iPhone X/8 Wireless Charging Will Wear Out the Battery Faster Than Cable Charging →

March 13, 2018 · 10:42

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, on ZDNet:

The issue is that when the iPhone is being charged using a cable, the phone is being powered by the cord (there is some load on the battery, but it’s minimal), but when using wireless charging, the battery is what’s powering the iPhone, with the wireless charger only being used to top up the battery. This means that by switching from a cable to a wireless charger, my battery isn’t getting a break, and in turn, this is making me go through recharge cycles at an even faster rate.

This is an interesting fact, but I’m pretty sure the impact is minimal, especially considering that most of the new iPhone X users use their phones more often now, because of all the new stuff, which could account for the increased battery cycles. I know I use mine more often — I was so bored with the iPhone 6-7 form factor than I just reached for my iPad whenever possible.

The truth is that wireless charging is more convenient at times and I just don’t want to sacrifice that for a few more charge cycles. A replacement battery is cheap enough, that I’ll just get that when I need to.


Dell Is Selling the World’s First Wirelessly Charging Laptop →

July 12, 2017 · 09:09

Shannon Liao:

Well, it’s not the tablet part that has wireless charging capabilities, as Dell achieves that through a kind of hack. The company uses an attachable keyboard, sold separately, as a wireless charging base, although the keyboard cannot be charged beforehand and you can’t use it on any metal surfaces.

Dell said today that the Latitude 7285 12-inch is available for sale on its website starting at $1,199.99, and the Wireless Charging Keyboard and Wireless Charging Mat will run you $549.99. (You save $29.99 if you buy them together versus separately.)

This is not wireless charging — it’s inductive charging at best, with the wire moved from the laptop to the charging mat.