At IFA 2023 in Berlin, accessory makers announced Anker, Belkin and other Qi2-compatible wireless chargers. Compared to its predecessor, this standard offers greater efficiency and magnetic closures for better positioning of chargers.
Image source: apple.com
First-generation Qi wireless devices spread in 2012 with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S III and Nokia Lumia 920 smartphones. By the time wireless charging was introduced on the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, Qi was already firmly entrenched in the Android ecosystem. It has supplanted a significant chunk of competing standards — according to the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) that developed it, there are now more than 9,000 Qi-certified products on the market.
It was approved in 2008 and its second version in April 2023. In the fourth quarter, devices of the updated Qi2 standard will be launched, mainly accessories. The WPC notes that the new version of the standard is more energy efficient, meaning less energy is lost during charging. An important innovation is the magnetic closure. The lack of efficiency of the first Qi has to do with the fact that it’s not as easy for device owners to align them perfectly over the chargers, and magnets help with the necessary fine-tuning.
Members of the WPC consortium are Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Google, Microsoft and others – a total of 344 manufacturers. This means that gadgets with Qi2 support will also be on the market soon. Finally, it should be noted that the new standard is backwards compatible with its predecessor, but a Qi2 smartphone and a Qi2 charger will help to achieve the best result.
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