Apple paid great attention to charging in its previous conference, announcing support for "Qi-Qi" wireless charging, as well as providing a wireless charger with a new concept, which is "AirPower", as well as announcing support for fast charging for the first time in the history of the iPhone. In this article, we talk more about the two new charging systems.

Fast and wireless charging in iPhone 8 / X

Wireless charging

In September 2012, that is, 5 years ago, Apple held a conference to unveil the iPhone 5, and then met Phil Schiller, Apple's global marketing director, in a press interview, and he was asked why Apple does not support wireless charging. The answer is that it is impractical and slow and other points that you can reach in a previous article -this link-. In September 2017 Phil Schiller spoke that wireless is the future, so Apple decided to support wireless charging. But far from Phil, who says the opposite of what he said before, but we are facing a reality, which is that Apple supports wireless charging, so let's get to know some details.

Months ago, Apple joined the alliance of wireless charging companies known as "Qi or Qi". At the conference, Apple said that it decided to support the alliance - Apple with the decision to support charging, which will make it within the most famous company that offers devices with wireless charging in the world - so it decided that the charging be by traditional standards. This is more than wonderful news. Yes, if you currently have a wireless charger, it will work with the iPhone. But what speed will he work with ?!

The standard global charging standard is 5W, meaning 5V / 1A, and this is the standard. If a company says it offers 4 times the speed of conventional charging, then it means 5V / 1A. So, unfortunately, most wireless chargers work by this standard except for Samsung, which supports 5V / 2A fast wireless charging technology, i.e. 10W power, which is a great thing that cuts the charging time in half. If you want to charge the iPhone "Plus" from zero to 100% wirelessly, this takes more than 3 hours. But Apple found itself in front of a dilemma, which is that it is a member of the "Chi" alliance and at the same time it wants to push iPhone buyers to acquire new wireless chargers. So what did you do?

Charging 5W is available for everyone and the 10W charger that Samsung supports requires a QC charger from Qualcomm, Apple's new enemy. So Apple decided to support the 7.5W charger, which is sufficient "in theory" to charge the iPhone 8 in an hour and a half, and charge the iPhone 8 Plus in a little more than two hours. Of course if you have a traditional 5W charger it will work but why not buy a new one from the MFi alliance that is 50% faster.

Fast shipping

We talked earlier about technologies Fast shipping And at that time, we think that Apple is on its way to offer a fast charger. And at the iPad Pro conference a few months ago, I announced that the iPad can be charged quickly if you buy a C To Lightning cable as well as any of the Mac's USB C chargers, and at the iPhone conference the same thing said that if you bought the cable and the charger, you can charge the iPhone from zero to 50 % In just 30 minutes. And here began the attack and ridicule on Apple.

The sites began calculating the expected cost of charging the iPhone quickly, and the result was at least $ 74 for the purchase of a charger and cable from Apple. But many websites and people have overlooked an important point, which is that Apple did not create its own fast charging technology, but it relied on a current standard known as Power Delivery and the abbreviation PD, which is the same standard on which Google relies on its Pixel phone and Apple itself to charge the Mac. What is this standard and why Apple and Google resorted to it?

The iPhone always comes with a 5-volt-1-amp charger, meaning 5W power, while the iPad is 2.4-amp and 5-volt, or 12-watt. As for Samsung, it relies on Qualcomm chargers, which have a power of 18 watts. OnePlus / OPPO charger is 20W (5V / 4A). These are the well-known chargers, but PD technology allows a lot more things as it supports volts up to 20 volts and amps up to 5 amps, meaning power up to 100 watts (no one uses this number and Mac's maximum power is 87 watts) so this technology allows for greater freedom and at the same time no One who owns it. The fast charging technology from Qualcomm QC 2.0 / 3.0 that (Samsung - Xiaomi - LG - Sony - HTC) depends on it. Qualcomm gets money for its use. This opened a war between Apple and it - the monopoly and the payment of subscriptions - so it is impossible for Apple to resort to your proxy. The same, of course, for Oppo-OnePlus who have their own technology, as well as Huawei. So, Apple uses the open technology for all PD because it is from the USB Foundation itself, and this matter is not only from Apple. Even the owner of Android “Google” officially sent all companies last year within the standards of Android Nougat 7.0 and said, “We recommend using PD technology.”

We apologize because some people may find it difficult to receive this article (so you may need to read it more than once). But the bottom line is that Apple has not devised a technology of its own. This means that you can theoretically use any USB C PD charger in the market even from Google, but perhaps - and we repeat perhaps because we have not tested it - it shows you a message that the charger is incompatible. But over time, we'll see cheap chargers - the $ 50 Apple Charger - that support fast charging. But our difficulty will be only in the cable, as until the moment of writing these lines, we were unable to find a cable that supports fast charging except the original Apple cable, but Apple is expected to allow MFi certification companies to manufacture them, and from here we will find cables at half the price. That is, perhaps not a year will pass, and we will easily find a high-quality charger at $ 20-25 and a cable at $ 10-15, which is half the current prices.

The iPad is fast charging 29 watt 2A / 14.5V and the iPhone is expected to have a similar or lesser number.

Conclusion

Apple for the first time decides to approach global standards and move away from divergence. I decided to enter the "Chi" alliance for wireless charging, which includes most companies, as well as to stand with Google and support virtual PD charging technology, but it will take some time until we see high-quality chargers and cables.

What do you think of Apple's move to support wireless and fast charging? And will you have a fast charger with your phone?

Sources:

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