Wired is more efficient, you can pick it up and use it while charging, and the cable usually comes free with the phone. What is the point of wireless charging pads?
I use one at work to passively charge my phone without having to deal with cables. Keeps my desk a bit tidier.
I like keeping my desk clean too but there is the inevitable person who says “clean desks are for simple minds and true geniuses thrive in chaos” so I have to keep a corner of loose wires to look smart
You can certainly have both. Fewer cables means more room for chaos, like my USB powered mini handvac
I would trust you in whatever industry you work in
Is yours under the surface? I tried using one, but didn’t like the clutter of the pad on my desk. I’m a special kind of neat freak in my immediate work space though.
I bought a wireless magnetic battery recently, and what quickly turned me off was that it charges at ~2/3rd efficiency (so effectively I have only 2/3rds of my powerbank capacity) and speed compared to its wired mode, even though it’s fast wireless and a solid brand and build. Also heats up my phone battery way more, so I just snap it to my phone and use the short and unobtrusive usb-c cable to charge it instead.
Now, if I was changing phones every year or two and I didn’t care about keeping its battery life - sure, I’d use the wireless charging without worries, although it will still be slightly slower than wired (but still fast charging anyway).
I travel on the go often, wireless charging is too inefficient for me. I’d rather charge with my PD battery pack.
Another point, I use my PD pack to charge everything from my phone, drone, camera, to my laptop, ear buds.
Most of those don’t have a wireless charger so I just stick to wired PD charging.
They’re very convient, I use them for the phones, airpods, battery phone cases (airpods cases even with a silicon skin still on much less). Just nice to be able to leave your device on them while running them and know they won’t die out
So you just don’t like plugging the cable in?
Also charge battery phone cases that are much easier to slip on the wireless charger than plug with micro usb
It’s very useful in sealed devices (smart watches, ear phones). Much better than pogo pins on your skin; whatever metal they pick, someone is going to be allergic. Things like active pencils (Apple Pencil, but als the Windows open standard ones) also make a lot of sense to charge like that.
I also use a wireless charging stand for my phone. Most phone stands have an opening for a cable, but for some reason that opening is always at just the wrong space, or not right for the cable. K They’re also useful when using your phone for navigation in your car. I find a cable sticking from the bottom of my phone quite a handful to manage, especially as the USB ports are all so close to my gear shifter.
For those still sporting lightning iPhones, it also provides a universal charging option.
Oh, and then there’s the edge case of “I want to plug something into my phone and also charge it”. Tiny flash drives, 3.5mm converters, you name it. Most phones only have one USB port, so using it for anything but charging usually means not being able to charge unless you go wireless.
Still, wired is the way to to moet of the times. Wireless is just a nice backup, and maybe a fun gimmick in certain furniture.
Universal charging is a good point if you have a bunch of stuff that can be wirelessly charged
So I can keep the waterproof case sealed.
Username checks out
Does the thickness of the case increase the heat byproduct of wireless charging?
it shouldn’t.
There shouldn’t be any heat at all from the signal passing through the plastic (It’s basically transparent to RF’s,). The heat mostly comes from the RF interacting with the metal in the receiving antenna and inducing an electric current.
The case may prevent the heat from the phone (which should be the same) from dissipating so it can possibly build.
Although most phones made in the past decade will detect that, and suspend wireless (and possibly wired) charging if the phone’s circuits are heating, until the temperature drops.
The extra space isn’t going to cause more heat on its own, but the phone is still going to get warm, and a thick case can prevent that heat from dissipating properly. A good charging design will already have taken this into account, and start limiting current if the temp gets too high.
The primary downside to using induction charging through a case is decreased power transfer efficiency due to the greater distance.
I use wireless charging 99% of the time. It’s convenient to plop your phone or earbuds down and effortlessly grab them when it’s time to go.
The other reason I like wireless: less wear on your phone’s USB port. Even though USB-C is supposedly good for millions of plug/unplug cycles I’ve had several phones with USB-C that get wonky after about 2+ years. “Wonky” as in having to hold the cable just right to transfer data or even successfully fast charge.
Wireless charging drastically cuts down on the amount of times you’ll be ramming a USB cable into it’s port, hopefully prolonging it’s useful life.
Yeah, the USB port on all my phones was the first thing to go, and then you’re just stuck doing the stupid little dance of getting the cable to go in at the exact right angle to get it to charge. With wireless (especially with MagSafe), you just put it on the charger and you never need to worry about cables. I’ve got a plug on my USB port to keep dirt out now.
Wow, I’ve never had any issues with USB ports on any of my phones. Which one of us is the outlier? Do you ram the cable in too hard? Do you bend the connector in weird ways?
Nah, it’s just lint and other crap getting into the port. You can clean the USB-C ones easier than the micro-USB ones, but eventually they all go.
