The future of wireless charging will not involve charging pads and there is a race between hardware vendors to be the first to make it happen. Several companies have promised to provide contactless wireless charging for years, with some even demonstrating prototypes in technology programs like CES. Today, Xiaomi showed a technical demonstration of its “Mi Air Charge” charging technology, but Motorola today also debuted its own contactless charging work.
A Motorola executive went to Weibo today to share a video showing a prototype of a remote charging station with the “Motorola One Hyper” brand, which should not be confused with the smartphone of the same name. In the video, which we have incorporated below, it shows two smartphones charging at distances of 80 cm and 100 cm. These smartphones look like Motorola Edge, but it is unclear what modifications – if any – have been made to them.
The video continues with a demonstration of how charging stops when a person’s hand is placed in front of the charging station. This shows that Motorola designed the system to stop charging when it detected a person moving in front of the station, probably for health reasons.
Unlike Xiaomi, Motorola does not appear to share additional details about how its contactless wireless charging technology operates. While the company is teasing users on Weibo by asking if they would like to see the technology on a future Edge series device, they have not confirmed whether they are ready to bring it into a commercial product. The implementation and structural issues that need to be overcome are well understood, so we are definitely interested in learning how Motorola is addressing this issue.