Have you seen the recent growth in popularity of wireless charging? Perhaps you’ve got the new iPhone which has that as one of its flagship features. Maybe you’ve got another new gadget that uses it. If you’re new to the world of wireless charging, then keep reading this article. You’re in the right place to find out a bit more about the process and how it really works, so you can continue to safely charge your technology quickly and easily.
Charging capabilities have really taken off in recent years. Alongside wireless charging, batteries have got lighter and smaller while still increasing capacity. not only that, but work is being done all the time to improve charging speeds. Chargings speed is one of the biggest factors that’s holding a number of new technologies back. Especially the electric car industry. Charging a car for hours simply isn’t practical—but things are getting faster all the time.
Even if you’re just thinking about your iPhone right now, this revolution in battery technology could lead to a lot of new technology becoming more commonplace. As batteries become lighter, portable e-generators for camping trips become viable. As they become quicker to charge, electric cars become a better proposition. All of this tech could benefit from wireless charging, but how does it work?
How does wireless charging work?
There’s one important point to remember with “wireless marketing”: there’s a bit of creative license in this term. In other words, it’s a triumph of marketing over what’s really taking place. Wireless charging still needs wires, you just don’t have to plug the actual device (iPhone or otherwise) into the charger. They haven’t created a way to actually send power wirelessly through the air yet (and probably never will safely).
However, wireless charging is still a lot more convenient than traditional charging. It’s much easier to simply slide or sit your phone on a wireless charging base and let it get some power than having to fiddle around and plug the cable in the back. So how does wireless charging work? Let’s have a look…
Wireless charging uses what’s known as “inductive charging” to create power in two separate coils. An electromagnetic field is created in each of these coils which passes an electric current. As you can probably imagine, these coils need to get power from somewhere, normally the mains power source. That’s where “wires” are required, but they don’t actually need any wires to pass the electricity on to the phone or other devices. You do need to touch the phone onto the charging unit for it to work, though.
When the magnetic plate on the smartphone or other device touches the transmitting plate, the field generates a current to the device which charges it. The current is converted into direct current to charge the phone’s battery.
Wireless charging uses a standard known as Qi, which was created by the Wireless Power Consortium. This technology has been adopted by a number of big tech firms including Apple and Huawei. It can charge over distances of up to 40mm.
Benefits of wireless charging
You probably want to know a bit more about why wireless charging might be a good idea. So let’s have a look.
The first advantage is that it’s simple and easy to use, as well as being convenient. Fiddling around for the right plug or cable to insert into your phone can be time-consuming and frustrating. You don’t have to worry about all that once you’ve got your wireless charging point set up. Simply slide the phone onto it and let it start charging. It’s easy to pick up and go whenever you need to.
Another advantage is that it helps your phone last longer. That’s because it puts less strain on the charging port. Continuously plugging something in and out of a phone can lead to wear and tear, and could eventually lead to that part of your phone breaking. You don’t have to go through all this wear and tear when you use wireless charging, so your phone could last longer.
As wireless charging starts to take off around the world, more and more places are installing Qi charging pads. That’s another advantage, and adds an extra level of convenience to having a phone that you can charge wirelessly. You can simply turn up to one of these charging points and charge your phone on the ego, simply and easily. That’s also another advantage of wireless charging in that the bases are often cross-compatible. That means you can use the same base to charge a number of different phones, without having to get different chargers or cables out. it makes it more convenient to share chargers or charge on the go when charging points only really need one type of charger.
Some people also consider wireless charging as a safer way to charge your phone, which can be seen as another key advantage.
Drawbacks of wireless charging
While there are a few obvious and clear benefits of wireless charging that we’ve just seen, there are some drawbacks as well. Let’s have a quick look at them so you’ve got a slightly better idea about things:
Wireless charging tends to be slower than traditional charging methods. While charging speeds are improving, if you’re in a rush—you might want to stick that cable into your phone and charge it the proper way. As battery technology improves, charging speeds should speed up for wireless.
Another drawback of wireless charging is that it’s harder to use your phone while it’s charging. When a cable is plugged in, you can still pick your phone up and use it as normal, but you can’t really do this when you’re charging wirelessly.
Hopefully, you now know a bit more about wireless technology and why it might be better for your devices. If you haven’t got wireless charging yet, maybe it’s something you should look into upgrading to. More and more people are every year.
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