The tantalizing promise of true wireless charging – not just placing your phone on a charging cradle – seems even more real, as companies like it Xiaomi, and now Oppo, demonstrate prototypes of their respective approaches to technology. Although Oppo’s wireless charging whenever it reaches consumers, your phone may still look as restricted as with a connected cable.
Through the company Weibo Account (a Chinese microblog site similar to Twitter), Oppo shared a video that coincides with the Shanghai Mobile World Congress, which starts today. The video features the Oppo X 2021 rollable concept smartphone, first revealed last November with a flexible OLED screen that rolls to stretch and shrink the size of your screen, being carried wirelessly on a cushion that does not require the device to be directly on the charge coil.
The wireless charging technology currently available to consumers depends on tightly wound wire spools located on the charger, as well as the internal devices that support it. When placed close together, electricity flowing through the charge coil induces a current in the device’s coil, allowing the battery to charge without a cable being physically inserted. But the coils need to be placed very close to each other for this phenomenon to occur, making it difficult to use the device during charging. That’s why Apple added the MagSafe feature to its iPhone 12 line, ensuring that a wireless charger stays connected to devices (and the charging coils stay in line) even if the phones are picked up and used.
It’s convenient, but not as convenient as true wireless charging, which companies like Ossia has demonstrated at CES a few years ago. Ideally, a device that starts charging when you simply approach a wireless charger, which has so far been shown to have a strip the size of a normal room in your home. Last month, Xiaomi announced its own wireless charging system, called “Mi Air Charge Technology,”That works similarly to Ossia’s Cota wireless technology, although none of the solutions are available to consumers yet.
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Oppo seems to be taking a different approach than anyone Xiaomi and Ossia. The Oppo X 2021 does not need to make physical contact with the wireless charging cradle to consume up to 7.5 watts of energy (slightly more than the tiny iPhone charger hub offers), but the company’s Wireless Air Charging also doesn’t allow users to walk around the room.
The phone can be picked up and moved –loading does not appear to be dependent on your orientation –but according the Verge, the distance is limited to about 10 centimeters (about 4 inches). The video Oppo shared to Weibo it also seems to indicate that a device needs to be kept on the charging cradle at all times. It looks a little more convenient than the limitations of an induction charger, but not as convenient as Apple’s MagSafe solution, which makes a device easier to use while being charged.
There is no timetable for when Oppo wireless air charging can be made available to consumers – if sometime-depending on what the feedback is like during the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai. But while it’s a step in the right direction, we’re more inclined to wait for Ossia and Xiaomi to deliver their solutions, that offer more freedom and flexibility.