14 DAY TRIAL // One of the biggest new features coming to the iPhone 8 is wireless charging, which according to several leaks so far, will be possible thanks to a glass body that could be used not only on the anniversary model, but also on the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus.
But while the wireless charging itself would be a neat addition to the iPhone feature arsenal, there’s a chance that the new system would be extremely slow as compared to existing implementations of the technology, including those developed by Samsung.
Japanese site Macotakara revealed that the iPhone 8 would use inductive charging running at 7.5W, which is close to the low-power specification (5W) that’s been originally developed for mobile devices. This means the iPhone 8 will feature only half the speed that mobile devices can achieve by integrating Qi 1.2 standard, though it’ll still bring a welcome upgrade to the iPhone.
Faster than Lightning
At this point, the standard iPhone charger that ships in the box of the device features 5W, with no fast charging whatsoever, though there are a lot of customers out there opting for faster charging with a 12W iPad charger.
In other words, while the wireless charging coming to the iPhone 8 is likely to be slower than several similar features available on other Android devices, it could still be faster than the existing charging on the iPhone via the Lightning port.
Even though it’ll feature the Qi wireless charging standard, the iPhone won’t work with third-party chargers because there’s a good chance Apple locks it down, so only a genuine charger would be supported. This means customers would have to buy Apple or certified chargers, which are likely to be more expensive than the generic Qi pads available online and working just fine with Android devices.
At this point, it’s not clear if Apple plans to include the wireless charger in the box with an iPhone 8, though there’s no doubt it’ll also be sold separately probably at a pretty hefty price.