP Current #1	0x12C(3A)
Supply Type #2	Fixed
Voltage #2	0xB4(9V)
OP Current #2	0xC8(2A)
Supply Type #3	Battery
Min Voltage #3	0x50(4V)
Max Voltage #3	0xC8(10V)
Op Power #3	0x48(18W)

USB-IF High Level Mapping Summary

Sl No	Test Category	Test Group Description	Test Result
1	PHY_PRIMARY_TX	BMC Physical Layer Transmitter	FAIL
2	PHY_PRIMARY_RX	BMC Physical Layer Receiver	FAIL
3	PHY_PRIMARY_MISC	BMC Phyiscal Layer Miscellaneous	FAIL
4	PROT_PRIMARY	Protocol Specific Primary	FAIL

Result Summary

Sl No	Test ID	Test Name	Test Result
2	TDA.2.1.1.2	TDA.2.1.1.2 BMC PHY TX BIT	FAIL
3	TDA.2.1.2.2	TDA.2.1.2.2 BMC PHY RX INT REJ	FAIL
4	TDA.2.1.2.1	TDA.2.1.2.1 BMC PHY RX BUSIDL	FAIL
5	TDA.2.1.3.1	TDA.2.1.3.1 BMC PHY TERM	FAIL
6	TDA.2.1.3.2	TDA.2.1.3.2 BMC PHY MSG	FAIL
7	TDA.2.2.1	TDA.2.2.1 BMC PROT SEQ GETCAPS	FAIL
12	TDA.2.2.7	TDA.2.2.7 BMC PROT BIST NOT 5V SRC	FAIL
14	TDA.2.2.9	TDA.2.2.9 BMC PROT GSC REC	FAIL
15	TDA.2.2.10	TDA.2.2.10 BMC PROT IGN PPS	FAIL
17	TDA.2.3.1.2	TDA.2.3.1.2 POW SRC LOAD CP ACC	FAIL
18	TDA.2.3.2.1	TDA.2.3.2.1 POW SRC TRANS P PC	FAIL