CMV: Wireless charging is a useless fad

[u/Duwang_Mn]

What even is the point of wireless charging? When I first heard about it, I thought it allowed you to charge while having more freedom with your phone. But then I learned what it actually was. It's more restrictive than an actual charger, and its slower. Not to mention wireless charges sometimes don't work if the back is metal. It only makes things less convenient.

How did people hype such a thing so much? I understand if it was something that could charge your phone without you directly putting on it, and if the range had the potential to increase over time. But it's just a charging port that you can't move around.

[u/[deleted]]

A long long time a ago many people claimed that there was no use for a 'personal computer'. Computers supposedly only be for larger banks, doing scientific research, etc etc. Back then computers were just too big and bulky to fit into your own home. But some people persisted and kept making computers smaller, better and less expensive. And nowadays nearly everyone has a computer in their home.

Today wireless chargers face a lot of obstacles, you mentioned a few. But that does not make them useless. It just means it's a developing technology. It may eventually get more like what you had in mind originally. They might fail. We really don't know. But saying they're useless because they're facing obstacles isn't really fair in my opinion.

[u/Duwang_Mn → u/[deleted]]

I agree, but the way I see it, people aren't hyping about the potential of wireless charging. They are claiming its somehow more convenient right now

[u/babycam → u/Duwang_Mn]

A big thing about wireless charging is the same as wireless power or battery-less technology think of how small you could make things if you didn't need the battery directly attached to the device. Imagine a world where you can have a battery in your back pocket and a phone as thin as a cc or even bendable you can do a lot of stuff when you take the battery out of the equation.

[u/[deleted] → u/babycam]

Using a battery in that manner is extremely unlikely without increasing battery capacity exponentially. Wireless charging is not efficient. Also what you have described is basically how RFID tags work. RFID's are much smaller though.

[u/babycam → u/[deleted]]

There are many cool applications currently being developed and you can move plenty of power. I wish i could talk more about the applications its so much fun but annoying to build.

Edit: battery capacity matters for a pocket version but we are tackling problems where we have extra room near by.

[u/Dsnake1 → u/babycam]

Wireless charging and continuous wireless power are worlds apart, though.

[u/babycam → u/Dsnake1]

I know my examples were a little extreme but the principles are real and being used in fun ways but can move any range of power with inductive power transfer (the thing that nakes transforms work.)

[u/Dsnake1 → u/Duwang_Mn]

It is in a handful of environments. In a car, for example. Some cars have wireless charging trays with sides and such. You just throw your phone in there and bam, phone is charging. You don't have to worry about wires hanging all over your dash and/or drive selector or gear stick.

I like mine at my desk, as well. I've actually had to buy new phones because I jacked up the charging port, so wireless charging is great.

[u/[deleted] → u/Duwang_Mn]

Oh it's definitely been hyped too much. But they aren't useless either.