Apple may have struggled to make its AirPower multiple device charger work, but right on the horizon is new technology that promises to make wireless charging truly wireless, and Xiaomi is the last company to promise a world without charging cables – we just don’t know when it will actually arrive.
Wireless charging in its current form is definitely convenient, as it allows you to simply place a device such as a smartphone or headphones on a keyboard to complete the battery without having to pick up a cable. But at the same time, and also restrictive, requiring you to leave a device on a table or side table until it is loaded. True wireless charging is the ideal solution because as long as you are in the same room as a wireless power transmitter, your phone will charge regardless of where you are, even if you are still using it in your hand.
It looks like total science fiction, but the technology exists and, in 2016, a company called Ossia demonstrated working prototypes of its Cota wireless charging system at CES. A smartphone (updated with a special case) could be transported anywhere around the company’s booth and would continue to load indefinitely. Today, Xiaomi has announced its own wireless charging ecosystem, called “Mi Air Charge Technology”, which appears to offer similar functionality (and limitations) to Ossia’s Cota technology.
Instead of wires or a pair of aligned magnetic coils, Mi Air Charge uses a transmitter (which is the size of a portable air conditioner) packed with antennas that accurately determine the location of a device and then use beamforming to transmit wide waves ” towards him. A smaller, separate collection of antennas acts as a receiver inside another device, converting wireless signals to about 5 watts of power, which is what the tiny iPhone charger delivers when plugged into a wall outlet.
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Xiaomi promises that the system can supply power to multiple devices at the same time, be it a smartphone, a tablet, headphones or even a pair of wireless powered batteries, like Ossia also demonstrated a few years ago, this ensures that legacy devices never need a new pair. Distances are still limited to several meters, or roughly the size of a common room, but the technology is not hindered by physical obstacles, so the robust force transmitter can potentially be hidden out of sight.
It’s exciting to see more companies advertise wireless charging solutions like this because they help to legitimize the technology, but unfortunately, To date all we really have are ads. Since its debut at CES 2016, Ossia has not yet been released a wireless charging product available to consumers. And Xiaomi’s announcement today doesn’t even include vague promises about how long the company will take to make its Mi Air Charge technology available outside of its own R&D labs.
There are considerable challenges in making this technology safe and reliable and, unfortunately, it is not backward compatible. Moving forward, Xiaomi could include the compact antenna receiver array in its future smartphones, but its iPhone will not work with the system without a special charging caseor Apple agreeing to be nice to Xiaomi. There is little doubt that truly wireless charging will one day be common – we may even be able to cover entire cities with wireless power instead of requiring a transmitter in every room in a home – but for now, it is still a tantalizing demonstration of technology.