What I find most frustrating is that if you're going to go as far as using magnets to ensure "perfect" alignment for the coils, you might as well use them to align metal contacts. Same convenience as "wireless" charging, but with the efficiency of wired charging.

This is exactly why Apple never released AirPower, even Apple realized so many coils in a wireless charger is too much heat to manage properly. Honestly it’s good they pivoted to MagSafe and the Qi 2 standard adopted the same tech.

It’s terrible until the charging port doesn’t charge and the phone is able to stay alive for another year thanks to it.

I didn't realize the power loss or temps were so high. I'm going back to the ol' wire. Much appreciate the video.

My dad always complains about his phone getting hot when wireless charging in his car and no matter how centered I align his phone, it'll always gets hot and his phone will stop charging to control the thermals. But this video and illustration of Tesla solution of slapping so many coils might be the problem but my dad resorted to wired charging in his car anyway.

Glad to see this video. I worked in a phone store, where I would continuously correct everyone I worked with including my manager, that no, wireless chargers were not in fact better for your battery longevity and to stop telling that to the customers that weren't knowledgeable enough to know otherwise, so they had to trust our experience and advice. I quickly realized that they either didn't choose to believe me or do any research themselves before making recommendations, or didn't care because selling an additional $40-$70 charger as essential for phone health was part of their commissions. I remember them saying they "trickle charge" like it was some feature of the wireless chargers when it's just something most modern phones do. Mind you I still sold a decent amount of them being completely honest with people, as there are still use cases even without a claim of better battery longevity. Convenience, an alternative if your port fails, to name a few. This is one of the many reasons I chose to move into the electronic repair business instead, a lot more honesty there compared to retail phone sales.

Living in a subtropical country, 30°C temperature feels almost like late fall or early spring. It's usually 40-42°C during summer and 35-38°C most of the year. So our phone batteries are constantly getting degraded even without charging.

At 2:43, the wired connection is represented by a dashed line, the wireless connection is represented by a solid line... an interesting subversion of expectations.

I work in a phone store and always recommend wires over wireless charging. It's so much better

Appreciate you for sharing your conclusions at the *start* of the video, and making the video only as long as it needed to be to illustrate your conclusions (unlike most youtubers who intentionally breadcrumb the conclusions to force you to watch through their drawn out videos). Liked and subscribed!

Great video! Thank you for sharing good info with tests and data to back it up! I appreciate the effort that you guys put into teaching things that benefit us users! Keep up the good fight!

I like to use USB-C magnetic adapters as an alternative. You get the benefits of not having to be accurate with plugging in (plus you don't wear out the USB port), but retain the benefits of wired charging. Such functionality should really be added to the USB spec.

I had a feeling that was the case. Thanks for the testing.

Loved the video. Would like to see how it compares with wireless charging stations that have fans

It's all about compromises. The ease of being able to pick up the device and put it back to charge in a second is handy for example when you're doing many short trips in a car, and would rather not break the charge port. There's no point in choosing wireless over wired when the device is charging overnight.

Thank you for this info! Keep it up!

Appreciate the testing. I was hoping there was more tests about how much batteries degrade with higher temperatures, but that would take a huge amount of work and data.

Most phones have a feature to disable fast wireless charging which significantly decreases heat and also slows down battery charging overnight to about 3 hours which can actually help reduce wear

Finally someone competent pointing out this waste. Thank you!!

Sony Xperia 3 actually had a magnetic interface on its side that allowed for the convenience of "wireless" charging with the advantage of actual electric contact that avoided the loss of wireless charging. If only we can establish a standard interface using this concept for phones.

your approach to content is so inspiring, keep up the great work!

commenting to support these findings and data. love your work.

Apple Magsafe kinda nailed it. Get the right magsafe stand and you really don't worry about charging. Even when I'm drunk I can wave my phone over my charging stand and it'll grab my phone outta my hand.

