Wireless charging is pretty straightforward, right? You throw a phone, watch, or earbuds on a charging pad, and it quickly tops off the battery. Not so fast. It’s the wire-free future we were promised, but wires are still involved, and all the different speeds and charging standards are a mess.
I’ve largely given up on a wireless charging future, and I’m not the only one. Sure, it’s super convenient, but phone manufacturers have turned what should have been a solution into a disaster. We’re now stuck with a confusing mess of MagSafe, Qi, Super Fast 2.0, Qi2, faster proprietary speeds (but only with select accessories), odd terminology, battery degradation, and magnets that may or may not be in your phone.
The promise of wireless charging is all over the place
Super fast wireless charging, maybe, with the right accessory
The two most exciting promises of wireless charging are phones that charge quickly and easily, without dealing with charging cables. But wait a minute, we still need cables for the charging pad. It’s slower than using a cable, bad for your battery, and USB-C has mostly fixed everything we hated about charging cables.
Remember all the rumors of a portless iPhone a few years back? Yeah, there’s a reason we’re not there yet, and that’s because wireless charging is a mess, it’s not the answer, and manufacturers are only making things worse. Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly pros and cons to wireless charging, but I’m more frustrated by the endless design decisions, the required cases or accessories, the different speeds for every phone, and the constant research required before choosing an accessory.
Actually, the act of charging and still using a cable isn’t the sore point. The frustration stems from the constantly changing charging speeds, charging standards, and whether a case or accessory will work with your phone or vehicle.
Wait, how fast will it charge?
That depends on a bunch of different factors
Wireless charging has plenty of promise, but it’s not without its drawbacks. One of the most common complaints is the slower charging speeds compared to wired charging. Even with faster Qi2 speeds, it’s still slower than using a cable. And that’s without mentioning heat slowing down advertised speeds, different proprietary accessories, and everything else.
Does my phone or watch wireless charge at 5-watts, 7.5W, 10W, 25W, or is it 18W? Or maybe 21W? While you can just buy a puck and throw your phone on it, that’s not ideal. And if your car has wireless charging, it’s probably pretty slow.
I’ll give you two examples of why I’m not a fan of wireless charging, and why manufacturers are only making things worse. Take a look at Google’s own Pixel wireless charging support page, which shows that speeds vary widely depending on your phone model or the accessory you buy.
If you own Google’s fancy Pixel 9 Pro XL, it might be incredibly slow, and only charge at 10W, or you could get upwards of 23W, making it a bit faster and closer to regular cable charging. The smaller Pixel 9 isn’t as fast, and as you go down the list, the numbers get even more scattered.
That’s just one example of one brand and one line of accessories. Multiply that by all of Samsung’s flagship or budget phones, other phone makers like Oppo or OnePlus with upwards of 50W charging, dozens of accessory brands, and different charging standards like Qi2, and it almost becomes more of a hassle than it’s even worth.
Then we have Samsung’s 5-10W regular wireless charging, Fast Wireless Charging, Super Fast Wireless Charging, Qi-ready, Qi2-compatible, Qi2.2, cases, magnets, and more. Even Samsung’s latest Galaxy S26 Ultra only supports up to 25W wireless charging, but you’ll only get that if you have a Qi2.2 charger. And then the case needs to support it too, or you’ll be stuck fumbling with magnetic alignments and those camera humps.
Look all over Reddit, and owners are frustrated by a fancy new case that doesn’t support faster speeds, or even if it does, it often fails and drops to slower 15W speeds due to alignment issues.
Oh, and if you didn’t buy the Ultra, your S26 only supports 15W, and the S26+ offers 20W. Can we stop already! It’s not hard to make them all the same, but they do it so you’ll see a reason to buy the more expensive model. Samsung isn’t the only one, and it’s a problem.
Cable confusion all over again
Back when phones had MicroUSB ports, some came with USB-C, and specific models had PD or some fast-charging technology, the idea of a simple wireless-charging future sure sounded promising. Turns out, that’s not the case.
