16 ms·

It takes something easy and makes it effortless. Like AirPods, this has a surprising number of implications that you really don't think about until you try it.

• skellera 8y ago
  Does that have an effect on battery life though? Constant micro charges?
  • gpm 8y ago
    Possible positive? If it keeps it in the 20-70% range I'm told we are supposed to keep our devices in.
    • accatyyc 8y ago
      The things that kill smartphone batteries today are age and power cycles. It doesn’t matter if you charge from 0% to 100% in one go or from 90% to 100% ten times. Both add up to one power cycle. To keep your battery fresh for as long as possible, always keep the phone connected to a charger. No battery cycles. It will get worse after a few years anyway.
      • pkulak 8y ago
        I dunno. All the EV manufacturers still recommend not charging to 100% daily.
        • accatyyc 8y ago
          Thanks. Updated my post to say smartphones - I have no idea about what EV batteries are exposed to.
        • hopler 8y ago
          EV batteries cost $5000+ to replace and are expected to last 7-10 years, maybe more if you push it. And they are a huge pain to recharge in the middle of the day if you suddenly need to. How many years do you plan to keep your phone for? Who cares if the battery only has 70% of original capacity after 3 years and on some days you need to find 20minutess in the middle of the day to leave it plugged in to recharge?
      • Phlarp 8y ago
        Age, cycles and heat. Inductive charging loops are going to generate a ton of waste heat, and worse yet a good chunk of that is going to be coming from the coil inside the phone.
        • accatyyc 8y ago
          Yeah, but a battery gets hot when charging fast. Keeping it connected at 100%, the phone stays cool in my experience. And charging often makes the window where it generates heat from charging smaller
          • Phlarp 8y ago
            The act of charging the battery does itself generate some heat, as does the charging circuitry within the phone. This will happen with either method of charging. Wireless inductive charging will also generate significantly larger amounts of waste heat. Fundamentally, wireless charging is less efficient. Theoretically you could be putting 16w of heat into the phone but only getting 8w of charging.
      • teraflop 8y ago
        > It doesn’t matter if you charge from 0% to 100% in one go or from 90% to 100% ten times. This isn't really true, as far as I know. If you avoid fully charging or deeply discharging a lithium-ion battery, the wear per unit of energy extracted is smaller. There are some statistics quoted here (https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_l...) showing that if you, say, halve the amount of energy you retrieve from a battery in each cycle, the battery lasts for more than twice as many cycles. This paper arrives at a similar conclusion (see figure 4): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318292540_Analysis_of_On-Board_Photovoltaics_for_a_Battery_Electric_Bus_and_Their_Impact_on_Battery_Lifespan https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318292540_Analysis_...
        • accatyyc 8y ago
          Thanks for the links! Also, I want to add that what I wrote above is only regarding smartphones. I don’t know how much stress/extra heat etc that EV batteries are subject to, but I imagine they drain/charge at more intense rates relatively.
          • shawnz 8y ago
            The principle applies for smartphone batteries too. Full discharges will degrade your battery significantly faster.
      • nicois 8y ago
        The sole reason I rooted my pixel 2 was to install a simple app which disables charging when I reach 80%. I get all the wins of not killing the battery by constantly saturating it, together with being able to leave it plugged in whenever I am at at my desk. I so wish manufacturers would offer this option, for those primarily deskbound who do not relish ungluing their battery after a year
        • eitland 8y ago
          I think it is a built in (but configurable) option on newer Sony models. Edit: they call it Qnovo Adaptive Charging and they get another minus from me [0] for making it impossible to select text on tye page by long-pressing it. [0]: they got a huge minus from me back when they added "sponsored links" to my flagship Z3 or what it was.
        • yorwba 8y ago
          Is it this one? https://f-droid.org/packages/com.slash.batterychargelimit/ https://f-droid.org/packages/com.slash.batterychargelimit/ Thanks for making me aware that such a thing exists.
  • etatoby 8y ago
    It should have a positive effect, because you're avoiding larger charges and keeping your battery at optimal levels.
    • bestnameever 8y ago
      i've found what I believe to be the heat generated by wireless chargers to have a negative effect on my battery longevity. Personally, I avoid them now after being a huge advocate from them. The reality is, Battery life on phones have improved to the point that I also rarely need to charge my phone anymore other than what I'm about to go to sleep anyway.
      • mcny 8y ago
        » The reality is, Battery life on phones have improved to the point that I also rarely need to charge my phone anymore other than what I'm about to go to sleep anyway. On the Android side, batteries have gotten bigger with phones but more importantly the OS is getting better at battery management. With lineage 16 (Android pie), I can choose to enable battery saver at 75% battery. I'm still on a Nexus 6. What has changed in battery technology recently?
