An important step has been taken on the road to bringing wireless charging to laptops, as Dell became the first PC maker to join the A4WP.
The Alliance for Wireless Power is one of the major organisations working on standards for the wire-free charging of our devices today. It has more than 80 major companies signed up to its roster, including the likes of HTC, LG, and Samsung.
Of course, the idea of wireless charging in mobile devices has been established, but we haven’t yet seen this concept turned to larger devices. Dell’s freshly signed support, following that of Intel last year, signals a major move forward in this regard.
Sure enough, A4WP used the occasion to announce a new secondary specification of its Rezence wireless charging standard. This will be able to charge devices from 20 to 50 watts, which is the range your average laptop operates within.
"The development of magnetic resonance technology will improve the customer experience when it comes to wireless charging and bring the capability into more homes and businesses over the next few years," said Dell VP and CTO Glen Robson. "We are excited to work with other industry leaders in the A4WP to deliver on the promise of easy, flexible wireless charging across an array of mobile devices including smartphones, tablets and laptops."
Meanwhile, A4WP itself speaks of its desire to "accelerate charging station installations" for a "no wires" experience. Whilst current mobile wireless solutions involve a bundled wired charging substation, proving useless when actually mobile, the ultimate aim here is to have wireless charging technology installed in public locations, much like Wi-Fi.
This would enable a wire-free future, where you only have to take your laptop and mobile device out of the house with you - not the bulky chargers.
We may see the first Rezence-equipped devices appearing this year.
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