Over time our smartphone usage has risen up especially in the all-digital lifestyle during the pandemic, so much so that the need to top up the battery has become much crucial than ever before. Manufacturers have been trying their best to optimize battery usage by equipping their devices with larger-than-life batteries and clever software tricks.
However, when it comes to charging we are all accustomed to wired charging as usual, and as if that wasn’t convenient enough even though being fast, we saw the rise of wireless charging specifically the Qi (chee) wireless charging standard (every other wireless charger is based on this very standard today), not more than a decade ago.
Yes, the pucks and stands on which a smartphone is placed to sip up energy. Speaking of which, here’s why we think wireless charging technology is nothing more than just a gimmick. Then what about the convenience factor associated with it? We’ll get to that.
This one has to be the elephant in the room. The charging speed is super slow and that’s just an understatement. For instance, we used a 10W wireless charger to top up our iPhone SE (2020) and it took almost 4 hours to fully charge the battery (0% to 100%). For comparison’s sake, a 6.5W wired charger was brought to the scene, and it took about 2 hours to fill up the battery. However, let’s keep in mind that Apple caps the iPhone to wirelessly charge at 7.5W. And still, the speed is unsatisfactory at its best.
The next part of inefficiency is the heat that’s generated here. Just 20 minutes of charging the phone brought out almost burning levels of heat. In contrast, the usually wired charging generated little heat and as a result, the phone was slightly warm to the touch which is normal.
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iPhone on a wireless charging pad | Source: Apple
The phone needs to be placed right in the middle of the charging pad to ensure charging actually takes place. Going askew off the center stops the charging process as the induction coils are situated right in the middle portion of the wireless charger.
Taking the aforementioned observations into consideration, the convenience factor of wireless charging just proves to be worthless. Sure, your phone will top up without a cord helping you pick it up any time to check notifications. However, that perk isn’t justified here as the phone stops charging the moment it’s taken off the wireless charger pad. You may say a wireless charging stand helps here but not at all, again due to the lack of portability and wastage of space.
Stick to wired charging for now
It’s as simple as it gets, just takes that much effort to carry the brick and USB cable wherever you go. Apart from the perfectly manageable cord, picking up the phone for checking important notifications and more all while charging much efficiently and safely is more than feasible at the end of the day. Until and unless the weaknesses are ironed out, wired charging is all the way to go!