QI Wireless Charging – Simple Wireless Phone Charging

What to look out for when Buying your Next Wireless Phone Charger

The innovativeness of modern-day technology means that many of us are lucky enough to be able to charge our portable devices with QI wireless charging. But what does this mean? With one convenient and easy to use power pad, you can set your smartphone down, wait for the ding, and go about your merry way with a fully charged phone. Wireless charging almost makes cables seem archaic.

However, why it seems simple enough, it’s vital to understand that not all charging pads are created the same. Before you proceed with wireless charging, you need to know the nuances of the technology and how to get the best charging experience for your smartphone.

QI Wireless Charging – The Basics

Whether you wish to simply pop your phone down to recharge its battery as you do yours throughout the night, there are still a few bits and pieces you must know before proceeding. In the not so distant past, there used to be two wireless charging types, PowerMat and Qi wireless charging. However, the fast-paced world of technology has consolidated the two.

As long as the pad you’re looking to purchase supports the Qi wireless charging standard, you’re good to go. Your smartphone will obviously need to support Qi charging as well (but most new phone models do).

Understanding Charging Speeds

Yes, wireless charging might be a universal concept, but the finer details are critical to the safety of you and your precious device. Devices can support different watts for wireless charging, as can the wireless charging pads they sit on, so it’s essential that you’re careful and know what’s what.

You don’t want to mismatch the wattage, for example, having a wireless charging pad that’s slower than what your device can handle. However, it’s not the worst thing in the world to have a charging pad that outputs a higher wattage than what your devices support as you can take advantage of the extra wattage.

But it can become confusing, and to make it easier to understand, we’ve put together an example. The Samsung Galaxy S9 supports up to 15W when it comes to wireless charging—one of the highest in the industry so far.

So, in theory, you’d want to get a wireless charging pad or stand that can output at least 15W. However, just because you’ve matched up the input and the output doesn’t mean that your device is necessarily going to charge faster than, say, a cheaper 9-watt charging pad. So, before you splash out on a high wattage charging pad, know that you don’t have to.

Top Wireless Charging Tips

There’s a lot to keep in mind when purchasing a wireless charger for your smartphone. So, here are the top tips to take away.

• Your smartphone and charger should support the same maximum wattage for wireless charging just to be safe.
• You might be able to get away with a slower or lower wattage wireless charger, but this depends on how well your specific device handles wireless charging.
• A wireless charging pad might offer faster-charging speeds for an Android phone, but slow charging speeds for an iPhone, so always check before purchasing.

Try to buy a wireless charging pad that comes with a power adapter so that the power adapter can handle the same wireless charging standards as the pad.

Happy wireless charging!