A few years ago, this technology was innovative, and in 2018, flagship, and then budget smartphones with wireless charging began to appear en masse. Now such smartphones can be bought for less than 15,000 rubles.
Operating principle
People who are far from physics, the wireless method of charging the battery will throw you into a stupor. But there is nothing supernatural about this. Back in 1831, Faraday discovered a phenomenon called electromagnetic induction. He noticed that as the source of the magnetic field moves through the coil of wire, a constant electric current appears in its circuit.
A wireless charging station for mobile phones is a platform inside which there is a coil - a source of a magnetic field. As a rule, the charging itself is connected to the mains with a standard USB cable.
On the back of the smartphone cover, there is another coil - a receiver, which converts the magnetic field from the station platform into an electric current that goes to the battery.
In 2019, Huawei and Samsung began releasing models of smartphones with reverse wireless charging. Its essence lies in the fact that you could not only recharge your device, but also "distribute" the charge wirelessly for other devices.
Technology features
Not all smartphones support this technology. You can understand this from the user manual, or from the icon on the lid in the form of the abbreviation Qi.
Qi-enabled smartphones
Almost all the latest models from well-known manufacturers have Qi support:
- Apple. All models from iPhone 6.
- Samsung. S6, S7, S8, S9, Note 8-9, Leader 8, W2016.
- Huawei. P8-9, Mate 8.
- LG. G3-5, Stylus G4.
You can check Qi support by phone on the dedicated Consortium website (wirelesspowerconsortium.com).
If the device does not support wireless charging, then there are kits on the market consisting of a docking station and a universal receiver, it will need to be installed on the back of the smartphone cover in accordance with the instructions.
Battery charge rate
The speed depends on the power of the docking station. In the standard, it is 5 W and is equal in power to wired charging with parameters 5V and 1A. You can also find a fast version with a power of 15W, but here you need to make sure that the smartphone is designed for this.
Technology safety
Some people may be concerned about the fact that the docking station is creating a permanent magnetic field around it. But you need to understand that Qi for a phone generates an extremely weak level of magnetism, which begins to affect surrounding objects only with close contact. That is, already 20 centimeters from the site, the impact of the field will be extremely insignificant and is not dangerous for an ordinary person. But people with pacemakers should be treated with caution.
On the Internet, there is a myth that Qi can negatively affect the life of the battery, supposedly it starts to degrade faster. But this is absolutely not the case, tk. such charging is no different from the standard, except for the method of transferring energy.
disadvantages
- With wired charging, the phone can be used, but in the case of wireless charging, this cannot be done - the device must lie on the platform.
- The specification says that the charging speed is comparable to wired, but this figure usually varies for the worse depending on how tightly the device lies on the docking station. In addition, there were cases when the phone moved off her due to vibration when receiving messages.
- The docking station takes up more space than the wire.