WEBVTT

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So imagine this. You got a hot date who's hanging on to your every word,

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and she's asking you what's next on the docket for the evening.

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You bust out your phone to get directions to an incredibly romantic used video game shop,

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and suddenly you notice it's deader than your last relationship.

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You start to panic, but suddenly your date pulls out her phone,

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holds it against yours and what you initially think is some kind of weird courtship ritual,

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but then you see that your phone is working again thanks to wireless power sharing.

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So you immediately have two thoughts. One, she's a keeper.

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And two, how in the heck does wireless power sharing work?

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Well, we explained the basic principle behind wireless charging in general in our previous video

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on distance charging, which you can check out up here. But the idea is that when you run a current through a coil of wire and bring it close to

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another coil of wire, a physical phenomenon called electromagnetic induction induces a current

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in the second coil. This is how regular wireless chargers work,

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including the relatively common Qi chargers and even electric toothbrushes.

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But what makes wireless power sharing different?

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So the biggest difference is that your phone ends up charging another device directly from its main

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battery. Up until now, traditional wireless charging has used a base station that's plugged

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into a wall outlet, or it's taken the form of a wireless battery bank.

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The advantage to wireless power sharing is that you don't need any extra equipment,

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like an external charger or a power bank, and the phone itself doesn't even have to be any larger.

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It simply uses a small induction coil built into the phone's body.

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Currently, the most well-known phone that features this technology is the Samsung Galaxy S10,

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which can not only power up the company's Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Buds,

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but also any other phone that supports Qi charging.

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Now reportedly, the recently launched iPhone 11 lineup also contains the hardware to support

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wireless power sharing, but Apple has disabled the feature for now for reasons that aren't

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totally clear. Perhaps the performance wasn't up to scratch.

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Indeed, wireless power sharing does come at a rather steep energy cost.

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In a best-case scenario, current technology will provide around 500mA of current,

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which isn't all that much, so if you're trying to charge a smartphone with a 3500mAh battery,

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that means it would take roughly three and a half hours just to get the charge up to 50%.

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However, the Galaxy S10 reportedly loses around one-quarter of its battery life

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for every hour that it has wireless power sharing enabled,

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so you shouldn't expect to get anywhere even close to fully charging another phone anyway.

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Wireless power sharing is pretty inefficient in that less than half of the power used up

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by one battery will wind up in the other battery.

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So right now, the technology is best suited for quick top-ups when you need a second phone to

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just work for a short period of time, or if you're charging up less power-hungry devices

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like smartwatches. However, as phone battery technology progresses,

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we may end up seeing more robust wireless power sharing solutions.

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For now, it's a good way to keep you going in a pinch so you can think of it as like an energy

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drink for your phone that hopefully won't give it the jitters half an hour later.

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So thanks for watching guys. Like, dislike, check out our other videos, leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a future fast as possible,

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and don't forget to subscribe.