Samsung And the an Apple They may be bitter rivals in the smartphone industry, but they may have come together in what could be a huge win for consumers.
During CES 2023, the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) announced that the Qi2 wireless charging standard is coming soon as it looks to standardize wireless charging across devices. The new Qi2 charging standard should unify the Qi wireless charging standard — used by Samsung and others — with MagSafe The standard that Apple uses on phones like iPhone 14.
Apparently, the credit for this unification goes to Apple, which introduced its MagSafe technology as the basis for the new Qi2 wireless charging standard. Since Qi2 uses the same magnetic charging technology as MagSafe, Iphone And the Android phones Both should work with the new Qi2 wireless chargers — at least according to WPC spokesperson Paul Golden’s comments to the edge (Opens in a new tab).
Qi2 chargers are expected to be released in time for the 2023 holiday season, so look out for these later this year.
Qi2 wireless charging winners: New MagSafe devices and consumers
The iPhone 15 lineup expected to launch in the fall should also work with Qi2 because upcoming Apple phones will almost certainly use MagSafe for wireless charging. In fact, this step could be a win-win for many iPhone owners.
Currently, Qi wireless charging is limited to 50% speed on MagSafe devices, which is why my wife iPhone 13 Pro Slower than my fee Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra on Samsung Qi-certified wireless chargers It has spread all over the house. In theory, the new Qi2 standard should allow iPhones to charge wirelessly at 100% speed on Qi2-certified chargers.
Consumers should also see other benefits in the future. WPC says Qi2 should unlock the possibility of wireless charging for devices without flat charging coils — which smartwatches are.
Smartwatch wireless charging pads can be a little tricky for some wearables. Mine Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic I won’t charge for some of the older charging pads, and my wife Apple Watch You will not charge any fees for any of them. Qi2 unlocks the possibility of a single charging pad that works with all of our phones, smartwatches, and wireless earphones.
The losers of Qi2 wireless charging: older phones and ultra-fast wireless charging
Unfortunately, since this standard won’t be released until later in 2023, it’s likely that flagship Android phones like the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S23 lineup and the newly announced OnePlus 11 will not be compatible with the new standard out of the box. You may need to get a MagSafe adapter as with your existing Android phones for your phone to work with these new chargers.
But this isn’t even guaranteed to work. While future MagSafe devices appear locked to be Qi2 compatible, current MagSafe devices are not. That’s because the Qi2 borrows from MagSafe but technically it’s not MagSafe. This means that existing MagSafe products, including any iPhone newer than iPhone 12At this time, it is not guaranteed to work with Qi2 chargers any differently than it does with existing Qi-certified chargers. In fact, if the magnets don’t line up perfectly, it may work worse with newer chargers.
The other big loser is the charging speed, which seems shocking at first. After all, a tighter magnetic connection should provide more efficient and faster charging speeds than current charging pads. The catch is that the new Qi2-certified charging pads will initially be limited to 15W — which is poor. Granted, it’s not weaker than existing Qi-certified wireless chargers and MagSafe chargers, but this should have been an opportunity to take a leap forward.
Golden says WPC is working on a higher power level for future Qi2 chargers, but there’s no time frame for when that will happen.
Qi2 Wireless Charging Outlook: Overall, a win for everyone
Despite some potential shortcomings and disappointments, Qi2 wireless charging seems to be a huge win for everyone. We may finally get universal wireless charging pads for the best phones on the market, and in the future, they may even work with smartwatches, tablets, iPads, Kindles, etc. This could give Apple the opportunity to develop the iPhone without barriers, though it remains to be seen if it would be beneficial to consumers if it happened.
Additionally, I think this could have benefits for older MagSafe devices, although that is far from a constant. Apple is a major driver of WPC developing the Qi2 standard, and it would be strange for the company to advance this technology and make things work worse with its own devices. At worst, I’d expect the Qi2 to perform as well as the Qi in terms of charging MagSafe devices, though I hope they get a boost in charging speed. This seems like a rare chance for everyone to win and it seems odd that Apple would push this decision only to be derailed by wanting to sell older chargers.
Are you excited to see what other cool technologies were announced at CES 2023? Be sure to follow our CES 2023 coverage of All the biggest ads to date.