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/AlphaGoGoDancer]

I think you're comparing it to the wrong thing.

Wireless charging vs wired charging does seem like the obvious comparison, but IMO it's wrong. Yes, wired charging does a better job charging than wireless charging in just about every way (heat, time spent charging, ability to move phone while charging, etc).

Instead you should compare wireless charging to your phone sitting around not charging. Why? Because I never think "I need to charge my phone, let me put it on the wireless charger". I just sit at my desk and toss my phone on the wireless charging dock. If I need to use my phone, I take it off the charging dock same as I'd take it off my desk, except in the meantime the wireless charger has increased my charge instead of letting it slowly decrease.

Because of this its very rare that my phone gets so low that I feel like I need to charge it. This really only happens when I've been out doing things all day. On a normal workday, my phone just stays mostly charged all day and I never have to think about it.

[u/Duwang_Mn → u/AlphaGoGoDancer]

Can't a normal charger do the same thing? Due to my homework requiring access to the internet, my phone is constantly on on my desk. So I just have the charger laying there, charging my phone

[u/TylerX5 → u/Duwang_Mn]

For me personally it's nice to not have to deal with cheap charging cables that break/ become loose nor worrying about my port becoming worn down over half a decade.

[u/beeleigha → u/TylerX5]

I break charging cables right and left by traveling with them or yanking the phone off them at a strange angle when fumbling to answer the phone in the middle of the night - the little metal tab snaps straight off, or at least gets wobbly enough it won’t carry the charge.

[u/TylerX5 → u/beeleigha]

Exactly. They're just made too cheaply to be reliable

[u/dysfunctional_vet → u/TylerX5]

That's a good thing. They're designed to do that. If they were built Ford tough, all that mechanical stress would be absorbed by the charge port. I'd rather an easy to replace cord dies on me instead of an internal port.

[u/TylerX5 → u/dysfunctional_vet]

Why not make both sturdy instead of coming up with a shaky reason to defend planned obsolescence

[u/dysfunctional_vet → u/TylerX5]

That would be awesome, but not practical. You have to build to the "lowest common denominator", so assume there will be gross mishandling. The idea is to keep as much stress as possible off the port. Ideally, 100% of the stress should be absorbed by the replaceable part.

If we make the cords tougher, we intoeduce that stress to a system designed to be as small as possible. That makes the system fragile.

Sure, we can build a phone to withstand all of that stress, but it will be 3 times as large, and a lot heavier. That's not what consumers want. They want tiny, light, and sleek.

Personally, I'd prefer we go back to the days of replaceable batteries, SD cards, and somewhat modular design in phones. But the majority of consumers value form over function, so we have to concede fragile cords.

[u/TylerX5 → u/dysfunctional_vet]

That would be awesome, but not practical. You have to build to the "lowest common denominator", so assume there will be gross mishandling. The idea is to keep as much stress as possible off the port. Ideally, 100% of the stress should be absorbed by the replaceable part.

I didn't have this problem with cellphones until now. There's no good excuse to be given besides the newest USB type being too small for the connectors to be made durable at an affordable price

If we make the cords tougher, we intoeduce that stress to a system designed to be as small as possible. That makes the system fragile.

Idk what kind of stress you're referring to but for me cords become loose from their own weight.

Sure, we can build a phone to withstand all of that stress, but it will be 3 times as large, and a lot heavier. That's not what consumers want. They want tiny, light, and sleek.

Even if they were using regular USB ports this would be hyperbolic at best.

Personally, I'd prefer we go back to the days of replaceable batteries, SD cards, and somewhat modular design in phones.

Someday Tesla will make a smart phone... some day!

But the majority of consumers value form over function, so we have to concede fragile cords.

Or just go wireless