I don’t see the fuss over wireless charging

[Raj]

I have a Samsung Galaxy J7 phone from 2016 and it was charged overnight for most of its life. The battery can still last over a whole weekend no problems. And even if it does fail the battery is user replaceable by simply taking off the clipped on back cover. Tho id more likely get a new phone instead to avoid the Android version getting too old to run most apps(This is the ultimate death timer for all smartphones, even if the hardware holds up).

Wireless charging should not be a problem as long as you don't try to get really fast charge rates out of it.

As for USB ports breaking. I have never broken one myself, but have had to replace a lot of USB ports in phones/tables for other people. Ranges from connectors that don't make connection anymore, to ones where the internals are a mangled mess to ones that are ripped completely off the board. You might take care of your connectors, most people don't.

Interesting...I too have to replace some usb ports on other people's phones, but usually the fault was caused by them dropping it while having it connected, corrosion and carrying it while charging in pocket (battery bank, but usually this is also accompanied by the port being fully SMD). The only time I've damaged a usb port was on an arduino leonardo when I accidently applied lever like pressure onto the port. the socket was full SMD, (didn't have any through hole protrusions that go through PCB to distribute forces. )

[www.MKRD.info]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Wireless charging - what’s the great “benefit” from a system where you have a pad that charges your phone **slower** due to coupling losses, than if you’d just plugged it into a cable? Also, you have to position the phone PRECISELY or the induction coils will be misaligned, and you can’t use your device - pick it up and make a call, et cetera, as it’s charging (obviously).

As was the case with NFC, about 7 years ago, and how (mainly) the Android ✌️“Community”✌️obsessed over it just for the sake of doing so (and using it as a reason to deride Apple for not implementing it 🙄), it seems like another fad wave which the net is riding, and apart from the ✌️“”inconvenience”✌️(? 🤣🤨) of plugging in a wire, what is the benefit?

Oh and let’s cancel out all nonsense comments about water and dust ingress. People will always find another way to damage their phone - ALWAYS. They drop them, sit on them, lose them… I don’t see a tiny socket as much of a problem.

Consumer technology circles seem to love to obsess over the latest gimmick, and it seems that rarely is any deep, high quality critical and objective thinking applied. I can understand electric toothbrushes having needed to use this for years - it’s a safety issue - but this? Hah!! Piffle.

I don't want to wear out the USBC connector. It was way worse with the MicroUSB connectors. And dirt always gets in there!!!

[Halcyon]

I don't see this as "piffle" at all, In fact, it's great to have the option. I just ordered the new Google Pixel phone and one of my major purchase decisions came down to the fact it has wireless charging built-in (my current phone doesn't).

I'm a reasonably heavy user of my phone so it's not unusual to have to charge it at least once throughout the day. Whether or not you use USB-C or Apple Lightning ports, they will eventually wear out, become loose, fill with dust, whatever. Sure, if I need a quick charge, I'll be plugging it in, but for the most part, I'll be using the wireless charging pad beside my bed when I go to sleep at night. It's sitting there for 6-8 hours, so I really don't care how slowly it charges.

Not having a charging cable dropped on the floor after I wake up is another advantage for me, which means the robotic vacuum will no longer get stuck after it wraps the damn thing up in the cleaning brushes.

Then there is the dreaded "moisture warning" which halts charging if moisture is detected in the port. Whether you're the type of person who uses their phone in wet weather, around swimming pools or just takes it in to the bathroom while showering/bathing, this is another excellent use-case for wireless charging.

Wireless charging is just another option for consumers. I'd rather have it than not. It's far from a gimmick and has actual legitimate uses.

As was the case with NFC, about 7 years ago, and how (mainly) the Android ✌️“Community”✌️obsessed over it just for the sake of doing so (and using it as a reason to deride Apple for not implementing it 🙄), it seems like another fad wave which the net is riding, and apart from the ✌️“”inconvenience”✌️(? 🤣🤨) of plugging in a wire, what is the benefit?

To address your comments about NFC, it's an industry standard and has only grown to be more popular. Sure the whole "sharing files by touching phones" thing was a bit gimmicky, but the applications for NFC are far beyond that.