Yep, convenience of plopping the phone down really is 100% of it for me. Especially with Apple’s magnets setup, it’s a one-hand, one-second operation, and then the phone is standing at attention on its cradle stand. The thought of having a dangling cable on my desk and picking it up and fiddling to plug it in then laying the phone flat seems like something from 10 years ago. I’ve even forgotten once or twice what kind of port my phone has.
That wonkiness often times is just lint jammed into the charging port, and a thorough cleaning fixes the issue
It’s heartening to see someone else sharing what’s usually my line! I recommend a wooden toothpick for the aforementioned cleaning.
Ditto. The plastics floss/pick combos work even better. Being thinner and super flexible, they are less likely to cause damage and reach the tiny crevices better.
Adding on to this, it’s good to switch to wireless before the point gets wonky if you want to use the cable for data.
You do realize that wireless charging is also very inefficent and reduces your battery lifespan, right? It’s also kinda weird that your port goes bad after such a short time. Maybe you should clean it more often and make sure not to put any tension on it when you use it. I even have a 10 year old phone and the port (micro usb) still works perfectly fine.
I’ve been wireless charging exclusively for 5 years and had minimal change in battery life.
I’d be interested to see how you measure that. It’s also not really a matter of opinion. Even though you may not notice a wild difference, your battery did degrade more than it would’ve, if you’d used a wired charger.
Also, the inefficiency is bad enough for me to rule it out. You literally waste at least twice as much power compared to a wired charger (source). Although we’re not talking about a crazy amount of power, it’s pretty selfish to waste it just because you don’t want to plug in a charger.
I’ve had the phone for 6 1/2 years. It has a small 3000 mha battery. Initial reviews had it at 8 1/2 hours battery life at release. When I posted that I had been using the phone for 2 hours and was at 72% so extrapolated that 7 3/4 battery life. So less than a 10% drop. Granted I’m not a heavy phone user so I probably put less wear on my battery in general.
Yes use it for convince, but I’ve also had to replace phones for broken USB ports which in the grand scale is probably more wasteful than the extra power use.
I’ve also had to replace phones for broken USB ports which in the grand scale is probably more wasteful than the extra power use.
On one hand, yes, your port can break at some point. On the other, why would you throw away the whole phone if the usb port can be replaced? Going even further, you could always use your usb port for charging until it breaks and after that you could start using wireless charging. For data transfer there are plenty of apps and ways to wirelessly transfer data so that wouldn’t be a problem either. At the end of the day, you’re barely using your usb port and you’re also wasting twice as much (or more) energy that you would if you used a wired charger.
It is more inefficiënt, yes. But why would it reduce battery lifespan? Is it because of the added heat from the wireless charging coils? My battery probably stays cooler with wireless charging then using the wired turbo charger. Which is more and more standard these days.
All our modern charging methods are really bad for batteries. Wireless is inductive which means the charging voltage is noisy and very variable, this means heat and that stresses the batteries faster. But, wired charging with PD uses really high voltages, which are sometimes way too fast. Also stressing the battery. We’ll see what comes of it but the recent couple of phone generations are prone to be the ones with the worse battery life expectancy.
Companies are usually aiming for 80% at two years time. That means that a phone that barely survives a day when new, will not make it through the day two years after. As the battery loses capacity, it requires more charges per day, accelerating the degradation.
Here’s iFixit assessment of wireless charging.
This is MKHB on why heat hurts batteries and how companies try to fight back the damage of fast charging.
Wired turbo chargers are bad as well. However, although I don’t know about iOS, Android lets you plan your charge cycle. That makes my phone take about 8 hours to charge while I’m asleep.
Or you could just not use a fast charger and not worry about that. Either way, you’re moving the goalpost. Not all phones support fast charging and not everyone has a fast charger. I’d wager most people charge their phones with lower power (15/20w more or less).
I’m actually really impressed because I’ve had a pixel 6 for over 2 years and the USB c port is doing great. But you’re right, I should probably get a simple wireless charger just to cut down on some of the plugging
Follow up: does it work well with cases?
Wireless charging is unaffected by normal plastic or silicone cases (unless it’s super thick, like an OtterBox). Metal cases don’t work.
Thanks. Also love your username
I’m disabled. Wireless charging, especially when I can use the magnets that auto locate the coil, is a huge win.
(I also use charging wires with removable magnetic tips, that I leave in the device. But that wasn’t the question.)
I said the public charging stations was the most legitimate answer I read before but this is obviously the most legitimate answer.
I’ve never heard of these magnetic wires before, do they work well? I feel like I would prefer that
I’ve used the mag chargers for years and really love them. The little metal lug can feel a bit odd, and I had to clean metal shavings off it when I did fab for work, but it’s all around great to use. It basically turns your charging cable into a coaxle cable, so it can’t do data, but the cable can spin freely as you charge and can be magneted to other things when you aren’t so the cord is easy to manage.
