Is wireless power here yet?

I like my Lenovo Y410P, but if the right laptop with wireless power were to pop up, I'd be right on it. Are there any out there yet, or on the horizon?

 

No. I think you're confusing a few things here.

The only type of consumer-level wireless power is wireless phone charging.

It's not high-power enough to run a laptop (50W+)
It's VERY inefficient (only delivers ~35% power to end device)
It has only been tested to work with charging a battery. It probably does not deliver stable-enough power to run electronics directly.

So, keep dreaming. Wireless power for laptops isn't happening anytime soon.

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For off-the-shelf products, no.

But it's not that hard to make one yourself there-I-fixed-it style if you have basic electronic skills.

 

A company called uBeam is working on wireless power carried via ultrasound rather than inductive loops and magnetic fields.

It will be interesting to see if it goes anywhere.


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Skylake supports wireless charging, but nothing released has used it.

 

Just an aside, but where did you get this information from?

That's interesting that a CPU would care where it gets its power from.

 

It's not a feature of the CPU itself, the support is in the underlying platform. But unfortunately it sounds like the technology just isn't there yet.

 

Ah, I was just confused by that statement.

 

I think Intel made a prototype wireless charging tablet/Surface like device...However, I haven't seen any new machines etc released which can use wireless charging... Wireless Charging is just too inefficient....

 

I think wireless charging is efficient enough for a smartphone or tablet. Just throw it on a wireless charge pad at night and even if it takes 8-10 hours to charge, it's better than always plugging in. I've become quite adept at replacing USB charge ports in phones and tablet, but it's quite annoying having to do so between all the phones and tablets in my extended family and I'm known as "the guy" that can do it. It just needs to become more mainstream. I'd even be happy if there was a more robust way to charge than a USB port.

 

I can see how it'd be more convenient to wirelessly charge if there are a bunch of different connectors in the house. Though personally, all I need is microUSB and I'm set. Nevermind the wasted electricity that wireless unfortunately produces.

 

I'd rather have a more robust connector though. When you're plugging in at least once a day, you can easily plug and unplug a USB port 1000 times in its life which is a lot of wear and tear. Hopefully devices will start to use the type-c connector universally which should help mitigate some of the issues.

 

This is so true!!!