I used to keep my bank cards on my phone as a "backup" to my physical plastic cards in my wallet. But I'm now shifting entirely to using NFC on my phone. Whether it's payment for $1 or $10,000, the use of cash in Australia is significantly less than card payments (I haven't touched cash in over 10 years). Then there are other applications such as NFC-based hotel room keys and building access. To enter the building at work, I use my phone. Same as getting to work: Public transport, whether it be bus, train, ferry, tram are all based on the same NFC-based system. Here, we also have digital drivers licences, so for me, I really have no need to carry a physical wallet or plastic cards anymore.

Wallets can be lost and I don't fancy anyone who would pick mine up to know where I live or be able to spend money from my bank account. Having everything on my phone means it's secure and only I can access it, even if I lose my phone.

Then there are NFC-based hardware security keys. I use my YubiKey a lot for multi-factor authentication.

[AVGresponding]

I don't see this as "piffle" at all, In fact, it's great to have the option. I just ordered the new Google Pixel phone and one of my major purchase decisions came down to the fact it has wireless charging built-in (my current phone doesn't).

I'm a reasonably heavy user of my phone so it's not unusual to have to charge it at least once throughout the day. Whether or not you use USB-C or Apple Lightning ports, they will eventually wear out, become loose, fill with dust, whatever. Sure, if I need a quick charge, I'll be plugging it in, but for the most part, I'll be using the wireless charging pad beside my bed when I go to sleep at night. It's sitting there for 6-8 hours, so I really don't care how slowly it charges.

Not having a charging cable dropped on the floor after I wake up is another advantage for me, which means the robotic vacuum will no longer get stuck after it wraps the damn thing up in the cleaning brushes.

Then there is the dreaded "moisture warning" which halts charging if moisture is detected in the port. Whether you're the type of person who uses their phone in wet weather, around swimming pools or just takes it in to the bathroom while showering/bathing, this is another excellent use-case for wireless charging.

Wireless charging is just another option for consumers. I'd rather have it than not. It's far from a gimmick and has actual legitimate uses.

As was the case with NFC, about 7 years ago, and how (mainly) the Android ✌️“Community”✌️obsessed over it just for the sake of doing so (and using it as a reason to deride Apple for not implementing it 🙄), it seems like another fad wave which the net is riding, and apart from the ✌️“”inconvenience”✌️(? 🤣🤨) of plugging in a wire, what is the benefit?

To address your comments about NFC, it's an industry standard and has only grown to be more popular. Sure the whole "sharing files by touching phones" thing was a bit gimmicky, but the applications for NFC are far beyond that.

I used to keep my bank cards on my phone as a "backup" to my physical plastic cards in my wallet. But I'm now shifting entirely to using NFC on my phone. Whether it's payment for $1 or $10,000, the use of cash in Australia is significantly less than card payments (I haven't touched cash in over 10 years). Then there are other applications such as NFC-based hotel room keys and building access. To enter the building at work, I use my phone. Same as getting to work: Public transport, whether it be bus, train, ferry, tram are all based on the same NFC-based system. Here, we also have digital drivers licences, so for me, I really have no need to carry a physical wallet or plastic cards anymore.

Wallets can be lost and I don't fancy anyone who would pick mine up to know where I live or be able to spend money from my bank account. Having everything on my phone means it's secure and only I can access it, even if I lose my phone.

Then there are NFC-based hardware security keys. I use my YubiKey a lot for multi-factor authentication.

I've never had a charging port wear out on a phone, and I'm one of those old farts that only gets a new phone when they absolutely have to (I'm up to my third ever smartphone now, and though the previous two still work they are suffering from OS bloat eating their storage away, making them non-optimal for daily use). If you're breaking them I'd suggest you take more care and don't run the charging cable where you trip over it every time you walk past it!

And before you say "well you obviously keep them on a pedestal and never put them through normal daily use", I work in construction and regularly have pockets full of dust and grit, including the one my phone lives in. I've sat on them, dropped them, occasionally thrown them (the OS/UI on my Cat S61 is infuriatingly shite) and the only failures I have had are screen protectors. I'm not going to count the faulty USB controller on the S61 as that's just bad internal design/parts and nothing to do with the actual port/cable.

[PlainName]

If you're breaking them I'd suggest you take more care

I wonder how we'd feel about bare wires on stuff. If you're getting a shock you should take more care. With that attitude we'd probably not have goretex boots (if your feet get wet try not to walk in puddles) and many other things that fix apparently 'not being careful' problems.

