Oh Mi: Xiaomi shows off 80W wireless charging, claims battery fully fat again in under 20 minutes
- Reference: 1603193952
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/20/xiaomi_battery/
- Source link:
The tech — dubbed, somewhat predictably, Mi Wireless Charging — is not yet available on a commercial device, although Xiaomi showed it in action on a modified Mi 10 Pro.
Wireless charging has traditionally sacrificed speed in favour of convenience. While it’s possible to buy phones with 65W USB-C charging (like the recently released [2]Realme 7 Pro and [3]Oppo Reno 4 Pro ), wireless charging typically performs at a fraction of that — usually around the 15W mark, and often less.
There are exceptions like the OnePlus 8 Pro, which shipped with 30W wireless charging capabilities.
Where things get really interesting is when you think about what you can do with super-fast wireless charging. It opens the possibility of completely port-less phones, such as Vivo’s intriguing 2019 Apex concept phone, which it demonstrated at Mobile World Congress 2019. With USB-C out of the picture, Vivo was able to adopt a unibody design, with the chassis enveloped in an unbroken sheath of glass. Apple has reportedly [4]considered using this form-factor , too.
But let's not herald the advent of a totally cord-free future just yet: wireless charging is horrendously inefficient when compared to standard cabled charging, with vastly more energy dissipated as heat or RF energy. This wastage increases when the coils on the phone and the charger are not perfectly aligned.
Moreover, some wireless chargers get so hot during use, they cannot be passively cooled, and come with a built-in cooling fan. This increases power consumption further. At scale, the use of inductive charging promises to increase the carbon footprint associated with owning a smartphone.
Still, wired charging has its own ecological disadvantages. There’s an inevitable environmental cost to producing a USB-C cable: from obtaining the raw materials, to transporting them, to manufacturing the cable, and finally, to shipping the product to retailers.
In light of this, the European Commission is contemplating forcing smartphone manufacturers to [5]un-bundle cables and chargers from their devices. No decision has been made, although some vendors have seemingly decided to pre-empt any action, with Apple removing the charger and headphones from the latest [6]iPhone 12 series . ®
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[1] https://youtu.be/6DPqcAwCnoc
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/12/realme_7_and_realme_7/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/07/handson_oppo_reno4_pro_5g/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/09/apple_lightning_jack/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/31/eu_parliament_votes_in_favour_of_blocwide_common_charging_rules/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/13/apple_iphone_launch/
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Over the pond they use square feet for floorspace and lie about it in New York.
To be fair ...
Everything to do with housing is lied about in New York. It's worse in Joisey. And worse yet in DC ... The US would be a lot better off without everything east of the Great Appalachian Valley.
ikr!
i translated that to 4AH ,
and then thought : smartphones have that?
i have dewalt tools with 4ah batteries and they are the size of 5 smartphones!
Nice. Reminds me of our "Caution, NITROGEN rich atmosphere inside." sign on the datacentre door.
they specify the house in square millimetres
I wouldnt mind that if they actually included all the measurements,
but they never give you the size of the plot, garage or gardens !
which is all i'm interested in
Ampere Hours are not an SI Unit. Just sayin'.
One ampere hour equals 3600 C, hence 1 mA⋅h = 3.6 C.
"Ampere Hours are not an SI Unit. Just sayin'."
14.4 kAs?
Hot
Hmmm...horrendously inefficient, full charge in 20 minutes, lots of heat, LiIon battery, cellphone, Quality Chinese Engineering.
I don't want to be a killjoy here, but IF I were planning to use this to charge my cellphone, I think I might try it out on a large concrete pad, far away from anything flammable. I fear a repeat of the "hoverboard problem" of a few years back.
Vivo was able to adopt a unibody design, with the chassis enveloped in an unbroken sheath of glass. Apple has reportedly considered using this form-factor, too.
I see , make the hundreds of £s worth of phone unrepairable . thanks.
"I see , make the hundreds of £s worth of phone unrepairable . thanks."
No, it's completely repairable.
1) Break the glass case.
2) Make repair.
3) Plunge into molten glass to reform new case around the phone.
Easy!
But let's not herald the advent of a totally cord-free future just yet: wireless charging is horrendously inefficient when compared to standard cabled charging,
Totally fucking pointless white elephant gimmick.
FTFY
decided to pre-empt any action, with Apple removing the charger and headphones from the latest iphone
Thereby making sure extra shipping and packaging is required.
aka
the opposite of the intended outcome
I think the point was that people neither need or use these items once they or on the nth ‘upgrade’ cycle. My iPhone X came with both power and headphone / lightning adaptors which are still bnib for when I resell.
S.I. units
14.4kAs
Just saying. ;)
Hmmm wireless charging, let's waste a few more GWhs of electricity through poor efficiency thanks to those being too lazy to plug their phone in.
When we've mastered limitless energy like the Krell from the Forbidden Planet then can we be willy nilly with our telekinetic energy demands but our National Grids can barely keep up so think efficiency folks and avoid load shedding.
Wtf?
There’s an inevitable environmental cost to producing a USB-C cable: from obtaining the raw materials, to transporting them, to manufacturing the cable, and finally, to shipping the product to retailers""
So wireless chargers don't need any of those?
Wow.
Re: Wtf?
"...So wireless chargers don't need any of those?..."
I was going to say exactly this!
"... have dewalt tools with 4ah batteries and they are the size of 5 smartphones!..."
I have a DeWalt drill in front of me right now that takes 5Ah batteries and they are big (around 120 x 70 x 70mm) and heavy.
Re: Wtf?
Your DeWalt 5Ah battery is probably 18v not 3v or 5v though.
Can someone please train marketing people about SI units and how they work.
Its a 4AH battery, not 4,000mAH nor 4,000,000uAH or 4,000,000,000 nAH.
OK, technically they are all identical, but the whole purpose of using the correct units is to make things easier to understand, not to try and over-inflate a specification.
Imagine if this idea were to take on in areas such as house buying - they specify the house in square millimetres rather than square metres for example.
This has given me a slight chuckle though, as it reminds me of a lab setup I saw early in my career that had a large sign showing "DANGER, 12,000mV" to stop people fiddling with it.