The rumors that Apple mobile phones want to cancel the charging interface have a long history, which means that wireless charging will replace wired charging. A number of supply chain sources revealed that the iPhone 13 may cancel the charging interface. Once Apple phones use wireless charging, Android phone manufacturers will follow up. By then, wireless charging will replace wired charging.
The question is, can mobile phones cut off the charging interface? Can wireless charging replace wired charging? From a purely technical analysis, wireless charging technology is still immature and difficult to replace wired charging. The charging speed is slow and portability is poor, which are the two major flaws of wireless charging.
It is undeniable that Xiaomi’s 50W wireless charging technology has been commercialized, and the Huawei Mate 40 series also supports 50W wireless charging, and the charging speed has been greatly improved. However, last year vivo launched 120W wired fast charging, OPPO’s wired charging reached 125W, and Qualcomm also introduced 100W wired fast charging technology. Compared with mature wired charging technology, wireless charging is not fast.
Another point is that many mainstream mobile phones do not support wireless charging, let alone high-power wireless fast charging. From this perspective, in the short term, it is difficult for wireless charging to spread to mobile phones at every price point. More importantly, the wireless fast charging technology of different mobile phone brands is not universal, and the wireless charging speed is slower if the third-party wireless charger is used.
Even more embarrassing is that Apple, which wants to cancel the wired charging interface, has the highest wireless charging power of the iPhone 12 only 15W, and it needs to use the official MagSafe charger. Using a third-party wireless charger, the iPhone 12 wireless charging power can only reach 7.5W. At present, 120W wired charging can be fully charged in less than 20 minutes, and 50W wireless charging can take at least 40 minutes to fully charge.
In terms of charging speed alone, wireless charging is not dominant. Coupled with the fact that 5G mobile phones consume more power, consumers’ demand for fast charging is more urgent, and the slow charging speed is destined to be difficult to replace wired charging with faster charging speeds. In addition, in terms of user experience, wireless charging also has some shortcomings.
As we all know, when using wired charging, users can charge their phones while playing with them. If you use wireless charging, it is difficult to charge while playing with your phone. More importantly, the wireless charging kit is inconvenient to carry, which is also a major shortcoming.
Currently, wireless charging requires a charger, a data cable, and a wireless charging base. Just ask, if you have a charger and a data cable, you can charge, why do you have to use wireless charging? What’s more, wired charging is faster. Another point is that when you travel on business, you can charge your mobile phone with a charger and data cable. Why do you need to bring an extra wireless charging base?
Objectively speaking, under the existing technical conditions, the cancellation of the charging interface of the mobile phone will cause many problems. For example, after the Android phone system crashes, you need to plug in the data cable to flash the phone. In general, the two shortcomings of slow charging speed and poor user experience cannot be solved, and wireless charging cannot replace wired charging.
