Qi means energy flow in Chinese and is a universal wireless charger for all devices that operate with a battery. Basically, you can use a qi charger for any device from smartphones, mp3 players, iPods and even cameras.
A qi wireless charger does the power transfer with the physics principle of electromagnetic induction. With this method, the power reaches the battery without the use of the traditional cable but through electromagnetic fields. And the process is not even that complicated if you come to think of it. Any qi charger is composed of a qi sender that transfer the energy to a qi receiver represented by the mobile device you are connecting to the charger.
How Does Wireless Charging Work?
The concept of wireless charging isn’t that complicated or new for that matter. For example, electric toothbrushes chargers are using the same principle for years now. The same goes for what is now promoted as new and revolutionary technology by Apple with their new iPhoneX. It’s basically a power exchange using a resonant inductive pairing between the charger station and the receiver.
To start the process, a test signal is sent by the charger station to check if there’s a qi compatible device around that can respond to the signal. Once a valid signature found, the qi charger station further checks for compatibility with the standard and begins the wireless charging. Besides being a cool new method to charge your mobile phone is also environmentally-friendly because the exchange of power, and, with it, power consumption only takes place if a receiver is detected by the charger station. Even though it might not sound like too much of an energy saving solution, considering the number of classical socket chargers being used globally right now, it can amount to an impressive quantity of saved energy. It may not be enough to power all UK Casinos but it could get close.
Is the Radiation from Qi Wireless Charging Harmful?
Even though extended research hasn’t been yet properly performed on the effects of the wireless charger, being a relatively new technology that is not used at a large scale, the opinions are split. On one side you have a lot of scientists and researchers who sustain that such a small quantity of electromagnetic energy that the wireless charger emits can do any harm to the human body. But on the other side there are those who always like to spin things around and that talk about a lot of negative impact on human health.
List of Qi Integrated Phone Manufacturers
If you are wondering which phone manufacturers already support the qi wireless charger method, here’s a complete list that will help you in case you’re looking to buy a new phone that can handle such a charger.
- Apple – iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X
- Asus – Padfone S
- Blackberry – Z30, Classic
- CAT – Catphone S50
- DeWALT – MIL8
- HP – ELITE X3
- HTC – 8X, Droid DNA, Thunderbold
