On wireless/Qi, wired, magnetic charging
Had a comment on two of our other soch meeds accounts that were both basically saying wireless charging was garbage because it didn’t charge as fast as wired. Thought I’d address why one goes for Qi/wireless charging and why one goes for wired, and a third option.
Wireless / Qi pros/cons
Wireless charging kicks total ass when you’ve got a bedside charging location and some time to charge your phone. No fumbling for a cable that’s fallen behind the bed stand, no trying to get the thing plugged in after National Wine Drinking Day, just put the phone down and let it charge overnight.
Wireless charging also is incredibly useful when you’ve got sugar fueled crazy little people running around your house and no good place to stash a cord where it doesn’t have to be fished out.
Also great if you’re just topping off a charge at work but may need to answer and move around with your phone without dragging half the papers off your desk by accident.
Differing charging standards mean unless you’re matched with a power supply and a pad that can do it you’re probably charging at about half the rate you might expect with wired.
Depending on what the prevailing battery expert is saying this week, slower charging may be significantly better than your fast charging spec if you want to prolong the battery life. Or it may not.
Wired
Wired is great for power delivery. You want a quick charge, you get a quick charge. Differing standards mean chances are your fast charging isn’t going to work with other fast charging phones because life just sucks.
You’ll need to get a specialized cable that will work for your particular fast charging method. While you might think USB-C is pretty standard, you’ll find your fast charger will do what it will do and you may have to get different cabling to work with some of the different formats.
One kink and the cable’s potentially ruined. One kid and a lightning connector and bye bye. Get cheese in your charging port and you’re looking at some time at the phone repair place.
Your charging port will break some day.
Today’s probably not that day.
Magnetic charging cables
Magnetic charging cables are, as far as I can tell, entirely aftermarket and not particularly standardized. You get something that achieves the speed of wired (usually, your fast charging spec may not work with them all,) while giving you the functional look of a 7 foot tall spoiler on an 87 Nissan Sentra hatchback.
One cable generally works for a variety of magnetic heads so you can swap between USB-C, Lightning, and Micro USB usually with the same cable.
The advantages of these are that the cables will click in and start charging, and if you leave the charging head in the phone you do not have to worry about wearing your charging port out.
When a kid grabs the thing and runs in a different direction, it will disengage without pulling your charging setup out of the wall. Kids can use them with no issues, National Wine Day observers can use them.
While those ports only cost about $15, it’s a total nightmare replacing them on most phones.
You’re generally stuck to the magnetic cable brand you buy as there’s no clear standard.
Which one’s best?
Yes. That one.
For me the phone is charged on Qi overnight. There’s a stand, I see the time, I never wake up grab the phone and forget to unplug it. No hunting around on the floor for where the cable fell.
I’ve got a QQC3 charger I can plug into for quick topping off. Magnetic charging cables for the kiddo’s iPad.
So yeah, that’s the best.
