Wired is more efficient, you can pick it up and use it while charging, and the cable usually comes free with the phone. What is the point of wireless charging pads?
My port isn’t worn out, but I’m worried it will become that way. I also don’t need it to charge at full speed overnight. Therefore, wireless charger.
Maybe a bit of an edge case but I use a wallet case and I still carry a credit card. Wireless chargers have cooked my credit card a few times… and nfc Google pay doesn’t always work.
I just like being able to walk by the nightstand and have the phone “lock” to the charging pad when I lay it down.
In my car it is a lot more convenient than a charging cradle for being able to use turn by turn while driving.
They’re very convient, I use them for the phones, airpods (with a silicon skin still on much less). Just nice to be able to leave your device on them while running them and know they won’t die out
So you just don’t like plugging the cable in?
Also charge battery phone cases that are much easier to slip on the wireless charger than plug with micro usb
If someone claims to care about the climate, then using wireless charging makes them kind of a hypocrite. I asked ChatGPT to do some back-of-the-envelope math - so take these numbers with a grain of salt - but if everyone in the world switched to wireless charging, it would increase global energy consumption by around 12 TWh per year. That’s roughly equivalent to the total power usage of a small country like Iceland.
Huh, I never considered the inefficiency to be that bad
If someone claims to care about the climate, then using ChatGPT makes them an incredible hypocrite.
Kindly fuck all the way off
When my mom finally ditched her land line and ported the number to a smart phone, getting a wireless charger that propped the phone up was a nice way to set up a sort of designated place to keep the phone (where the landline phone had been) so that there’s less chance she misplaces the phone or forgets to charge it.
You can also keep a wired charger in the same place but it charges faster
Bonus: the landline was already wired so just don’t unplug it ever and use it like before.
We did have wireless handsets back in the day…
I didn’t feel like typing that part.
And they had little docks to charge them (and transmit) but they also make docks for your phone.
Unplug the phone
If charging speed were your top priority, sure. She doesn’t use her phone hardly at all so the battery rarely gets depleted much, therefore how quickly it charges isn’t really that important. Not having to mess with a wire makes it more convenient to grab and go when she does need it, and more convenient to put it back when done. And no risk of damaging the USB port.
I’m still confused about this “hassle” people have with a wire, like you just plug it in. I used a 2016 iphone se for 5 years, still use it now for an bedside alarm and have never had any issues with the port. I’ve used a samsung for the past 4 years and never had an issue with the port, now that I think of it, in the 20 years I’ve used cell phones I’ve never had any issues with any phone ports. I’m sure there are some that get damaged but it seems to be so unlikely that I don’t see the need to spend extra money on a pad
It is a hassle, even if very very slight. One you need to plug in something small. The other you just drop a big thing onto a slightly smaller big thing.
Arthritis, poor eyesight, poor lighting, temporary/permanent hand disability are some that I can think of that greatly benefits wireless charging and found plugging in a cable a hassle.
Fair enough, I didn’t mean to he ableist
It’s convenient to place my phone on at my computer and it’s just always charged. It is a little less efficient, but if you’re running a heater anyway then technically they’re both lossless (though gas heat may be cheaper for you if you have gas heat).
It’s very useful in sealed devices (smart watches, ear phones). Much better than pogo pins on your skin; whatever metal they pick, someone is going to be allergic. Things like active pencils (Apple Pencil, but als the Windows open standard ones) also make a lot of sense to charge like that.
I also use a wireless charging stand for my phone. Most phone stands have an opening for a cable, but for some reason that opening is always at just the wrong space, or not right for the cable. K They’re also useful when using your phone for navigation in your car. I find a cable sticking from the bottom of my phone quite a handful to manage, especially as the USB ports are all so close to my gear shifter.
For those still sporting lightning iPhones, it also provides a universal charging option.
Oh, and then there’s the edge case of “I want to plug something into my phone and also charge it”. Tiny flash drives, 3.5mm converters, you name it. Most phones only have one USB port, so using it for anything but charging usually means not being able to charge unless you go wireless.
