Will we see Apple’s AirPower charger in 2019?
How does it work? Will it work with my iPhone? How much is it? Will we ever see it? Roman Loyola and Michael Simon reveal all
Apple’s AirPower is a wireless charging pad that’s designed to help clean up the mess of charging cables for your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods. Apple unveiled AirPower at its iPhone X Event in 2017, but the company didn’t provide much detail. We hope to fill the void here.
Latest news
Will the AirPower actually ship this year? If the recent rumours are to believe, it could. On 31 December 2018, developer Steve Troughton-Smith tweeted that he had heard that AirPower has been fixed. On January 11 this year, ChargerLab tweeted that a “credible source” informed the site that Luxshare Precision (which manufactures Apple’s AirPods and USB-C cables) has started manufacturing the AirPower for Apple. Now there’s a report from DigiTimes saying that the device will become available later in 2019. No other details, such as price, have been revealed.
Back in October 2018 analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple will release new AirPods in early 2019. The new AirPods will include a new redesigned case that supports wireless charging. That could mean the AIrPower wireless charging mat could be released at the same time, though we should clarify that Kuo does not specifically mention AirPower in his report.
Details
AirPower is a wireless charging pad. There are several wireless charging pads on the market, but before the iPhone 8 and X, you had to use a special case with your iPhone in order to use a wireless charging pad. AirPower works without the need of a special case. Just plop your iPhone on to the AirPower pad, and it starts charging. No need to plug in your iPhone.
How it works
Place the AirPower pad on your desk or wherever you like to charge your devices. Then plug it into a
power outlet. To charge your device, just place it on the mat, with front facing up. That’s it. To get a little but more technical, AirPower uses induction, where an electromagnetic field is used to transfer power from (in this case) the AirPower to a device. When you place your device on the AirPower, it receives a signal from the pad to basically ‘handshake’ with the device (checks for compatibility, charge capacity, and so on). If everything checks out, charging proceeds.