        • bestnameever 8y ago
          >What has changed in battery technology recently? I have no idea. I imagine most of the improvements in battery life stem from them being able to fit larger batteries in smaller packages along with hardware and software optimizations as well as improvements in cell reception. It could also be my usage. I listen to a lot of music during the day and perhaps the larger batteries are just able to accommodate me longer than the smaller ones. I loved my Nexus 6 but I doubt I could still be using it still today so I am impressed. Can I ask what your reasons are for not having upgraded it? I generally upgrade my phones bc of the battery but this time I hope to just get it swapped out in a year or two.
          • mcny 8y ago
• atarian 8y ago
  That was a very well-worded argument. Now I'm even sadder that they're not releasing AirPower.
  • ulfw 8y ago
    You know you can do that with any of the thousands of Qi chargers on the market, right?
• NeedMoreTea 8y ago
  This is what I never understood, even slightly. Why not just give an iPod / iPhone dock without all the wireless bullshit? I prefer a dock as it holds phone at a handy angle, syncs, and doesn't have the myriad of drawbacks of bluetooth. Smartphone battery life is so shit, on every model, that I always plug my phone in. Even if the cable / socket is only going to be around for minutes. So no saving here. In the days of docks, I dropped phone on dock every time I was at my desk. My first few phone models (Motorola StarTAC etc) had a battery life in weeks, and I usually had a charger/dock with space for keeping the phone and a spare battery fully charged. So from here it sounds like you've made a feature of going backwards at a rate of knots.
  • azinman2 8y ago
    Many people are not like you. I personally don’t plug in at my desk even though a cable is there, as it’s one more thing to do. It’s also then tethered, meaning I have an extra step if I want to walk away and bring my phone with me. It’s also tethered meaning I have a loose cable now dangling in my way, which aside from functional issues is also ugly to look at. I know many who almost never charge their phones, essentially always living at 5%. Having a clean looking mat that’s permanently located where I can throw my phone on, without regard to position or orientation, would be awesome.
    • NeedMoreTea 8y ago
      All of which is covered by having a dock as the act of picking it up breaks connection. With the added advantage they were cheaper than wireless, and unlike AirPower actually available.
      • lugg 8y ago
        Your buying Apple. Price as an argument is long gone. This whole thread is really asinine. Wireless charging is a seamless, elegant solution to a problem. It is not the only solution. It is not a perfect solution. It is not the cheapest solution. It is not the most cost effective solution. It is likely not the best solution for your battery life. Docks and wires are not an elegant solution. That's all the argument is. One is old, painful and requires though, the other, does not. It doesn't need to be a perfect argument, you don't have to buy into it. But unless you've tried it, please keep your opinions to yourself, because there is unlikely a chance you'll really "get it" and your single sided perspective is really not that useful.
• benj111 8y ago
  Your argument could equally apply to some kind of dock/cradle. With the added advantage of it being propped up into a better reading position, and the possibility of a wired data connection. They never seem to have taken off though. My only guess is because it would only fit one phone/ trap a manufacturer into a form factor.
  • durability 8y ago
    The difference is with a sock I need to consciously put it in and take it out. Getting a text message with the phone at an angle so I can read it doesn’t matter to me because I still need to pick it up and carefully line it back down to respond. Yes it takes less than a second but you know what’s even more effortless? A wireless charging mat that I can just set my phone onto. Not sure what’s so hard to understand about this.
    • benj111 8y ago
      If we are splitting hairs over 'a second' and 'effortless' (when effortless still means you've got to make sure it's nicely lined up, if we're talking about actual products here), then surely some kind of in trouser charger is even better. Why should I spend seconds rifling through my pocket, to find my phone to charge it? With a dock you can see if the message is even worth responding to. I don't need to respond to that text from my bank, and I don't have to waste multiple seconds picking my phone up to discover that. A charging mat goes on a flat surface that ends up attracting clutter. A dock with phone in doesn't, so when my phone does beep, I don't have to go rifling under paperwork to find it. So to me a charging mat doesn't seem like the obvious slam dunk you seem to think it is.
      • swebs 8y ago
        You know they make wireless chargers in angled form factors, right? Here's one I used to use when I had a Qi compatible Samsung. Also you don't have to do any aligning. If the phone is not falling out of the charger, then it's in the sweet spot. https://www.tylt.com/vu-wireless-charger https://www.tylt.com/vu-wireless-charger
• PunksATawnyFill 8y ago
  "if I can just set it down in a particular place and regain a couple percentage points" So why not just plop it into a dock?