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Comment by Google234 | Hacker News Reader

They are moving towards wireless charging which will solve that issue.

Wireless loses 1/3 of the energy. It requires 47% more energy, and even more when misaligned. https://debugger.medium.com/wireless-charging-is-a-disaster-...

The last time I had a wireless chargeable phone, the charger would get uncomfortably hot, which I assume degrades the battery as well.

I understand wireless charging for my toothbrush (charging port = less waterproof), but it's such a "solution searching for a problem" for phones. Plugging in a cable just isn't that hard.

I have an Anker wireless charging station, have not experienced any excessive heat. I have it on my desk so that I continuously charge my phone during the day, but am still able to pick it up all the time.

It’s pretty nice but I agree it’s a gimmick, not a necessary problem to solve.

> I understand wireless charging for my toothbrush (charging port = less waterproof), but it’s such a “solution searching for a problem” for phones.

The one awesome use case for phones is where the phone itself is a wireless charger, so you can do phone-to-phone charging when someone has a well charged phone and someone else has one about to die, without additional gear.

Isn't the volume of the wireless charger bigger than the wired one? It may solve the cable issue, but not the environment one.

Most devices charge with USB-B, not wirelessly. If they wanted to skip to USB-C, sure, that's fine. Including wireless would have been a good idea five years ago, when it started becoming popular. It's still popular today, but it's way too slow for modern phone battery capacities.

>Most devices charge with USB-B

Do you mean USB- A?

No. A is the host port. B is the side that connects to the device, with micro-B being the most common.

>micro-B being the most common.

I guess that is me sticking to Apple for long. I thought most Android devices has been on USB-C for 5 years?

It really depends on the price level of the phone. Non-flagship phones, like the Moto G9 and the Samsung A11, use micro-B and were released in 2019. USB-C is common in the $500+ market.

I guess, micro USB.

Apple's one does 15W which is plenty.

At 15W, that would mean charging your phone would take over two hours. That's way behind their competition, and twice the time of even their anemic 20W wall charger.

Even my friend's entry level $150 Xiaomi Note 7 comes with a 17W charger and supports up to 27W chargers.

Higher wattage degrades battery life, should only be used when needed.

Not a concern. His phone battery is cheap and easily replaceable.

He's been using it for a year and a half and battery is still fine. A bit over full day per charge according to him.

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