Samsung is reportedly close to introducing technology enabling two devices to be charged wirelessly at the same time.
What appears to be the Samsung Wireless Charger Duo packaging was leaked on Twitter last Friday by WinFuture's Roland Quandt. It can charge two phones or a phone and Samsung smartwatch simultaneously, according to Mashable. The corporate introduction may happen at a Samsung "Unpacked" event on August 9.
Making charging more efficient has long been a goal of the wireless ecosystem. Doing so will reduce waste—the chargers that end up at the bottom of sock drawers and desks the moment a new device arrives—save money and increase customer satisfaction. Substantial changes have not come quickly, however.
Details, including pricing, are not available. Indeed, there are no images of the charger itself, only the packaging. The Wireless Charger Duo will be Qi-compatible, according to The Verge. Reports are that the charger will compete with Apple's AirPower. Mashable suggests that the Apple charger will be able to accommodate three devices simultaneously.
Introductions of the Galaxy Note 9 and a new Galaxy Watch are rumored to be likely at the Aug. 9 event, which will be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
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Wireless charging is nothing new. Various approaches have been considered through the Alliance for Wireless Power, The Power Matters Alliance and The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC). But the industry seems to have moved toward the WPC's Qi (pronounced “chee") technology, according to Computerworld. Qi, which is led by the WPC, enables two types of charging: inductive (pad style) charging and electromagnetic resonant inductive charging.
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In September 2017, Apple joined Samsung and other Android-based handset makers in going with Qi. It went a step further in March, when it acquired PowerByProxi, a wireless charging company based in New Zealand that uses the Qi standard.