One more year, Barcelona has become the capital of the world of technology for the Mobile World Congress. The congress is back in full swing after a few watered-down post-pandemic editions, and our colleagues from Xataka bear witness to this by reporting all the news and curiosities that we encounter.
And yes, the vast majority of this news isn’t too much about Apple, but we did come across something the company is heavily involved in: a preview version of what the Qi2 wireless charger will be
From Apple proprietary format to global standard
Almost two months ago, we reflected the news: Apple is working with the rest of the major manufacturers to create the second generation of Qi, the wireless charging standard. The great novelty of this ‘Qi2’ would be the adoption of MagSafe as something universal: being able to use magnets to align the device with the charging coil and get the most out of it.
The charger itself was hidden away (remember, the Qi2 standard isn’t finalized yet), but it was functional. I placed my iPhone 13 Pro Max inside and on the screen it immediately detects the charging power: about 9.2W after a few seconds:
One of the spokespersons who oversaw the prototype (built as a car console) told me that the goal with Qi2 is that the charging power can be 15W. MagSafe offers exactly this power, but the good news is that in Qi2 it would be the minimum and we could yearn for more
If the schedule goes well, the Qi2 standard should be ready to be finalized and approved by the middle of this year. During the fourth quarter, we could start to see the first compatible phones, so it may be too optimistic to think of a iPhone 15 with Qi2. The sure thing is that charging with magnets