[AVGresponding]

If you're breaking them I'd suggest you take more care

I wonder how we'd feel about bare wires on stuff. If you're getting a shock you should take more care. With that attitude we'd probably not have goretex boots (if your feet get wet try not to walk in puddles) and many other things that fix apparently 'not being careful' problems.

And the logical extension of your implied argument leads to the kind of nanny-state bs that we see in California. There's a middle ground somewhere I'm sure, but of course we can argue about where exactly that is for the next million years and not come to agreement.

My personal opinion is, if you have a potentially fragile device that costs a significant amount of money and resources to replace, you should treat it with a bit more care than if it was an old football.

[PlainName]

And the logical extension of your implied argument leads to the kind of nanny-state bs that we see in California.

Of course not. There is nothing being mandated here, just a user saying they would quite like to use wireless charging. If anything, your approach of "try being more careful" is what would lead to mandatory carefulness.

I think you are assuming the ask is for "make devices more robust and less fragile", but that's the needed approach to stick with cables. Having wireless doesn't mean it is more robust - it can be just as fragile.

[woody]

If you're breaking them I'd suggest you take more care

Sure, but care does not always prevent malfunction.

My current Samsung is 3 years old and well taken care of. Looks and feels like new. It came with a USB-C port so myopic me is able to insert a charge cable blindly. Still, all of a sudden it refused to charge from the USB port. Fortunately this phone also charges wirelessly. Which means that I don't have to replace it. +1 for wireless charging!

[AVGresponding]

I guess I just believe in taking personal responsibility. Seems to be a rare thing these days.

[Berni]

There is also a factor of luck when it comes to connector reliability. Sometimes you take care and the connector breaks, sometimes you are careless but never do something bad enough to it to really break it.

Not sure how it is with USB-C, but i have replaced a lot of microUSB connectors in peoples phones and tablets over the years. They mash huge amounts of dirt in it without ever blowing into the connector to clear it out, people drop phones with the cable attached, people trip over charging cables, some force connectors in without aligning them properly...etc

Once you go to wireless charging all of these things don't happen anymore. Also any violent event that would destroy the wireless charging ability of the phone would likely also destroy the phone itself. It is also more convenient if you always leave the phone in the same spot, then you can keep your phone always charged by simply putting a wireless charging station under that spot.

Yes wireless is less efficient, but so it driving 130km/h on the highway, yet people still do it because driving a more efficient fuel saving speed (around 90) is less convenient.

[PlainName]

I guess I just believe in taking personal responsibility.

I am sorry but I think I've missed some important part of this. I suspect that we are participants in different arguments, so perhaps you could explain again why you think a wireless charging feature is bad. I am missing where personal responsibility comes into it, and potential California-style legislation.

[AVGresponding]

There is also a factor of luck when it comes to connector reliability. Sometimes you take care and the connector breaks, sometimes you are careless but never do something bad enough to it to really break it.

Not sure how it is with USB-C, but i have replaced a lot of microUSB connectors in peoples phones and tablets over the years. They mash huge amounts of dirt in it without ever blowing into the connector to clear it out, people drop phones with the cable attached, people trip over charging cables, some force connectors in without aligning them properly...etc

Once you go to wireless charging all of these things don't happen anymore. Also any violent event that would destroy the wireless charging ability of the phone would likely also destroy the phone itself. It is also more convenient if you always leave the phone in the same spot, then you can keep your phone always charged by simply putting a wireless charging station under that spot.

Yes wireless is less efficient, but so it driving 130km/h on the highway, yet people still do it because driving a more efficient fuel saving speed (around 90) is less convenient.

Wireless is less efficient. I frequently have pockets full of brick dust, yet somehow I don't break my phone's USB connector. Maybe I should sell blow jobs?

I guess I just believe in taking personal responsibility.

I am sorry but I think I've missed some important part of this. I suspect that we are participants in different arguments, so perhaps you could explain again why you think a wireless charging feature is bad. I am missing where personal responsibility comes into it, and potential California-style legislation.

IT'S. LESS. EFFICIENT.

Insignificant for one individual user, granted, but multiplied by several billion users, it adds up.

The personal responsibility part comes in a) there, and b) in not being so f*****g clumsy as to break a $1k phone because I was so stupid as to b1) lay the charging cable in a position where it could be tripped over, and b2) not f*****g being so clumsy as to trip over a cable.