Still, wired is the way to to moet of the times. Wireless is just a nice backup, and maybe a fun gimmick in certain furniture.
My desk wireless charger is magnetic, and my keyboard is wireless and can be switched between devices. So I can switch to my phone and bang out a message on my keyboard while my phone is held up comfortably.
I use wireless charging 99% of the time. It’s convenient to plop your phone or earbuds down and effortlessly grab them when it’s time to go.
The other reason I like wireless: less wear on your phone’s USB port. Even though USB-C is supposedly good for millions of plug/unplug cycles I’ve had several phones with USB-C that get wonky after about 2+ years. “Wonky” as in having to hold the cable just right to transfer data or even successfully fast charge.
Wireless charging drastically cuts down on the amount of times you’ll be ramming a USB cable into it’s port, hopefully prolonging it’s useful life.
That wonkiness often times is just lint jammed into the charging port, and a thorough cleaning fixes the issue
It’s heartening to see someone else sharing what’s usually my line! I recommend a wooden toothpick for the aforementioned cleaning.
Ditto. The plastics floss/pick combos work even better. Being thinner and super flexible, they are less likely to cause damage and reach the tiny crevices better.
You do realize that wireless charging is also very inefficent and reduces your battery lifespan, right? It’s also kinda weird that your port goes bad after such a short time. Maybe you should clean it more often and make sure not to put any tension on it when you use it. I even have a 10 year old phone and the port (micro usb) still works perfectly fine.
It is more inefficiënt, yes. But why would it reduce battery lifespan? Is it because of the added heat from the wireless charging coils? My battery probably stays cooler with wireless charging then using the wired turbo charger. Which is more and more standard these days.
All our modern charging methods are really bad for batteries. Wireless is inductive which means the charging voltage is noisy and very variable, this means heat and that stresses the batteries faster. But, wired charging with PD uses really high voltages, which are sometimes way too fast. Also stressing the battery. We’ll see what comes of it but the recent couple of phone generations are prone to be the ones with the worse battery life expectancy.
Companies are usually aiming for 80% at two years time. That means that a phone that barely survives a day when new, will not make it through the day two years after. As the battery loses capacity, it requires more charges per day, accelerating the degradation.
Here’s iFixit assessment of wireless charging.
This is MKHB on why heat hurts batteries and how companies try to fight back the damage of fast charging.
I’ve been wireless charging exclusively for 5 years and had minimal change in battery life.
I’d be interested to see how you measure that. It’s also not really a matter of opinion. Even though you may not notice a wild difference, your battery did degrade more than it would’ve, if you’d used a wired charger.
Also, the inefficiency is bad enough for me to rule it out. You literally waste at least twice as much power compared to a wired charger (source). Although we’re not talking about a crazy amount of power, it’s pretty selfish to waste it just because you don’t want to plug in a charger.
I’ve had the phone for 6 1/2 years. It has a small 3000 mha battery. Initial reviews had it at 8 1/2 hours battery life at release. When I posted that I had been using the phone for 2 hours and was at 72% so extrapolated that 7 3/4 battery life. So less than a 10% drop. Granted I’m not a heavy phone user so I probably put less wear on my battery in general.
Yes use it for convince, but I’ve also had to replace phones for broken USB ports which in the grand scale is probably more wasteful than the extra power use.
Adding on to this, it’s good to switch to wireless before the point gets wonky if you want to use the cable for data.
Follow up: does it work well with cases?
Wireless charging is unaffected by normal plastic or silicone cases (unless it’s super thick, like an OtterBox). Metal cases don’t work.
Yeah, the USB port on all my phones was the first thing to go, and then you’re just stuck doing the stupid little dance of getting the cable to go in at the exact right angle to get it to charge. With wireless (especially with MagSafe), you just put it on the charger and you never need to worry about cables. I’ve got a plug on my USB port to keep dirt out now.
Wow, I’ve never had any issues with USB ports on any of my phones. Which one of us is the outlier? Do you ram the cable in too hard? Do you bend the connector in weird ways?
