Why dont more smartphones offer wireless charging?

[yogosans14]

I recently got the Fast Charge stand from Samsung themselves and its very convienet and nice. Why does only samsung captizle on it and not other flagships? I understand it can be a downside because you cant really use your phone but its really useful at night or when you need to go do something and instead of finding the USB cable and everything you just set it on the stand or pad. Although I do think wireless chargers are grossly over priced, mine was 70$!

 

[BandOfBrothers]

I agree.

Apple I think have looked at wireless charging.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

I think it's a metal versus plastic thing. HTC has been making metal phones and Samsung loves their plastic. Although HTC's new quick charger is very fast you still need a USB cable.

 

[mikedt]

I recently got the Fast Charge stand from Samsung themselves and its very convienet and nice. Why does only samsung captizle on it and not other flagships? I understand it can be a downside because you cant really use your phone but its really useful at night or when you need to go do something and instead of finding the USB cable and everything you just set it on the stand or pad. Although I do think wireless chargers are grossly over priced, mine was 70$!

You might have to go finding your charging pad and setting that up as well, all depends if you go putting things away or not.

Think a problem with inductive charging at the moment, is which standard does a phone manufacturer support. Qi or PMA? And I don't think they're compatible with each other. I believe Samsung supports Qi, but if you buy another brand phone and it's PMA, you might have to go buy another $70 or whatever induction pad that's compatible.

 

[mikedt]

I agree.

Apple I think have looked at wireless charging.

Yeh, Apple might along, has their own standard of inductive charging, calls it "iCharge" or something. Not compatible with anyone else, and doesn't license it other manufacturers either probably. And their charging pads are $150 each, and only work with iOS devices of course.

 

[mikedt]

I think it's a metal versus plastic thing. HTC has been making metal phones and Samsung loves their plastic. Although HTC's new quick charger is very fast you still need a USB cable.

Many phones are metal at the moment, including quite a few Samsungs like the J7, it's the current fashion. Problem with metal and high frequency alternating magnetic fields in close proximity is heating, and things could become extremely hot. This is how induction cooking works of course.

Eddy currents are great for your bacon and eggs, not good for your metal smart-phone.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

So my 10 could be an egg fryer... Cool!

 

[mikedt]

See if my Oppo R7 Plus is a good skillet or not.

Another thing, metal phones are usually made of mostly aluminium. Which would likely make for quite a good ballistic maglev! It's large chunks of aluminium that makes linear induction motors work.

 

[Nick The Great]

It's gonna be HUGE when Apple invents it here in a few years!