Brilliant! We definitely need more educating videos like those! People need to learn best practices to avoid environmental impact.

I'm glad to see someone calling this out. I wish this were more widely known so people could make informed choices to not purchase or use wireless charging.

I use wireless charging out of convenience since I'll need to plug and unplug frequently. I always place it under a small desk fan pointed at the phone. It keeps it nice and cool even after charging for over an hour - I imagine the battery temperature is kept a bit cooler from this. For overnight charging it's a 5 W charger to minimize heat. No need to charge from 20% to 80% in 30 minutes when it's going to be plugged in for 7 more hours anyway.

Finally someone say something about this, been feeling disturbed for a long time with people glorifying wireless charging over fast charging. Thanks iFixit for mentioning this!

Great to see some solid numbers on charging efficiency and thermals. I’ve heard claims about wireless charging degrading battery life for as long as I’ve seen wireless chargers. But I’ve never seen people get into details and produce numbers. Are the temperature tolerances on lithium ion batteries that low? 35 degrees Celsius is stuff I see often on holidays and are quite common in some parts.

I have few charging cables which have a separate tip connected by magnets. The tip stays in my device and when it needs charging, snapping it to the cable is easy and fast. I use them on devices that need charging daily and i dont want to wear out their port. Do these magnetic charging cables have any downside as opposed to normal cables?

Happy to see more people talking about this!

very nice video, quick and compact from the start on

I've charged my Sony Xperia 1 IV wirelessly for almost two years now without issue BUT that being said I've only charged at 5w max to keep temperatures down. If i charge at 15w the phone becomes quite toasty (battery temps close to 40C). Wired 30w charging pretty much never exceed 30C but wireless charging at 5w is only a degree or two above room temperature. It's nice to just drop the phone on a pad after work and if I need faster charging wired is always an option.

Question about your 65W USB-C GaN iFixit Fast Charger. Does it ONLY have one output? How can I charge multiple devices at once using this?

Just use a “slow” 5W wireless charger for overnight charging. It’s much better for your battery to slowly charge (after a deep cycle preferably) than a super fast charge on a wire or a powerful wireless charger

I’ven been a big fan of magsafe charger. Been using almost exclusively on my 13 pro max since its launch and I do not see any extreme battery wear, even with the frequency I charge my phone due to how much i use it. Must add that i live in a pretty cold region, with summer with >25° temperatures only lasting for a couple of weeks. When its hot i definitely feel my phone getting toasty no matter how I charge it. One solution I used last year was to put the phone in a thin plastic container, add a thin layer of water and then connect the magsafe under the container.

Could you test the MagSafe duo? Specifically I’m interested in knowing what battery temps and energy efficiency are like when a phone and watch are dropped on it

Awesome video :D I am wondering and often thinking about if it is true that chargers communicate via the cable with the attached devices. Like "Hey device XY, I can charge you with 30 Watt, N Ampere and K Volt. What do you accept? Do you also happen to be an Apple-Device?" or that there are mechanisms that ensure a safe charging, like protection against overheating or pumping out a to high / low current. Do you maybe already have a video about this topic?

Is a lower Wattage wireless charger better for an overnight charge? I usually leave it there when sleeping. On my S23U, it takes around 3h30 to charge from 20% to 100%, but I never notice it getting hot. It's an IKEA charging pad, where the other end is a USB A connector.

I have a Galaxy S22U and wireless charge with a 5W charger. The battery does not get anywhere near 30C. It's even recommended to use wireless charging at 5W at night when the phone is of. Your phone being off is what helps prevent it from getting hot, and battery degradation.

I have to say that I always thought that wireless charging was pretty worthless until I damaged my charging port out of warranty. I keep my phone for at least 3 years before upgrading and wireless charging has saved me from an early upgrade. With that being said I would still give it up in a heartbeat for a rear mounted fingerprint scanner.

