How Wireless Charging Works and Why It's Terrible
You’ve seen wireless chargers, the tech is now as common as the smartphones they power. But did you know that they come with a big catch? Today we go over the tech behind wireless charging and just how much it actually takes to get your battery full again.
Check out our blog on Wireless Charging!
https://www.ifixit.com/News/94409/wireless-charging-trading-efficiency-for-convenience
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Big thanks to Creative Electron for the x-rays they sent us!
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:18 What to know about wireless chargers
00:36 How does wired charging work
01:11 How does wireless charging work
01:47 Wireless charging issues and some solutions
02:49 Worst Case Scenario of Wireless Charging
03:13 A look at the Tesla wireless charging platform
03:55 Final thoughts
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Meanwhile I’m already switching from wired to wireless for a while now. I’m find it OK with the extra inefficiency and "supposedly" worse battery life. I’m sick with the hassle of repairing usb port (not to mention it always broke again shortly afterwards, always. No one here seems able to replicate like the original port)
Try the magnetic cable chargers that come with usb-c adapters. They have the added benefit of not wearing out the port since you don’t plug in and out every time
Not to mention, depending on the case you use, it can make wireless charging kinda rough
The first time I used a wireless charger, I was surprised how warm it made my phone. And that was the last time I used wireless charging.
I keep my devices for as long as practically possible. I use a non-fast charging pad overnight to keep my phone charging slow, generally better for the battery. It’s never more than slightly warm. Also, there’s zero stress on the USB C connector, which failed on a previous phone from all the connecting & disconnecting.
Wireless changing works through electromagnetic fields, therefore of course you lose some energy. One of those "innovations" made just because they look cool and sell well.
Has anybody noticed that this guy’s vocal signature is unique?
Wireless charging is rubbish. That’s all I gotta say!
Wireless charging would have been awesome if I could place my phone anywhere and still charge it, not on the wireless charging platform pad. But obviously there’s not going to be a true wireless charging system anytime soon. If I can bring the phone to a wireless charger pad, I can very well connect it with a charging cable. They could have designed a system which uses magnetic alignment to make electrical contacts to charge normally.
A minha única questão é porque não meter algumas conexões de metal que permitam carregar apenas encostando a traseira do smartphone a uma base com pinos que se alinha magnética mente 😅
Finally someone said truth
I would love if they got rid of the wireless charging coil in phones and put in a bigger battery instead of
I’ve enjoyed wireless charging cuz on my past 2 phones the usb-c port ended up failing and had no way to charge…other than wireless
Meh. Replacing battery myself is like $15. Thats cheaper than a cable most of the time and we all know how long cables last.
I can fit my phone with a wireless powerbank in a waterproof bag. Cable takes up too much length.
The waste heat from wireless charging helps my phone to not overcool while cycling in winter. Phones work very poorly in cold otherwise.
I can 3M tape the wireless powerbank to a plastic phone case and its perfectly aligned and I’ll never have to remember a cable.
What’s a chi 1 or chi 2 standard?
Its not terrible
Especially when usb c wont work
Ohh wow … Centigrade….. hello 1947.
It’s not bad, wired charging isn’t that fast either specifically speaking for me, my S23 takes about an hour and 12 minutes before going to 100% while wired would take about 58 min. But seeing this Xiaomi and other brands with up to 50 watts of wireless charging is nuts, I don’t know what Samsung is waiting for.
Thanks for the awesome info.
It is, indeed, utter crap.
What convenient? Both are wired.
Tf is centigrade? Pretty sure it’s called Celsius
My wife has destroyed countless charging cables and a handful of phone charging ports. Wireless charging is the lesser of two evils for us
I just wish manufacturers offered options here. Give me one "rugged" skew with a high quality plastic or aluminium back, and one "fancy" skew with glass back and wireless charging. Glass backs are an actual bane to me
Lmao. I got a Google stand for my pixel 7, Anker magnetic charger as a backup, and Energizer wireless power bank as a backup backup. Never have to worry about my usb-c port breaking, loose cables, or bringing cables at all which can bend and fray in a bookbag.
