Help Qi Charging Feature Detection on Nexus 7

[jabowery]

I recently purchased at Nexus 7 (2013) expecting Qi charging capability. However, not only does it not charge when carefully placed on a Qi charger, every app purporting to detect whether Qi charging is available on the device reports Qi charging is not available on the device. Are these apps reliable?

Before sending it back, I'm tempted to open up the case to see if the Qi coil is in the device, but am rather confused by this situation, particularly given the persnickety nature of Nexus 7 Qi charging.

I'm even wondering whether I've been a victim of false advertising -- that it is a 2012 rather than 2013 model, however when I check system information with various apps it shows RAM is 1.77GB.

 

[Unforgiven]

I recently purchased at Nexus 7 (2013) expecting Qi charging capability. However, not only does it not charge when carefully placed on a Qi charger, every app purporting to detect whether Qi charging is available on the device reports Qi charging is not available on the device. Are these apps reliable?

Before sending it back, I'm tempted to open up the case to see if the Qi coil is in the device, but am rather confused by this situation, particularly given the persnickety nature of Nexus 7 Qi charging.

I'm even wondering whether I've been a victim of false advertising -- that it is a 2012 rather than 2013 model, however when I check system information with various apps it shows RAM is 1.77GB.

Both the 2012 and 2013 versions supported Qi charging IIRC. I had both. It is an old device, did they replace the battery? If so, it is quite possible they removed the Qi antenna as I think it was attached to the battery.

 

[jabowery]

This is a "refurbished" Nexus 7, so you're almost certainly correct that the battery is the culprit -- that it lacks a Qi coil. They likely went on the cheap when they replaced the battery.