Stuff meets… Jack Saunders

Polar bears also have them

Xiaomi clutching at thin air, are they?

In a way, yes. Unlike traditional wireless charging, which requires a charging stand or pad, Mi Air Charge is truly wireless. It utilises a remote ‘charging pile’ that detects the location of your device and beams energy through the air. According to Xiaomi’s best and brightest, the pile has “five phase-interference antennas built in, which can accurately detect the location of a smartphone”. And then? “A phase control array, composed of 144 antennas, transmits millimetre-wide waves directly to the phone through beamforming.” There’s a lot of jargon there, but essentially it’ll charge devices within a few metres. No cables, no pads, just automatic wireless charging taking care of itself.

What gadgets will it work with?

Well, clearly the device being charged will need to be fitted with the relevant tech to convert those millimetre waves back into electrical energy. We’re assured Mi Air Charge will be compatible with a wide range of phones, and Xiaomi claims the tech will eventually work with smartwatches, speakers, desk lamps and other products in the connected home. It’ll even charge multiple gadgets simultaneously, so it could feasibly keep an entire smart home ticking over while you do something productive, like dust your Phil Collins record collection.

So can I feel it coming in the Air tonight?

Not quite. As always, there’s a catch with these things – and while Xiaomi has been more than happy to wax lyrical about its latest technological revolution, the company has been less forthcoming with a launch date. So you won’t find it on the Xiaomi Mi 11 for instance. Right now, we don’t know when – or indeed if – Mi Air Charge will be rolled out to consumers.

It’s likely there’s still a bit of fine-tuning to be done, but Xiaomi’s proclamation that “today, we enter a true wireless charging era” implies the company is confident it’ll become a reality soon enough.