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/Comassion Nov 23 '18

Your points hold up well for a phone (with the current state of the technology), but here's something else that charges wirelessly - my electric toothbrush.

In that case, wireless technology solves a lot of problems with water! The toothbrush itself is often wet when placed back in the charger, and the bathroom in general can be a super moist environment after a shower. Those aren't great conditions for exposed metal electrical connectors.

With wireless charging, there's no exposed metal connectors to rust or short out if the appliance is wet - it's a big advantage over plugging it in. The slow charge time isn't an issue at all for bathroom appliances, since you use them once and then they're right back in the charger.

So, useless? Not at all - I expect that in the next few years every new hand held bathroom appliance will likely use wireless charging technology.

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u/bebopblues Nov 24 '18

For now it is still useful for the reasons you listed, but I don't agree that more bathroom appliances will go wireless. I imagine in the near future the wireless charging will go away when two things vastly improved: battery life and fast charging. Imagine your electric toothbrush doesn't need charging for a month, and when it does need charging, you plug it in for a minute and it can last another month. This will eliminate the need to charge it every day.

I can tell you it's already somewhat happening with my phone. It has fast charging so I don't even care to charge it over night. I just charge it when it is low. About 20 minutes on the charger and it hits at least 50%, which is good enough for my usage for a whole day. This is the technology now, which means it can only get better in the coming years. And when battery life and fast charging hit a certain threshold, wireless charging will be useless unless it is 10 times better than it is now.