Nah, it’s just lint and other crap getting into the port. You can clean the USB-C ones easier than the micro-USB ones, but eventually they all go.
I use one at work to passively charge my phone without having to deal with cables. Keeps my desk a bit tidier.
I like keeping my desk clean too but there is the inevitable person who says “clean desks are for simple minds and true geniuses thrive in chaos” so I have to keep a corner of loose wires to look smart
You can certainly have both. Fewer cables means more room for chaos, like my USB powered mini handvac
I’ve noticed that with the varying quality of USB cables, and them having broken/cracked wires over time, I usually get much faster charging when doing it wirelessly. If anything is way more consistent. With cords it’s a crap shot. Is this a fast charge cord? Was it cheaply made, is it deteriorating? I can use 4 different cords and get different results from each
I know people love these and I’m not going to go and break anyone’s balls but the reality is, because it is inductive charging you will never get clean voltage
Anything electronic, it really doesn’t matter what it is, is going to suffer basically the equivalent of “mechanical damage” when powered/charged with unstable current
An inductive charging is always going to be highly unstable, there’s no way around that
Anybody who tries to tell you different just doesn’t understand that this is a real thing, and yeah, really nobody should ever use wireless charging unless they’re willing to accept continual device (battery) damage
Can you explain why it’s not possible to stabilize the voltage on the receiving side before the power is sent to the battery?
That can be done but the voltage that it receives is variable so that’s causing damage. Which ripples down the chain, it’s not avoidable no matter how much you put in capacitors and diodes
It’s really just an unavoidable aspect of electricity, people think of it as magic fairies floating through wires but really it’s like ropes pulling on things, and just like mechanical things, ripples and vibrations fk things up!
If you’re really want to get down to it, electricity is destroying things by its very flow. But you want to reduce the unwanted harmonics as much as possible and wireless is not the way to go
You just repeated your claims without explaining them or backing them up with any details. You sound like someone selling essential oils and crystals as medicine. Try again?
As I explained to you, you are living in bias, not fact. And I was right not to spoon feed it to you, because evidently facts are irrelevant to you and you’ve shown that by talking out your ass. You know nothing on the subject whereas I’ve 10 years experience and work directly in social services. I don’t waste time on dingbats like you. There’s another fact for ya.
Thanks for further proving my point.
You don’t have a point. You’re in a psychological spin out because you’re wrong. Blocked
I get what you’re saying but as a counterpoint I charge exclusively via wireless and my last phone lasted 4 1/2 years. The only reason I replaced it was my friends kid was playing a game on my phone and dropped and it got damaged. It was running just fine right up to the end.
Maybe it’s because I only use low power wireless chargers, or maybe it’s something with Samsung’s wireless charging controller. Who knows.
That’s not a counterpoint, you’re just describing that you had a battery that was okay for 4 years
It doesn’t say anything really I’m sorry friend
Don’t want to bother with a cable at night.
I’m disabled. Wireless charging, especially when I can use the magnets that auto locate the coil, is a huge win.
(I also use charging wires with removable magnetic tips, that I leave in the device. But that wasn’t the question.)
I said the public charging stations was the most legitimate answer I read before but this is obviously the most legitimate answer.
I’ve never heard of these magnetic wires before, do they work well? I feel like I would prefer that
I’ve used the mag chargers for years and really love them. The little metal lug can feel a bit odd, and I had to clean metal shavings off it when I did fab for work, but it’s all around great to use. It basically turns your charging cable into a coaxle cable, so it can’t do data, but the cable can spin freely as you charge and can be magneted to other things when you aren’t so the cord is easy to manage.
Much of a difference in charge time if any?
Honestly, between the two I’ve never noticed. The cables can die easy, but that’s because I get them cheap.
Reasonably well. The magnets aren’t very strong, so the device in question pretty much has to be stationary while it’s charging, also, while most of them allow data, it is almost always USB 2 speeds. Right now I’m using them to charge headsets, a Logitech trackball, and provide data for an Xbox controller.
I get them from Amazon; " magnetic USB charge wire" should be a sufficient search to get you in the ballpark.