Side note: Thank you for all your videos, they’ve helped me pay the bills fixing people’s stuff for many many years now ❤

Wireless charging was amazing to have on my Palm Pre, and I’m glad that it has been widely adopted since. It was a difficult few years when I was forced to switch away from webOS

1:06 try it with budget phones. i have seen like 40-50c on cheaper phones.

I’m using baseus magsafe stand to charge my iPhone. Yes it gets longer to charge but it doesn’t get that hot as charging by wire. In my opinion mag safe magnets are the best way to perfectly align your phone to wireless charger.

Having used a 5w Anker wireless charging pad for many years, it never manages to create enough power to make my iPhone get even barely warm 😂 Wired charging still seems to make the phone get noticeably warm, though I can’t decide if the slower wireless charging is overall better for the battery or not. Based on my son using my old 12 Pro Max which is still on mid 80’s for battery health, I’m inclined to think slow wireless charging is no concern beyond energy waste….possibly balanced by a phone which still has great battery health and life.

I thought this has been common knowledge for years. It's good you're bringing attention to this.

i wish u have tested xiaomi smart tracking charging pad which automatically aligns the coil with the device. i wonder if it increases the efficiency to the level of Qi2

thanks for this video. I was looking for wireless one but after this I'll stick to wired ones.

wanted to know how it works and found a video explanation of just that an hour later. eggcellent

I almost always use wired, however it is useful to have a MagSafe cable around for when water gets in the charging port

1:19 the cable is right there! you just added an extra step!

It's all about heat management. I've switched back to a low-wattage charger for overnight use and I'm utilizing the 80% charge option, since I can essentially charge my phone throughout the day at work. Occasionally, I switch to auto mode if I'm on a hiking trip or engaged in similar activities. My 14 Pro Max still retains 100% battery health. I'm somehow addicted to hold my batterylife at a constant level. It feels like an achivement :D

I've been waiting for someone to make this video for years!

i only ever use wireless charging overnight with a 5w outlet so im sure it charges very slow and doesnt let it get that hot

I am confused about the temperature part. My phone's battery (according to Antutu benchmark) is almost always above 30°C even in normal everyday use (somewhere between 30 and 36). Does that mean my battery is constantly degrading? Or is Antutu not displaying accurate temp values?

They called it wireless but i can still see the wires

Interesting follow-up question from me - does the impact from this negate the benefits of the longer charge times? Especially with rapid chsrgin tech on most devices now that puts more pressure on the battery, the slower chsrgine speed is a positive in that front. I tend to use my wireless charger (a stand, not a pad, for more consistent results) when charging overnight or if I'm not leaving the house soon and the battery is low, and that plus the adaptive charging that holds the battery at 80% until my alarm is due to go off, all work to help extend the battery life, no?

Thanks for sharing this info.

With the iPhone SE 2020 came wireless charging to me. Unfortunately it doesn't support MagSafe and I bought some third-party stuff. I realized, that the battery lost capacity quicker than usual on former models and I suspected there was something wrong with wireless charging. Most articles on the net told, that wireless charging is as good as cable and there is no significant difference to battery life. Despite that I switched back to wired charging on my new iPhone SE 2022 and experienced better capacity.

This proves a point about wireless charging. I don't use wireless charging on my phones as cable charging is more efficient. I once had a wireless charger (sold it on though) which accepted 5V 2A but only outputted 1A to the phone, what a large inefficiency that is!

I use slow wireless charging, i disabled fast wireless charging in settings of my S24 Ultra, Phone never get's hot, is that more safe for the batttery ? The only time it gets hot is IN the car using Wireless Android Auto + Wireless Charging... i don't love that so when it needs charging in the car i use a cable.

Thank you iFixit! Just a small geeky fix: it’s degree Celsius, not centigrade. This is not the same scale and I think you are using Celsius thermometers.