Sure, USB-C solves most of that, even if it’s still not perfect, but now we’re left with the same jumbled mess of charging standards, speeds, and a never-ending specs chess game.
Quiz
The History of Android OS
Trivia Challenge
From a scrappy startup to the world’s most popular operating system — how well do you know Android’s remarkable journey?
OriginsVersionsMilestonesAcquisitionsDesign
In what year was Android Inc. originally founded by Andy Rubin and his co-founders?
Correct! Android Inc. was founded in October 2003 in Palo Alto, California. The original vision was actually to build a smarter operating system for digital cameras before the team pivoted to mobile phones.
Not quite — Android Inc. was founded in 2003. Many people confuse this with 2007, the year the first Android phone was announced, but the company had already been working behind the scenes for years by then.
How much did Google pay to acquire Android Inc. in 2005?
Correct! Google acquired Android Inc. for approximately $50 million in July 2005. At the time, the deal flew largely under the radar, but it would prove to be one of the most consequential acquisitions in tech history.
Not quite. Google acquired Android Inc. for around $50 million in 2005. It seemed like a modest sum at the time, but the investment paid off enormously — Android now powers billions of devices worldwide.
What was the name of the first commercially available Android smartphone, released in 2008?
Correct! The HTC Dream, sold as the T-Mobile G1 in the United States, launched on October 22, 2008. It featured a slide-out physical keyboard and ran Android 1.0, setting the stage for everything that followed.
Not quite — it was the HTC Dream, known as the T-Mobile G1, that launched in October 2008. The Motorola Droid came later in 2009 and was hugely influential, but the G1 holds the title of first commercial Android device.
Android versions were famously named after desserts in alphabetical order. Which dessert name corresponds to Android 4.0?
Correct! Android 4.0 was called Ice Cream Sandwich, released in October 2011. It was a landmark release that unified the phone and tablet interfaces and introduced the iconic Holo design language.
Not quite — Android 4.0 was Ice Cream Sandwich. Honeycomb (3.x) was tablet-only, Gingerbread was 2.3, and Jelly Bean came after Ice Cream Sandwich. The naming scheme helped make Android version updates feel like fun events.
Before pivoting to smartphones, what type of device was Android originally designed to power?
Correct! Andy Rubin and his co-founders initially envisioned Android as a smarter operating system for digital cameras. When it became clear the camera market was shrinking, they pivoted to mobile phones — a decision that changed the tech world.
Not quite. Android was originally conceived as an OS for digital cameras, not for the device you may have guessed. The pivot to smartphones came after the team recognized the massive potential of the mobile phone market.
What was the name of the dramatically new design language Google introduced with Android 5.0 Lollipop in 2014?
Correct! Material Design debuted with Android 5.0 Lollipop and brought a bold, card-based visual language inspired by physical paper and ink. It became hugely influential and was adopted across Google’s entire product ecosystem.
Not quite — the answer is Material Design, introduced with Android 5.0 Lollipop. Holo was the design language used in earlier Android versions, while Fluent and Metro are associated with Microsoft’s design efforts, not Google’s.
In what year did Android officially surpass iOS to become the U.S.’s most widely used smartphone operating system by market share?
Correct! By 2010, Android had overtaken iOS to claim the top spot in U.S. smartphone market share. Explosive growth from manufacturers like Samsung and HTC, combined with a wide range of price points, fueled the rapid rise.
Not quite — Android surpassed iOS in U.S. market share around 2010. The rapid proliferation of affordable Android handsets from dozens of manufacturers made it accessible to a far broader audience than Apple’s single-device strategy allowed.
Starting with Android 10, Google dropped the dessert naming convention from public branding. What was the internal dessert codename for Android 10?
Correct! Android 10’s internal dessert codename was Quince Tart. Google decided to stop using dessert names publicly, citing that many of the names didn’t translate well across different languages and cultures around the world.
Not quite — Android 10’s internal codename was Quince Tart. Google retired the public dessert branding because names like Jelly Bean and KitKat didn’t resonate the same way across all the countries where Android is used.
Your Score
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Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
