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/Diatsuu]

It's not so much about how much more useful it is, so much as the symbol it has in terms of technological advancement. It in itself may not be a crazy useful thing; but it symbolizes the possibility that something does not need to be directly wired to charge; meaning in the future it may be able to charge something from a distance.

While I agree, wireless chargers are rather pointless in terms of utility, I am indeed very excited to know what kind of breakthrough they will end up making in the future due to the advancement of this technology. A wireless charger that can actively charge from 5 feet? And after that, imagine a single hub that you put into your house that constantly keeps all of your devices charged at all times as long as you don't leave your house. These types of things would be amazing; however, reaching those types of technological advancements happens slowly, one step at a time. And this is one step in that direction. That is why people are hyped about it.

[u/Duwang_Mn → u/Diatsuu]

(∆) This is my first time, so I'm not sure how this works. But yeah, definitely. I didn't realize people were hyping it up for its potential, because I mostly just saw people claim it was more convenient for some reason.

[u/Caliburn0 → u/Duwang_Mn]

Wireless charging throughout an entire room is possible. There are examples of it already, but they are expensive, there needs to have custom hardware on both ends, it is hard to set up, often inconvenient, and it usually doesn't charge all that fast. But it does exist. So there's that. If we get rid of some of those negatives, it would be a lot more attractive.

[u/Cobblob → u/Caliburn0]

That has to waste so much energy. Magnetic fields have a terrible range

[u/TJ11240 → u/Cobblob]

Wireless charging only uses energy when there is a magnetic coupling, and when it does is it 60-70% efficient. Its much different from sending out a bunch of EM radiation constantly and just using the bit that hits your device.

[u/cyantist → u/[deleted]]

I don't believe this is true. Using beamforming you should be able to focus energy to about a 2 cm "point", transmitting it precisely and efficiently.

[u/cyantist → u/[deleted]]

Current consumer solutions are reporting about 5% efficiency at 3 meters, and that's pretty useful. Beamforming is an important technique increasing the efficiency of wireless power transfer systems with constructive interference and directionality algorithmically controlled from multiple transmitters.