Something you completely ignore is the super cheap and flimsy USB C ports on most phones and yes even the flagships. If you plug in a charger everyday most ports won’t last a year before they are sloppy loose.
my xiaomi 50w wireless charger is much faster than samsung and iphone wired charging methods, and it comes with a built in fan, so never over heats, on top of that it only costs 20 quid
Really don’t get the whole wireless charging hype
Wireless charging has the advantage of durability and it’s unaffected by liquids. It’s not ideal of course, but with magnets (MagSafe) it is not that much worse.
Nope..NOPE!.. Missing points: Internal temp,near battery poach temp,where does the excess energy go,smaller vs larger coils,higher voltage vs lower voltage wireless charging standard,etc.
Watching this video while attaching my phone to a wireless charger
MagSafe is the only acceptable form of wireless charging
benefits of a 3rld world country: never used one, never wanted one, never will. Again, 1st world countries creating 1st world problems to implement 1st world solutions lol
FAKE NEWS wheres your evidence?! i am fairly certain youve been compromised/influenced by BIG WIRE
Why is wireless charging getting popular despite the drawbacks? Easy. Charging with a USB-C cord is more efficient – until a microscopic speck of lint or dust clogs the port! Now you get 0% efficiency. Because the EU forced this crappy port onto the world, we have to all cope. I use magnetically held cords myself, but wireless chargers are ubiquitous at phone stores while you have to look for magnetically held cords online.
In a lab with a precision machine in a clean room to test the durability and it gets 10,000 plug/unplug cycles.
In the real world, you give the phone to a fur-free ape. Our fur-free ape fumbles with the cord to charge the phone, then because he’s fur-free he wears clothing, with pockets. Guess what pockets ALWAYS have in them? Lint! Result: ~150 plug/unplug cycles.
Lawmakers really need to keep their noses out of technical trades like the EU lawmakers with USB-C – or Texas lawmakers trying to practice medicine. (OB-GYN)
If you take a magentic Piezo electric phone cooler and stick it on the back of an Apple Wireless magnetic charging puck it will keep the phone cool while wireless fast charging the phone, that is what I do. The phone stays at a nice 20c room temperature where it would normally be over 30c without it.
That direct connector is a broken female port waiting to happen.
My wireless car charger is vent mounted and used summertime with the A/C on blast.
Every little bit of cooling helps. Including insurance on my phone breaking.
Did you try taking the phone case off? The rubber (which is an insulator) phone case…
This video seems to exaggerate the negatives of wireless charging. While it may produce some heat and potentially cause minor battery degradation, if it were truly detrimental, it wouldn’t be a feature in modern smartphones. Consider the scenario of using wireless charging to incrementally charge the battery throughout the day. I maintain my battery between 20-80% and avoid leaving my phone on the charger overnight. Having used wireless charging since the early 2010s, I’ve observed no significant impact on my phone’s longevity. It’s worth noting that older Samsung wireless chargers included a built-in fan to mitigate overheating. I still use the older version, I think it was a 2018 or 2019 model.
I thinks is amazing for small device like a smartwatch
If we want to save the energy and prevent global warming, we should ban this kind of technology that wastes a lot of energy while providing marginal convenience.
Only thing I dislike about wireless charging is that you cant have an aluminum backed phone with it -.-
"if the battery exceeds 30°C"
Me on my phone where while it’s turned on, it has never dipped below 32°C evencin winter on top of snowy mountains:
Great video. Yeah, f**k wireless charging.
This will cause low-temperature burns.
Stick to wired charging, got it
Or mix water and fire and use magnetic cable adapter
Certain alphabet agencies in america really, really hate iPhones and almost all Android phones. Why? Because they know the data and privacy on them is next to nothing in terms of security.
Part of privacy and security is actually knowing never to trust any public charging device. But if public charging actually used wireless (and magnetic) charging, then data theft or attempted uploads would not be an issue. The one single benefit to wireless charging
It’s inefficient and damaging to phone longevity. I don’t see why we can’t just ban this… (Exeptions for where it may be necessary)
There is a power rectifier in your USB charger plug to convert 230V/120V AC to 5-20V DC, a power inverter to convert it back to AC in the wireless charger, and the induction coils in both the phone and the charger which only take and give AC current, while your phone needs DC, which means another rectifier. All of those components have a loss factor, especially the induction coils, which wastes power into the ether due to impedance or resistance.