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?
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.
Maybe a bit of an edge case but I use a wallet case and I still carry a credit card. Wireless chargers have cooked my credit card a few times… and nfc Google pay doesn’t always work.
They’re very convient, I use them for the phones, airpods (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
Mainly it is convenience of not having to lug a cable and I have a bit of fear of breaking the interior of the usb-c, it feels fragile to me.
I have an iPhone with MagSafe, so I can use it while charging.
Using a charging pad without MagSafe and cannot use the phone while charging can also be a plus for some people, it forces you to not being constantly on the phone.
it forces you to not being constantly on the phone.
That’s a bingo
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
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’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.
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.)
Mine didn’t, unfortunately. It just charged very slow and got hot. Hopefully newer ones are like you say.
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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.
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.
It makes the phone harder to use, which is ironically useful to some. tbh I don’t understand lol
Most people can put their phone down long enough to let it charge, pause the doomscrolling and touch grass.
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
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
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?
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.
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.
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.
I have one scenario where it’s useful. When in the car and entering a parking lot and you have to scan a qr/bar code on your phone, you can easily pick it up and get it out the window. That said, wireless chargers on cars are terrible.
I have a 6.5 foot cable for the car so I can yoyo that bitch out the window if I wanted to and have it still charging at high rate at all times
That said, wireless chargers on cars are terrible.
How so? I wired one into my center console and it works like a charm.
I’ve heard lots of complaints from people owning various brands that the built-in wireless charging pads are useless. Regularly cut off, phones don’t stay in place, etc. These are for the regular Toyotas, Hondas, etc., not the high end models.
My partner hates wires and cables. A loose usb c is ugly. A puck is elegant apparently
I feel like I’ve been a usb c my whole life and I just want to be someone’s puck
Yeah, to prevent the charging port becoming faulty?
I’ve noticed that with the varying quality of USB cables, and them having broken/cracked wires over time, I usually get much faster charging when doing it wirelessly. If anything is way more consistent. With cords it’s a crap shot. Is this a fast charge cord? Was it cheaply made, is it deteriorating? I can use 4 different cords and get different results from each
Similar. I got a vehicle that had android auto, but not wireless. Plugging and unplugging all the time I’d go through a cable every few months. Power would work, but the shielding would break and it would screw with cell/GPS until I replaced the cable.
Got a wireless android auto adapter to stop buying cables. That’s great but I knew I wouldn’t plug in my phone every time like normal, so I use the wireless charging.
I know people love these and I’m not going to go and break anyone’s balls but the reality is, because it is inductive charging you will never get clean voltage
Anything electronic, it really doesn’t matter what it is, is going to suffer basically the equivalent of “mechanical damage” when powered/charged with unstable current
An inductive charging is always going to be highly unstable, there’s no way around that
Anybody who tries to tell you different just doesn’t understand that this is a real thing, and yeah, really nobody should ever use wireless charging unless they’re willing to accept continual device (battery) damage
I get what you’re saying but as a counterpoint I charge exclusively via wireless and my last phone lasted 4 1/2 years. The only reason I replaced it was my friends kid was playing a game on my phone and dropped and it got damaged. It was running just fine right up to the end.
Maybe it’s because I only use low power wireless chargers, or maybe it’s something with Samsung’s wireless charging controller. Who knows.
That’s not a counterpoint, you’re just describing that you had a battery that was okay for 4 years
It doesn’t say anything really I’m sorry friend
Can you explain why it’s not possible to stabilize the voltage on the receiving side before the power is sent to the battery?
That can be done but the voltage that it receives is variable so that’s causing damage. Which ripples down the chain, it’s not avoidable no matter how much you put in capacitors and diodes
It’s really just an unavoidable aspect of electricity, people think of it as magic fairies floating through wires but really it’s like ropes pulling on things, and just like mechanical things, ripples and vibrations fk things up!
If you’re really want to get down to it, electricity is destroying things by its very flow. But you want to reduce the unwanted harmonics as much as possible and wireless is not the way to go
You just repeated your claims without explaining them or backing them up with any details. You sound like someone selling essential oils and crystals as medicine. Try again?
As I explained to you, you are living in bias, not fact. And I was right not to spoon feed it to you, because evidently facts are irrelevant to you and you’ve shown that by talking out your ass. You know nothing on the subject whereas I’ve 10 years experience and work directly in social services. I don’t waste time on dingbats like you. There’s another fact for ya.
Thanks for further proving my point.
You don’t have a point. You’re in a psychological spin out because you’re wrong. Blocked
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
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
