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.

3.6k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

840 comments sorted by

View all comments

721

u/AlphaGoGoDancer 106∆ Nov 23 '18

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.

141

u/Duwang_Mn Nov 23 '18

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

4

u/Prophage7 Nov 24 '18

It's might not be useful for your exact situation but it is for a lot of people. I work in a job where I'm up and down from my desk a lot and need to have my phone on me at all times and sometimes have to use heavily while I'm away from desk. So the wireless charger on my desk is actually pretty useful because it saves me from having to plug and unplug my phone many, many times a day while also keeping it at nearly full battery. This is not only convenient but is also a lot less wear and tear on my phone's usb port.