I remember a precursor of the now-ubiquitous Qi charger, the Palm Pre "keystone" (?). My very first foray into modern electronics hacking was modding a Galaxy Nexus to connect the 5 volts from the charging coil removed from a spare Palm Pre back cover to the back of the pogo pins intended for docks. It worked, but boy was that thing toasty, and it probably wasn't good for the battery module to be squished a little bit more with a coil right next to it. Thankfully it never blew up like the old Galaxy Note did. Every time I've tried a "new innovation" for wireless charging, it always heated up the phone and its battery. It was especially bad when you tried using a wireless pad in a car during navigation, most of the time it would stop charging because of overheating, especially with newer Android releases that monitor temperature. So I stick to BigClive's recommendation: USB, 5 volts, low current. Use PD only if you have to get your phone charged NOW. Oh, and NEVER wireless charge overnight. You'd think a trickle charge overnight would be OK, but not when the battery is heated up.

I've exclusively been using magsafe since inception. One mounted permanently in my office and one mounted in the car. Both have cheap copper ssd heatsinks adhered to the back to reduce throttling of any kind(probably not even necessary tbh). It quiet is the perfect charging solution. Haven't used a wire in almost two years.

If I charge mi phone with less wireless power during night (7.5watts for example) and also a smart plug for an automatic power off the entire charger. Am I damaging the battery ?

Is the battery heating more or are the coils heating the battery?

1:56 Correction please. The efficiency problem is not in generating the electrical field. The underlying principle here is the transformer, and transformers can be extremely efficient. The problem is the poor magnetic coupling between the primary winding in the charger and the secondary winding in the phone. This could be _improved_ by ensuring correct mechanical alignment, and _not_ as per the Tesla solution of more coils. You could even let the magnetism do the alignment for you. Still won't be as good as a wire though.

I use MagSafe chargers with integrated cooling fans to keep the temperature down. Works like a charm

The best use of wireless charging I've seen is desk charging. Linus did a video on it a few years ago where he hid wireless charging pads under his desk to essentially use the ENTIRE desk as a giant charging pad.

Granted it would probably kill the specs and be bad for advertising, but if they did a slower charge would the wireless charging heating issue be less? Either way I’m usually hooked up with a cord when not out and about lol.

That's reassuring. I've tried wireless charging once and my phone was uncomfortably hot, and I stopped permanently after that. Only wired for me now.

Interesting, for me the magsafe serves as phone holders for the locations my phone lives depending on my location. Car, chair and bed. Each has a magnetic phone holder. Each are capable of wireless charging but are simply unplugged. The only one that is live is the primary one next to my chair. I got one of those multi units that charges my Apple Watch, Airpods Pro and phone. Also serves as my phone holder. However I don't like having my phone connected to power while full. I charge only when it gets to 50%, bring it to full then wait till it hits 50% again. Every two days give or take. I use this same model for my watch and headphones as well. Right or wrong, I believe keeping a unit plugged in all the time while the battery is full is bad for the device.

Prevents loss of cables from damage, screw the energy losses.

1:19 That's why the recommended power for wireless charging is at 5 watt, leave them charging wirelessly during your bed time.

Finally someone speaks about this, thank you! I am not using wireless charging exactly for these reasons for a few years already. When I tried it, I did not find it any more convenient than plugging the phone in.

My country is currently facing heat wave with temps around 42° C, with 25W wired charger of my Samsung phone the temperature goes up to 41° C, so I don't know how much the temps will go with wireless charger.

Something that should be mentioned in defense of wireless charging is that wireless charging prevents wear and tear on the charging port; which (unfortunately) for many phone models is not as easily replaced as the battery, if it's even replaceable at all. I've had to replace several otherwise working phones in my life due to the charging port being worn out to the point it would not consistently charge.

wireless charging is like freezing some water , then bringing that forzen ice above your head , heat it using a lighter , and then drinking the melted waterdrops. i honestly never understood the point behind wireless chargers.

