advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

Laptops in 2015 won’t need power cables, they’ll charge wirelessly

Wireless charging has been promising us a desk free of wires for a few years, but because of slower charging speeds and a limited power output it’s never really replaced cables as an effective way of juicing up the batteries in your smartphone or tablet.

The latest wireless charging tech from Freescale Semiconducter should go a long way to changing the reality of cable-free power-ups in 2015, with the new version able to output at 15 watts of power.

Current wireless charging platforms can only output at 5W, the same current as an older USB cable charger. The new 15W platform is able to provide 15W of power which is the same as the super fast Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0 tech that lives inside smartphones like the LG G2 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to name just two. The wireless charging tech from Freescale, which uses the Qi wireless charging standard, would result in phones that charge faster using wireless chargers than most of their cabled counterparts could.

The rapid charging benefits to smartphones and tablets aside, a 15W wireless charger poses an interesting question for notebook users. A brand new 2014 13 inch MacBook Air uses around 6W of power with the display on while idling. That leaves 9W of charging overhead for when it need to ramp up power to the CPU for the heavier processing that accompanies tasks like video playback.

There are already rumours afoot that Apple will be changing the MacBook Air in 2015 to use Intel’s new power efficient Broadwell chips which would allow for, not only a fanless build, but also the chance for Apple to have the first wirelessly powered notebook range.

[Source – Freescale Semiconducter, Via – eWeek]

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement