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Comment by bdcs | Hacker News Reader

Wireless charging was a great feature for in the car. I would set my phone down and it would play music over BT while charging. C'est la vie.

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It's a great feature in general. I've had the google charging orb since the nexus 4 and not having to worry about unplugging/plugging in the phone is so nice. This is probably going to stop me from getting either of these new phones.

I really like the idea of wireless charging but the Qi devices I used left much to be desired. On the Nexus 4, the alignment is critical for it to work at all. The Nexus 5 fixed that issue with magnets but only if you had the official charger, otherwise you were back to trying to precisely align things. Randomly the Nexus 4 would freak out and forget it's charging or rapidly enter and exit charging mode, even on the LG charger. Devices would randomly decide to become hotplates, still haven't figured out what voodoo causes that to happen so I could avoid it. I'm pretty sure every 3rd party or knock off Qi charger I played with was a fire or shock hazard, probably both.

I think until they solve the range, alignment, and random hotplate issues that Qi is not ready for prime time. If they suddenly solve all of those issues I'll be gluing Qi chargers underneath every surface I own.

I have a 3rd party wireless charger and I've never really had problems with alignment. As long as it's vaguely lined up with the pad it works fine. I can do it without looking from in bed.

> As long as it's vaguely lined up with the pad it works fine.

I guess my objection is that the effort necessary to align the device on a pad. It requires as much effort aligning as plugging it into a micro USB connector albeit it's only a 1 handed operation.

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