[Halcyon]

I've never had a charging port wear out on a phone, and I'm one of those old farts that only gets a new phone when they absolutely have to (I'm up to my third ever smartphone now, and though the previous two still work they are suffering from OS bloat eating their storage away, making them non-optimal for daily use). If you're breaking them I'd suggest you take more care and don't run the charging cable where you trip over it every time you walk past it!

And before you say "well you obviously keep them on a pedestal and never put them through normal daily use", I work in construction and regularly have pockets full of dust and grit, including the one my phone lives in. I've sat on them, dropped them, occasionally thrown them (the OS/UI on my Cat S61 is infuriatingly shite) and the only failures I have had are screen protectors. I'm not going to count the faulty USB controller on the S61 as that's just bad internal design/parts and nothing to do with the actual port/cable.

That's all well and good (and great for you), but my current phone (which I've had for 3 years has developed a dicky port after being plugged/un-plugged about 5 or 6 times a day over it's life. The fact is, data ports are one of more consumable components of a phone. So much so, in many phones they are designed to be on separate sub-boards for this very reason. It happens far more than you probably think it does. After working in Digital Forensics for a law enforcement agency and literally having to replace dozens of the damn things, it's usually the first thing I suspect when I have issues acquiring data.

I take care of my phones, probably more than most people (it has no cover, yet I've never cracked a screen or damaged it in any other way). Ports failing over time is just a fact of life, just like the battery wearing out and losing capacity. It happens.

[AVGresponding]

I must just be an outlier   

[Halcyon]

I must just be an outlier   

I'm not suggesting that everyone will experience it, this is probably the 5th or 6th "smart phone" I've owned and never have I had a problem with ports before, they are actually quite robust. However they are subject to a lot of mechanical wear and tear and stresses. They also tend to fail "gradually", for example, they may charge but the data pins refuse to work, or they'll charge using bog-standard 5v USB power, but not at the higher negotiated voltages.

But not having to plug a cable in and to have my phone charge overnight by simply placing it down beside my bed is a nice feature.

[Berni]

I must just be an outlier   

I also so far have not destroyed a USB port on my own phone.
But that does not mean that USB ports are indestructible and have a failure rate of 0%. Reliability can't be determined by a single data point.

I have seen lots of other people destroy USB ports. I even had to fix a fair few USB ports in other peoples phones and tablets. So clearly they do break for the average user. The more tech knowledgeable people are a minority among the users. Typical users often can't even tell the difference between a miniUSB microUSB and USB-C, it is all a small USB connector for them, if it doesn't fit into the phone then the just have 'the wrong one'.

Wireless charging is a technology that is not plagued by this issue. Most abuse violent enough to damage the wireless charging system on a phone would likely also destroy the rest of the phone too, so it doesn't matter if the charging broke when the phone doesn't even turn on anymore. However a USB connector in practice tends to die sooner than the rest of the phone, making the otherwise perfectly working phone unusable as it can't be charged. Most people will throw away the phone as a result, creating more e-waste. So this also offsets the fact that wireless charging wastes a bit of power during transfer. Sure it makes phones use more energy, but energy and resources are also used for making new phones to replace dead ones.

At the end of the day you still have a choice to use wireless charging or not. Even if your phone has it, you can still choose to never use it and stick to USB. If you enjoy the convenience of just plonking down a phone and having it magically charge then use it. I would personally want wireless charging, but the phones i was looking for that had it cost too much (Samsung reserves this feature for the high end Sxx models) so i bought a phone without it. I didn't feel like the convenience of it was worth the price tag.

[artag]

I haven't broken a phone connector, yet.

But I've broken endless micro-usb connectors on arduinos and teensies. They're particularly prone to being ripped off the board because there's no protection at all, not even the phone case to stop it getting leverage. And I've also broken some just by insertion after first damaging a charger plug and not noticing before it destroyed a socket.

I haven't broken a USB C socket yet, but they still have a fragile central leaf and it's in the hard-to-replace pcb-mounted part, not in the cable. That's frankly stupid design - no excuse for that at all unless it's intended to require more phone replacements.

Meanwhile, I've just started using the higher power 15W Qi devices. First test, a 15W transmitter with an old 5W receiver, both cheap noname products, not Apple or Samsung. It's *much* less fussy about alignment - will happily tolerate 10mm gap and offset while still claiming a link. I will have to see what the power transfer is like.

