Summary
Wireless chargers and fast wired chargers are an effortless solution for low-battery anxiety, but other anxieties remain: will they secretly destroy your battery’s lifespan? Let’s review key factors and determine which charging method is superior.
Wireless vs. Wired Charging: Which Is Better?
Unfortunately, the answer isn’t exactly clear-cut. To determine which charging technology is right for you, consider the following factors.
Charging Speed
As a surprise to no one, wired charging is significantly faster than wireless. The real question is, how much faster is it?
To get a rough idea, let’s look at some numbers.
Qi wireless charging, used by virtually all smartphone manufacturers,including Apple, is the de facto standard inductive charging technology. Qi chargers draw around 5 to 15 watts from the wall, and it takesaround 3 to 4 hoursto get to a full charge or about 1 hour for 0% to 50%, depending on battery size.
As for wired charging, most fast chargers get to 50% in 15 to 30 minutes using 20W to 50W of energy.
Note that those are peak wattages. Both wireless and fast chargers only reach these power output levels in short bursts and can’t sustain them for long. Fast chargers have smart controllers thatautomatically slow the charging downas the battery gets filled up to minimize long-term damage.
The speed bottleneck wireless chargers face will likely disappear in the future, though. Look no further than theHonor Magic 4 Pro, the world’s fastest wireless charging phone, which can wirelessly charge at a whopping 100W and gets to 50% in 15 minutes using the proprietary Honor SuperCharge stand.
Still, that technology is a few years away from widespread adoption. If speed is the most important factor for you, wired chargers take the clear win.
Battery Life
You’ve likely noticed that your phone gets warm to the touch when it charges.Samsung explainsthat both wireless and fast charging outputs heat and it’s a normal part of the operation.
This is because transferring electricity using induction is inefficient — Qi wireless chargers lose about50% of the electricity to heatas a phone charges. It also explains the discrepancy between the wattage and charging speeds mentioned above.
Similarly, fast charging can produce more unwanted heat output than slow wired charging. Andheat is the #1 enemyof your smartphone’s battery.
Note that a critical difference between wireless and wired charging is that wireless charging pads are in close proximity to the battery. Both the pad and the phone heat up, and the cumulative effect degrades your battery over time. That’s why thebest wireless chargershave built-in fans to keep the temperature low.
Wired chargers also heat up, but a good portion of the heat is dumped through the charging brick rather than the phone battery.
But unlike wireless charging pads that heat up as they work, wired chargers dump most of the heat through the charging brick instead.
Still, battery life isn’t something you should worry about too much, regardless of which type of charging you use‚ as there’s only so much you can do to minimize degradation. And your phone has built-in safety protocols to prevent it from overcharging or overheating anyway.
If you feel like using one or the other, don’t let battery life be a factor.
Convenience
If you or someone you know owns a wireless charger, the reason they bought it isn’t fast charging or better battery life — it’s convenience. Plopping your phone on a wireless charging pad that sits on your desk is as convenient as it gets. You won’t ever have to mess with cables and outlets aside from when you want to move the pad to a different place in your room.
Another great thing about Qi wireless charging is that it’s universal. If you carry both an iPhone and an Android phone, you don’t have to worry about finding the correct charger to plug in.It just works. Not to mention that you won’t have to worry about broken cables or charging ports.
And while we don’t deny that wireless chargers are convenient, are they really that more convenient than their wired brethren? After all, you can’t use your phone while it’s charging unless you’re leaning over at an angle to look at your phone. Plus, wireless charging is slow, giving you the impression that charging takes forever, whereas a fast charger could be finished in 20–30 minutes.
In addition, all portable electronics will now come withUSB Type-Cas standard, thanks toa new EU law. You’ll be able to charge all smartphones using a single cable. However, you’ll still have to use compatible charging hardware to get the full benefits of fast charging tech.
It’s up to you to decide which is more convenient, as both have a unique set of features and drawbacks.
Cost
Wireless chargers are a standalone accessory that you have to buy separately. And with costs ranging from around $20 for cheaper models to over $150 for multi-device chargers, it’s not a small price to pay. What sucks is that you’ll have to buy a charging adapter in addition to the pad or plug it into a compatible USB device, such as a laptop, further adding to the cost.
Wired chargers used to come bundled with the phone as standard, and if yours came with one, you’re in luck. Unfortunately, more and more smartphone manufacturers are following Apple and Samsung’s lead and ditching the power adapter, which means you now have to buy it separately. Thankfully, adapters are cheaper than wireless chargers, typically in the $20 to $40 range.
We give the slight edge to wired chargers here, as they’re somewhat cheaper and don’t need a powered USB port or separately purchased power adapter to work.
How to Actually Increase Battery Longevity
Charging isn’t the only time of the day when your phone gets exposed to heat. Walking down the street on a hot summer day with your phone in your pocket, leaving your phone on your car’s dashboard, and going to the beach with your phone exposes your phone to excess heat significantly more than any form of charging.
Avoid leaving your phone in direct sunlight whenever you can to make it last longer.
Another way to limit how much charging cycles damage battery life is tolimit charging your battery to 80%. However, we don’t necessarily advise you to do so, as you’re effectively permanently sacrificing 20% of your battery. Just avoid letting your phone go over 80% to 90% if you remember and if it’s convenient.
Likewise, don’t let your phone drop under 20% to 30% when possible, as having to drain out your battery before charging it isa smartphone myth you should stop believing.
You can use both wired and wireless chargers as you see fit, as neither won’t degrade your battery any more than regular use does. The best thing you can do for your long-term battery health is to keep it away from heat sources and to keep the battery percentage in the 20% to 90% range.
