OnePlus may be finally ready to offer Wireless Charging in its smartphones. The company dropped a mysterious tweet on their official Twitter page which said that it lost its fast charger somewhere. Nobody knows what it’s actually about yet but it definitely stirred up the crowd. Many, including us, believe that OnePlus might be hinting towards introducing Wireless Charging to their phones. Have a look at the tweet and it kind of makes sense.
We think we dropped our fast charger somewhere ? That was our favorite charger… It charged our #OnePlus6T
— OnePlus (@oneplus) February 18, 2019
With just a few months left in the release of their next device, there have been several rumors circulating on the internet regarding its features and specifications. Wireless Charging being one of the most probable and anticipated among them.
And why shouldn’t it be? Every new, high-end flagship comes with it. Also, OnePlus has made a reputation, despite its relatively lower price, of competing with those flagships so it’s evident that it should have similar features.
Although, many believe that Wireless Charging is not that important of a feature yet, OnePlus got a lot of backlash when they introduced the glass-back design in the OnePlus 6 without offering Wireless Charging. Same was the case with the OnePlus 6T. We expected it to have this feature but it didn’t despite having a glass back.
For those of you wondering, a glass back may not exactly necessary for Wireless charging. However, having one makes the process more efficient as opposed to its metal and plastic counterparts. That is the reason why most phones that support wireless charging are being offered with glass backs. Other than looking good, glass offers better wireless charging performance.
Now that’s out of the way, back to OnePlus. There are several factors that explain why OnePlus didn’t incorporate this feature before. The most notable one being the significant price increase of its phones had they gone with it. Wireless charging is a premium feature that requires specific hardware to be integrated within the phone.
That, of course, would add to the cost of the phone significantly which would just defeat the purpose of buying a OnePlus phone. For you see, OnePlus phones have always been known as the flagship killers. While offering similar features and performance as high-end flagships in just the fraction of the price. Although the price has gone higher over the years, it’s still less than that of the flagships from Samsung and Apple.
Another reason for not adding wireless charging included it not being very practical. That may have been true at that time. Wireless charging used to be slow and there weren’t really many scenarios where it could’ve been used. However, that has since changed. Wireless chargers have gotten faster. With the new Qi-enabled technology, you can wirelessly charge your devices at a significantly faster rate.
Although they’re still nowhere near as fast as OnePlus’s Dash Charger, that comes standard with its phones. It’s safe to say that they are, indeed, catching up. Other than that, the applications are also increasing. New furniture and even cars are coming out with built-in wireless charging pads. Although the technology is still new and rather gimmicky, it will become better and more accessible over time.
Which brings us back to OnePlus. Keeping that all in mind, OnePlus may have finally decided it was feasible to include this feature in their phones now. Whether or not that happens, we’ll have to wait to find out. In case it does, let’s just hope that it doesn’t come with a significant increase in price.