Google shipped the Pixel 11 in mid-August 2026, starting at $900. Native Qi2.2 wireless charging is built in, good for up to 25W, with a Pixelsnap magnet array underneath.
The phone works with Pixelsnap gear right out of the box. That goes for the Ring Stand, the magnetic wallet, and the charging puck alike.
Then there’s Samsung. The Galaxy S26 Ultra arrived a little earlier this year, costs $1,300, and still can’t snap onto a magnetic charger without a case.
Magnetic alignment is a solved problem. It’s standardized. It’s cheap enough for Google to include in its entire lineup.
Somehow, Samsung looked at a phone costing $400 hundred dollars more and decided the magnets belong in the accessory aisle. Why? Samsung has reasons I believe otherwise.
Apple did it, Google did it, Samsung won’t
Six years behind MagSafe and counting
Apple set the modern baseline with MagSafe in 2020. Google brought this Apple feature to Android with the Pixel 10 in 2025 and then strengthened the Pixelsnap array for the Pixel 11.
Samsung is the only one of the three still sitting it out. Instead of magnets in the chassis, Samsung leans on a Wireless Power Consortium designation called “Qi2 Ready.”
Translated, that means the S26 Ultra speaks the Qi2.2 charging protocol but has no magnetic ring in the body. The coil and the software are there for a 25W draw. But the consumer has to supply the magnets.
A $66 toll on a $1,300 phone
Going caseless costs you the whole ecosystem
Nobody spending $1,300 on a phone is going to be ruined by a case purchase. But it’s worth doing the arithmetic. The numbers make the omission look sillier.
|
Phone |
Device cost |
Magnetic accessory |
Accessory cost |
Total for magnetic parity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Google Pixel 11 |
$899 |
None (built-in Pixelsnap) |
$0.00 |
$900 |
|
Galaxy S26 Ultra |
$1,299.00 |
ESR Hybrid Magnetic Case |
$14.99 |
$1,313.99 |
|
Galaxy S26 Ultra |
$1,299.00 |
Samsung Clear Magnet Case |
$47.50 |
$1,346.50 |
|
Galaxy S26 Ultra |
$1,299.00 |
Samsung Silicone Magnet Case |
$52.25 |
$1,351.25 |
|
Galaxy S26 Ultra |
$1,299.00 |
Samsung Slim Magnet Case |
$66.50 |
$1,365.50 |
Sixty-odd dollars is a rounding error on a $1,300 phone. The real bill arrives every time you pick the thing up.
Car mounts and loaded snap-on wallets need a strong N52-grade bond to survive a rough road, and case magnet strength varies a lot.
Cheap out and your very expensive phone ends up in the footwell. But the biggest loser here is anyone who likes their flagship naked. You get no magnetic accessories at all.
Blaming the stylus doesn’t explain the whole lineup
The S26 and S26+ have no stylus to protect
The S26 Ultra carries an S Pen in the frame, and the stylus depends on a digitizer layer sitting under the display.
A strong magnet ring in the chassis risks dead zones or erratic pen tracking. That defense covers exactly one phone, though.
The standard S26 and S26+ don’t carry an S Pen, and Samsung skipped the magnets on those too. If the stylus were the real blocker, the rest of the lineup should have shipped with them.
Still, there’s a silver lining. This state of affairs might not stick around much longer.
Supply chain rumors, and they are only rumors, suggest the Galaxy S27 could move to a horizontal camera layout to free up room for internal magnets.
Although I remember leaks pointing to the same thing for the Galaxy Z Fold 8, and we never got it. So file this one under “maybe.”
To be fair, most of us buy a case anyway
A fair point that folds at $1,300
The best defense of Samsung’s position is behavioral. Most people case their phones within minutes of unboxing, and internal Samsung research reportedly puts Galaxy case usage at 83%.
If you’re buying a case regardless, a Qi2 Ready magnetic case fixes alignment without spending internal volume on magnets.
Even some third-party options are good. Premium ESR cases grip well enough to pass for a native MagSafe experience.
That’s a good answer for a lot of buyers. I don’t think it’s good enough at this price range.
What Samsung’s favorite statistic conveniently ignores
Samsung’s case statistics sound airtight, but the figure counts any case. The free TPU one from the carrier counts. The three-year-old rugged case pulled off the last phone counts.
That is a long way from 83% of buyers choosing a WPC-certified magnetic case with the ring aligned to the coil, which is the only version that rescues Samsung’s argument.
Apple saw the same numbers on the iPhone and built in MagSafe anyway. Google read the same data and still spent the internal volume on Pixelsnap in a $900 phone.
