Qi2 was officially announced last year, and we expected more phones to feature it by now. Only the HMD Skyline does, though, but more phones are hopefully coming. In any case, it seems like we were all misinformed regarding Qi2, here’s why.
We were all misinformed when it comes to Qi2 charging, magnets are not required
Mishaal Rahman, a well-known Android insider, shared something interesting on X. He said that “Qi2 charging doesn’t mean magnetic charging”. Pretty much everyone thought that one doesn’t exist without the other, same as with MagSafe, but it seems like everyone was wrong.
There are products out there that support Qi2 wireless charging but don’t have magnets. That automatically means that magnets are not a necessity.
The Wireless Power Consortium explained that while most registered products certified to the Qi2 spec include magnets, some do not. Those other products can use different methods for aligning chargers and receivers.
Make sure to look for the right logo & verbiage on the packaging
The WPC “requires a different logo and specific verbiage to be included on the package” to differentiate between magnetic (Qi v2.0 MPP) and non-magnetic (Qi v2.0 EPP) products. Those logos are shown below.
Mishaal Rahman also added: “The WPC actually mentioned this fact in a press release back in November, though they said at the time that Qi v2.0 EPP products will use the old Qi logo; sometime after, they changed the requirement for Qi v2.0 EPP products to use the new logo shown above instead”.
Considering that magnets were so prominently mentioned due to aligning purposes, and the WPC’s collaboration with Apple, pretty much everyone assumed that they’re a necessity to reach those 15W wireless charging speeds the Qi2 offers. That’s not the case, though.
Be careful when you’re getting Qi2-compatible products in the future. If you’re looking for ones that include magnets, look for the right logo and verbiage (Qi v2.0 MPP).