Much of a difference in charge time if any?
Honestly, between the two I’ve never noticed. The cables can die easy, but that’s because I get them cheap.
Reasonably well. The magnets aren’t very strong, so the device in question pretty much has to be stationary while it’s charging, also, while most of them allow data, it is almost always USB 2 speeds. Right now I’m using them to charge headsets, a Logitech trackball, and provide data for an Xbox controller.
I get them from Amazon; " magnetic USB charge wire" should be a sufficient search to get you in the ballpark.
I have a wireless charger by my bed for charging overnight, it’s easier to just plop my phone on the stand when half asleep rather than fumble with a cable. Also, charging speed doesn’t matter because it’s going to be plugged in for a few hours when I and it’s easy to grab when my alarm goes off. But when I need a quick charge, then it’s a fast charge cable all the way
Probably if you’re too lazy to grab a cord, line it up with the plug, and press gently but firmly. With wireless, you can just lob it vaguely in the right vicinity and not overstrain your fine motor skills.
The amount of times I have tripped on a charging cord and sent my phone flying…
… but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?
I thought it you don’t line it up exactly right it charges slowly and heats up a lot, ruining the battery
if it’s not aligned properly, it should shut off to prevent that from happening. (or, for example, if you place something else that’s metal over it.)
If it’s completely misaligned yes. But there’s a wide spectrum between too far off to even turn on, and perfectly aligned.
This is what magsafe/qi 2 fixes by including magnets which should have been there from the start.
Mine didn’t, unfortunately. It just charged very slow and got hot. Hopefully newer ones are like you say.
That’s part of the reason magsafe is now everywhere. Can’t misalign it if they self correct.
Thank you I didn’t realize the wireless chargers used magsafe.
Is magsafe built into the phone, or just in cases?
If you’re using an iPhone(12 or newer, Although not the 16e), then it’s in the phone. The bit in some cases is to add strength for accessories to snap to where it would be on the phone.
You can get MagSafe cases for some Android devices if you want to use MagSafe accessories with them.
My phone case is designed to attach a camera lens, and actually came with magsafe, but I didn’t have any magsafe attachments and ended up removing the magnets from the case because they interfered with the compass, despite promising not to.
Mine’s magnetic. I have a charger on my nightstand. It keeps my phone in place, so it doesn’t get knocked down where it’s hard to get.
I also have a charging cradle on my desk. Keeps it upright. Makes it easy to glance at any notifications or quickly deal with MFA. I do sometimes unplug the cradle and just use it as a non-charging prop.
It’s also nice because, being magnetic, it also helps when I am having issues with my hands. (Stiff joints.)
I bought a little $15 phone stand from Amazon that does this great only without the charging stuff. It does have a slot on the bottom so you can plug the phone in while it’s on it tho.
I don’t trust public wired charging ports to anything other my mobile battery.
Since I can’t verify if a weird charging port won’t upload malware on site, I’d use wireless charging instead.
You should be able to use the charging only mode that’s under developer settings on your phone.
Some charging pads also prop up the phone at an angle, making it easy to read the screen while also not having to hold the phone up. Most phones have their charging port on the bottom, so a phone stand couldn’t be used while charging with a cord.
Maybe I’m old and prefer having the phone in my hand rather than propped at an angle unless I’m watching some videos, in which case my phone would be landscape mode anyways so the port is easily accessible
Apple’s mag safe charger is pretty popular and you can easily hold the phone in portrait mode while charging (at 25W with the latest models). The puck is thin and sticks to the center of the back of the phone.
Does it charg as efficiently as a wired power bank?
The one I’ve used on my Samsung isn’t as fast as a wired power bank, but I don’t need to wrangle the cables like I do with the wired ones. I wouldn’t use a magsafe power bank to charge my phone from 0 (too slow). But leaving it attached gives me an extra couple of hours with just a little extra weight. Useful for things like conventions or travel.
Not even close. Ifixit did some testing, daily MagSafe wireless charging uses 36% more energy than a wire (which includes idle power draw). It also means slower charging.
That’s not physically possible.
But it is extremely efficient for what it is. The first number I found on google said it’s 95% efficient.
That doesn’t sound correct, considering the amount of wireless chargers that will take 10W, but can only deliver half that to the phone.
Are those qi2 chargers or qi1? The magnets make a huge difference.
I’m also old, but I understand people do watch portrait videos. Sometimes a lot of them, in a single sitting. There’s a popular social media app which exclusively has short-form portrait videos.
I’m old enough that it would probably be creepy if I did use tik tok
Admittedly, charging ports are the first to break on any electronic unless it has a joystick. Wireless charging is a lot more robust, more water resistant, and allows you to do sleek shit without a weird hole in it
My port isn’t worn out, but I’m worried it will become that way. I also don’t need it to charge at full speed overnight. Therefore, wireless charger.
