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Comment by chris_7 | Hacker News Reader

Wireless charging is baffling to me. Instead of carrying a small plug and cable around, you carry a... giant disc - and it still has the plug? It would be one thing if it was magic charging that worked anywhere within a few meters of the charger, but I gather that's impossible. You still have to put it on the disc!

I get that it's optional.

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I think the idea is you keep the charger plugged in all the time (say, beside your bed) and when you go to sleep you just throw the phone on the charger. Seems kinda convenient to me.

Ikea make furniture with built-in wireless charging. It's not remotely essential, but it's a nice convenience feature.

Oh, I get it, it's just that the feature is often talked about like it's the second coming of wifi. It takes me about a second to plug in my iPhone.

Once upon a time Wifi sounded dumb. It isn't that difficult to cable ethernet, and the performance is better with much less latency. The same goes for things like AirPlay audio and video.

Putting them everywhere, like the kitchen counter, home and office desks, car and bedside table would really lengthen the lives of phone batteries. If it really took only a second for people to do the equivalent of plugging in their phone they'd almost always leave them charging.

I have a magnetic phone mount in my car. When I get in, I put my phone on the mount, then connect it to the charging cable. Just because it's a pain to fool with cables in the car (especially if I remember after I start driving) I've found myself wishing that (1) my phone allows wireless charging and (2) the phone mount doubled as a wireless charging pad.

That's the best use case I can think of.

I really hope someone makes this as that would it so much safer and more convenient not fussing with cables everytime you drive.

I had wireless charging on a Samsung Note. Meh, kinda handy but I wouldn't pay a dollar extra to have it again. Mostly for the same reasons as you: still have to plug something in, still have to carry something in luggage. The only thing saved is plugging a cable into the phone.

I have a wireless charger at home, and one in my office. I find it super convenient, even if usb-c has reduced the benefit somewhat. Also solves the problem of where the fk did I place my phone yesterday night...

It's convenient, but not essential. You don't carry around the wireless charger; you put it somewhere where it would be convenient to set the phone on a regular basis. When I had a phone with wireless charging, the charger was next to my bed. My current phone doesn't charge wirelessly, but I use a magnetically-coupled USB cable with it instead, so I can just yank the phone off the nightstand without damaging the charging port.

You don't carry the disc or plug anything... It rests on your desk/nightstand so you can place the phone there without having to plug anything, or unplug anything to check a notification or run to a meeting.

It's not a fundamental change of course... battery lasts long enough you probably could just skip charging instead (other than the night-stand case) and it's only slightly more convenient than plugging in a cable.

Not to mention the energy lost in the process.

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