Widely regarded as a gimmick to many, wireless charging was the “Next Big Thing” in a number of flagships a couple of years ago. Devices like the Nexus 5 and Samsung Galaxy S5 were among the first phones to pioneer wireless Qi charging. Both were popular in different communities for different reasons. As a result, quite a lot of people were exposed to the fact that their phone could wirelessly charge, but with a few drawbacks like longer charge times and high temperatures. Wireless charging was simply deemed impractical for the majority of phone users. Now very few phones actually support it, with Samsung producing some of the only mainstream phones that can wirelessly charge. What’s more, Samsung devices actually don’t only support Qi anymore, but they support AirFuel as well, a faster method of wirelessly charging.
There are a few use cases for wireless charging. Mainly it’s just the ease of putting your phone down on a pad to charge without having to fumble about with a cable. It makes sense, but is it really necessary? OnePlus has already officially spoken out officially on the issue, citing slower charge times and the inability to use your phone at the same time as major downsides. There are valid arguments on either side of the equation. Ultimately a lot of what it comes down to is actually the device build material. Metal devices cannot really use inductive charging methods, which puts offerings from HTC, OnePlus, and others out of the picture when talking about the incorporation of wireless charging. Samsung’s devices are made of plastic or glass, which circumvents this limitation.
So what do you think? Would you like to have wireless charging on your Android device for the sake of convenience? Or would you rather a company focus on bringing other features and all-metal bodies on their devices? Let us know in the comments below!
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