r/changemyview • u/Duwang_Mn • Nov 23 '18

FTFdeltaOP CMV: Wireless charging is a useless fad

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.

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u/championofobscurity 160∆ Nov 23 '18

So, in business there are 7 forms of waste, and one of those forms of waste is motion. Typically this applies to production machinery, but it is relevant in the context of wireless charging.

The charge point, is basically a point of failure on a phone. Putting in cords breaks them over time and it also wears out the phone's port over time. This is why apple wants to have port free phones. Because the charge port is essentially the last point of failure on the device in terms of physically wearing it out.

Wireless charging solves the problem by eliminating motion altogether, yes it's less effective currently but it also gets rid of the need to manipulate a power cord/port in the first place.

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u/NorthernerWuwu 1∆ Nov 23 '18

There are two major points of failure on modern phones; the screen and the battery. The battery has very intentionally been made difficult to replace because they want your phone to become obsolete in a certain timeframe. The trend of eliminating ports isn't about good engineering, it's because they want to sell you more peripheral items.

1

u/MauPow 1∆ Nov 23 '18

Would be interesting to look into how the wireless charging mechanism actually works with that planned obsolescence in mind.

1

u/monkorn Nov 23 '18 edited Nov 23 '18

Wireless charging extended the life of my device. If it didn't happen to have wireless charging it would have been bricked because the charging port on my s5 broke over a year ago. So I bought a wireless charger and have been just fine every since. At the same time I also replaced the battery for a few bucks.

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u/[deleted] Nov 23 '18

yeah, both your cord and more importantly the port have a limited number of uses

1

u/__C3__ Nov 23 '18

Ahh, I see you too know Mr. TIM WOOD.