I’m confident that wirelessly charging costs less in the long run than constantly replacing charge cables yearly (and in our household, it was twice yearly). Also, I use a standard 12W charger rather than any fast charger unless I’m traveling, so I’m curious if overheating would be an issue.

So MagSafe on iPhone is the best wireless charger?

i wonder how these magnetic USB C adapters fit into all of this. are they less efficient than a regular cable? if so, by how much? it's a metal to metal contact, so i would assume it's not that bad.

what about the 50w wireless charging on the OnePlus 12?

the way he pronounces the "t" consonant is so satisfying and clean

I keep a wireless charger in case my port gets wet or damaged. I slow charge overnight with USBC and Samsung basic battery protection. I've never had a damaged port, but did get my port wet once on vacation.

now that i think about it, I'm still rocking an S9+ and i have a rollingsquare wireless charging kit that comes with a metal ring that "acts" like apple's magesafe. i only stuck it on when i got a "charge" but i doubt i actually got it perfectly aligned since i eye balled it. wish there was a way i could realign it without cracking open my phone

Never noticed any heat in my device whilst wireless charging. More so when wired I would say?

One of the main attractions of wireless is avoiding the connector damage that always seemed to eventually occur. I don't understand why the battery gets hotter with wireless? Also in an array of coils such as the Tesla platform -- why doesn't it detect and use only the one coil that is best aligned?

once Xiaomi posted video of wireless charging which charges phones in all room what are your thoughts

I've owned an S23 Ultra since launch and I've charged it every single night with a wireless charger, yet I've had basically zero battery degradation or capacity loss in 14 months now. This is because Samsung has excellent battery care options like limiting battery charging to 80% and enabling slow wireless charging to slowly charge throughout the night and not heat up the battery, I've made full use of those two options since day one.

I use a wireless charging stand for iPhone and apple watch. They are always on it. I never have to bother about checking battery and charging before going out. When I take my phone, it’s always full. The same goes for the watch. I will change my phone faster than the battery dying.

I think this is an example where the inefficiencies and battery degradation are absolutely worth it. Especially if you use Magsafe or Qi2 chargers, and actively cooled ones when possible. The convenience of Magsafe/Qi2 especially is incredible for phone mounts on desks and in cars to keep you topped up throughout the day and keep your phone easily accessible. Also, every phone I've ever used has had charging issues eventually before wireless charging (even my first USB-C phone). With my last phone, I used wireless charging almost exclusively and saved my USB-C port from the same fate. Videos like this are great to inform consumers about these trade-offs and what to look for to avoid the worst cases, but I definitely think this video is a bit overly critical of the technology.

Yes! the convenience of not dealing with wires is worth the environment and extra electric bill!

Much appreciate the video.

What about dash charge and other "fast charge" technologies? Do they reduce the battery life of our phones?

Would a MagSafe compatible phone case decrease the efficiency due to distance or does the case act as a bridge between coils?

I went for wireless charging as a matter of choosing the lesser evil while getting the added convenience as a bonus. It's far easier to replace a battery on my phone, than the USB connector, so I would rather wear that down than having to do some crazy desoldering, hoping the pads won't rip, and resolder in a connector I'm not sure I'll even be able to find. A very slow charge at night mitigates a bit the heat problem at least. All would be solved with simple metal contact charging docks just like any wireless landline phone or Japanese mobile phones had years ago.

I have my fan always turned on in my bedroom, with my phone in front of it. Does that help at all with heat dissipation? I like wireless charging only for the convenience of being able to set my phone down at night without having to fuss with the cable in the dark.

Can you do a video on the ability to keep battery % at 80 max?

I like my Pixel Stand 2nd gen because it has a fan, keeping my Pixel 6 cool but it requires a 30W wall wart to charge at 21W so it loses a bit of power there.

I just like wireless charging because it's easy. I just set my phone down on the pad and it recharges. And I have CPU-Z on my phone to check the health and temperature of the battery. It doesn't get above 26 or 27 C.