Over-the-air wireless charging isn’t something consumers have readily available, but Motorola wants to change that with the help of GuRu. The two companies are partnering together for an initiative that aims to see truly wireless charging available in Motorola’s future smartphones.
It’s a nice idea. You plug your phone charger into the wall, and then your Motorola smartphone is able to receive a wireless charge over-the-air. So long as it’s within whatever range would be supported by the tech. For example, it likely wouldn’t work if it was across the house and not in a line of sight of the charger.
But even with inevitable range limits, it’s an exciting notion all the same. Not having to physically plug a cable into your device to recharge the battery. Or place it on a wireless charging pad of some kind. Just set it down anywhere in the room where the charger is. And in a matter of hours (but hopefully less) the battery is at 100%. It’s a future for mobile devices that most consumers can probably get behind.
GuRu tech would support over-the-air wireless charging of Motorola devices “at long range”
What’s made clear is that Motorola and GuRu envision a future where consumers aren’t constrained by the worries or physical limitations of currently available power transfer. That is to say, remembering to plug your phone in or place it on that wireless charging pad at night.
With these two methods of charging, the device still has to physically contact the power output. And although for most people it’s a relatively familiar daily routine to charge up the devices they use ever day, it’s also all too easy to forget to do so.
The solutions being developed by GuRu and eventually implemented by Motorola in its devices, should help to remove those limitations. What’s not clear, is what sort of other limitations would take their place. Like range.
GuRu says its technology would deliver over-the-air wireless charging “at long range.” But its announcement does not mention anything about “how long” the long range actually is.
Nor does it mention anything about how long it would take to fully charge a device. That of course would vary based on how many mAh each phone has in the battery. And any time values GuRu gave out now could be wildly different from real-world values when Motorola phones with this tech in them actually hit the market.
Regardless, Motorola and GuRu could be on to something. And over-the-air wireless charging is definitely an exciting enough feature to warrant more interest in Motorola’s mobile devices.