[Halcyon]

The other application I find wireless charging extremely useful is in vehicles. Many vehicle mounts/docks include a charger built-in. Super handy for keeping the battery topped up when you're perhaps using your phone for navigation or have the display constantly on.

Phones are no longer just a communications device for many people, but are basically an extension of their normal desktop or laptop computers.

[Halcyon]

Wireless charging - what’s the great “benefit” from a system where you have a pad that charges your phone **slower** due to coupling losses, than if you’d just plugged it into a cable?

I made an interesting observation over the last few weeks, which actually makes this statement partially untrue (depending on the phone you have).

I just bought myself a Google Pixel 7 which includes "Adaptive Charging". This isn't a new feature in Android, but it is dependent on the model (my old phone didn't have it).

Essentially, instead of just ramming as much energy into the battery as possible (even when plugged in), it will change the way it charges based on individual habits. For example, I noticed when I go to bed and charge my phone, it reduces the charge rate significantly, so that it slowly charges the battery to full in the 8-9 hours that I'm asleep. I woke up 2 hours earlier than normal this morning and eventually got up because I couldn't get back to sleep. I noticed that the phone was still charging and was only up around the 86% mark.

Obviously this is done to extend the life of the battery and it's quite a neat idea.

[Berni]

This 'Adaptive charging' sounds like a really nice feature.

My phone doesn't have it, but i do it artificially by using the slower charger i could find for overnight charging. Most of my charging happens there so it should reduce the charging strain on my battery. Tho the phone does have a feature to stop charging at 85% battery charge, so i don't have my phone sitting at 100% charge all night.

I keep the fancy fast charger in a different spot for when i need a quick top up before going out.

[Halcyon]

This 'Adaptive charging' sounds like a really nice feature.

My phone doesn't have it, but i do it artificially by using the slower charger i could find for overnight charging. Most of my charging happens there so it should reduce the charging strain on my battery. Tho the phone does have a feature to stop charging at 85% battery charge, so i don't have my phone sitting at 100% charge all night.

I keep the fancy fast charger in a different spot for when i need a quick top up before going out.

Not sure if it's a feature of Android 13, or whether it requires specific hardware to be present in the phone. I haven't done any reading on it.

But yeah, there are obviously benefits to slow charging, wireless or otherwise.

[PlainName]

If I'd put my phone on charge and got up a bit early to find it's not charged, I'd be a bit miffed. What about when you have to get up early for that trip out of town or something? You'd have to remember to disable the clever stuff (if you can) before you go to sleep.

[Halcyon]

If I'd put my phone on charge and got up a bit early to find it's not charged, I'd be a bit miffed. What about when you have to get up early for that trip out of town or something? You'd have to remember to disable the clever stuff (if you can) before you go to sleep.

Like with most things on Android, it's ultimately up to the user. You can disable that functionality completely if you want to, at the expense of battery longevity. The choice is yours. This is perhaps where the benefits of using a slower charger might actually be advantageous.

The nice thing is, if you use your phone as your alarm to wake up, it knows what time the battery needs to be fully charged by and adapts accordingly, even if you don't have a set bedtime routine. You can also temporarily interrupt the "bedtime routine" if you want to.

[PlainName]

I'd like to think it is up to the user, and I'd be happy with that. But... a recent update to something has had the OS regularly telling me there are x number of apps I haven't used for a month and now their permissions are removed. WTF?!? And you can't easily find which ones it's just zapped, and if you list all the ones that have been zapped, fix one go back to the list and wait half a day for it to be populated again so you can move onto the next one. It's massively stupid and ill thought out. But you cannot disable it. All you can do is mark an app as "DON'T FUCK WITH THIS", but it's a massive drag, which shouldn't be necessary, to go through every app doing that. And then remembering next time you install an app to do it.

[SiliconWizard]

As with almost everything else these days, the progressive, creeping removal of peoples' control over their own lives and belongings is mind-boggling and seems to be getting worse at an alarming pace.

Yes, Android is doing more and more stuff behind your back with fewer and fewer user options to enable/disable those features or even adjust them to your preferences.
Same with most commercial OSs these days.
Same with pretty much anything.

Be happy they are just annoying you with Android settings, for tomorrow they'll tell you how, when and where to pee, and you'll obey.