Just about everything is wireless these days, and that includes the charging system of many smartphones. It’s convenient for sure, but will wireless charging ever become the default way to charge or power our devices? I think the odds are pretty much zero.
While the likes of Apple or Samsung might actually take the leap and make a portless phone one day, its reliance on wireless charging will be its achilles heel.
The Promise of Wireless Charging
The marketing behind wireless charging promised us a utopian future where you just place your device on a pad, or perhaps just a normal desktop, and it will charge without any wires trailing everywhere. At some point, we might even get long-distance charging were you don’t need to use a pad at all!
Wireless charging systems like Apple’s MagSafe and the Qi standard have made wireless charging relatively mainstream, and plenty of people (myself included) use it on a daily basis. However, all of your wireless-capable devices still have a wired charging option.
The Hard Limits of Physics
Wired charging is always more efficient than using a cable. There’s inherent energy loss as you convert electricity into an electromagnetic field and then back into electricity again. Crossing even that tiny air gap between the charging antennas means a significant percentage of wasted power.
That said, wireless charging is getting better at this with modern standards hitting 70-80% efficiency, and perhaps 90% being possible at some point. However, wired charging is close to (but not quite) 100% efficient. Especially when we’re talking about short charging cables used for phones.
Long-range wireless power has been demonstrated, and it’s pretty cool, but that’s really inefficient and, besides that issue, there are still many technical issues to solve before it becomes practical, if ever.
- Brand
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Baseus
- Cable included
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Yes
A fast-charging solution with an innovative integrated cable.
The Practical Advantages of Wires
Even if wireless charging became efficient enough to match wired charging, or close enough that it didn’t matter, that’s not the only problem. There’s also the issue of how much power you can transfer at once. Wired charging is leagues ahead of the game here. A wireless pad is a decent alternative to trickle-charging your phone using a normal level of USB power, but most modern phones offer fast-charging at rates between 15W and up to 65W or even beyond. Which means you can top up your phone from empty to 80% in half an hour.
If you try pushing more wattage wirelessly, the efficiency issue is amplified, and the amount of waste heat could be dangerous. Imagine converting 20% of 65W into heat!
Apart from that, wired charging doesn’t have alignment problems, which is a constant issue with wireless pads. Technologies like MagSafe do solve this, but not all of my pads are MagSafe, and I often leave my phone charging on a pad only to return and realize that it stopped at some point and didn’t charge at all. So reliability is another persistent pain point.
Wires can also do more than transfer power. While most of the data transfers we do are just fine using wireless data technology, if you’ve ever tried backing up a 1TB phone or moving gigabytes of media using AirDrop, you know that a wired USB-C connection can be a lifesaver.
Wireless Is a Convenience, Not a Replacement
As much as I love wireless charging and use it every day as my primary method of keeping my phone topped up, there’s just no situation where I could have a phone that doesn’t let me use wired charging as a backup method.
It’s perfect for slowly charging my phone overnight, or keeping it topped off on my MagSafe stand while I work, but there are plenty of situations where wireless charging just won’t cut the mustard.
When it comes to travel, heavy use, or emergencies where I need my phone charged ASAP, wired is and will likely remain king.
The Future Is Hybrid
Wireless charging will keep getting better, more efficient, and faster. I have no doubt that it will become the main way we do our day-to-day charging at some point. However, the speed, efficiency, and versatility of wired charging means that I don’t see us abandoning it entirely like we did the headphone jack.
What might happen is that the wired charging port becomes hidden or shrinks down using some future connection standard. Then, just like a car with electronic door handles, you’ll only whip out the wires when the futuristic feature inevitably fails.
- Charger Type
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Wall charger
- Cable Length
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Not included
- Compatible With
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USB-A and USB-C cables
- Brand
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UGREEN
From three USB-C ports to a reasonably compact design, there is much to like about the Ugreen Nexode 100W 4-Port Charger. It’s also an excellent value for money.