When both types of chargers - wireless and wired- were on the same wattage, wireless was about 15 per cent slower
wireless chargers Besides getting bigger, smartphones keep getting — for lack of a better word — glassier. From front to back, the bodies of many of the newest smartphones are composed of glass.
The trend is not part of a broad conspiracy to make you shatter your phone so that you buy a new one. Instead, glass lets energy pass through the phone so that it can be charged wirelessly. The technology relies on magnetic induction, which involves using an electrical current to generate a magnetic field, creating voltage that powers the phone without your plugging a wire into it.
Many people are excited about charging without cords. A study by SurveyMonkey found that wireless charging was the most anticipated feature in last year’s new iPhones. Yet in a survey by the research firm IHS, only 29 per cent said they used wireless charging last year.
That may be because wireless charging isn’t truly wireless. People typically need accessories from companies like Samsung, Mophie and Anker — which generally look like mats and stands that you can set your phone on — to wirelessly power up. And while you don’t have to plug a cable into the phone, the accessories themselves have to be hooked up to a power outlet.
There’s a trade-off, too: Wireless charging is less efficient at transferring energy than a wire, and is thus slower at refilling a battery. (Mophie said that generally, when both types of chargers were on the same wattage, wireless was about 15 per cent slower.)
So what’s the point?
Charlie Quong, vice president of product development for Mophie, said placing wireless chargers in areas where people spent a lot of time — like their bedroom, car and office — could enable them to top off their phones more frequently by removing the hassle of plugging in.
The products help people “get charged throughout their day without having to deliberately park their phone down,” Mr. Quong said. “It’s really, really convenient.”
As a longtime skeptic of wireless chargers, I was eager to find a useful application for the technology. So I scattered the chargers around the focal points of my daily routine: on my nightstand, in my car, in my briefcase, on my office desk and on a living room table.
In the end, I would consider keeping a wireless charger only in the bedroom or in a briefcase. Here’s what I found.
In the Bedroom
Two types of wireless chargers can be placed on a bedside table: pads and stands.
The pad is a disc, and you lay your phone down on it. The stand keeps your phone upright so that the screen faces you while it charges. I tested a Mophie charging pad and Anker’s PowerWave stand. (more)
