I’m tired of OnePlus making the same lame excuse about wireless charging

Ben Schoon | Oct 22 2023 - 9:00 am PT

“Fast charging is better.” It’s the same response OnePlus has had for years now when it’s asked about the lack of wireless charging on its flagship Android smartphones. And, now that we’re hearing it yet again about the $1,700 OnePlus Open, I’m just so tired of it.

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Qi wireless charging was once a pretty niche feature, only found on devices here or there. But, thanks to wide adoption from major players such as Samsung, Google, and especially Apple, wireless charging has become a standard feature on smartphones, particularly in the US market. It’s something customers expect on a device that’s on the higher end of the market.

Yet, OnePlus seems to think it can get away with just ignoring the feature.

The OnePlus 11 and now the OnePlus Open are both flagship smartphones, and really good ones, but they lack the wireless charging that every single one of their competitors offer. And, on both devices, OnePlus has had the same response when asked, or when criticized, about the lack of wireless charging.

Fast charging is better.

Back in February with the release of the OnePlus 11, the brand said that “if the wired charging is fast enough… then the scenarios for user’s need for wireless charging is limited.” In other words, OnePlus feels that you just don’t need it because wired charging is fast enough. It’s the exact same sentiment that OnePlus had at a large briefing about the OnePlus Open recently, as employees were hit with harsh, but justified, feedback about the decision to skip wireless charging.

This is the same brand famous for its “Never Settle” tagline.

It’s a ridiculous argument, because fast charging and wireless charging are not mutually exclusive, and they serve different purposes. Fast charging is incredibly useful, as it can top off your device quickly if you need more charge for a night out, or if you forgot to charge your phone overnight. I’m always appreciative of fast charging when I have it.

But, on a daily basis, I’m much more appreciative of wireless charging, because wireless charging serves a different use case. It’s a feature that’s all about convenience. Setting my phone on the wireless charger next to my bed when I’m drifting off to sleep is so much easier than finding and plugging in a USB-C cable. Dropping my phone onto the wireless charger in my living room is an almost thoughtless habit that adds some power to my device passively. It doesn’t matter that it’s slower in any of those contexts.

Wireless charging is convenient, and something that is expected on a flagship device in 2023. It’s certainly something I expect on a $1,699 foldable.

OnePlus can’t even use the excuse that it’s not possible to do both. The OnePlus 9 Pro had both 50W wireless charging and 65W wired charging. It was literally the best of both worlds while also beating every other wireless charging-equipped device in the US market by a long shot.

Saying that wireless charging isn’t needed so it shouldn’t be there is a lame excuse, and not one customers should have to accept. It’s also not an excuse OnePlus should be trying to make, given the only phones the brand is managing to sell in the US are the super cheap ones. Maybe flagship customers would be more willing to buy a OnePlus flagship if it actually had all of the features they wanted.

OnePlus also claims this decision was made due to weight and thickness, which is equally dumb. Another millimeter or two wouldn’t hurt, nor would a few extra grams of weight. Especially given this device is slimmer and much lighter than the Galaxy and Pixel competition, both of which have wireless charging.

And, here’s the thing. OnePlus has a good excuse not to support wireless charging on the OnePlus Open.

The camera.

That giant camera on the back of the OnePlus Open is big, physically big. It juts out of the back of the otherwise thin foldable to an extent that’s almost intrusive, but also totally worth it. The shots I’ve taken on the OnePlus Open thus far are without a doubt the best I’ve ever taken on a OnePlus device, and often rival what I get from a Pixel. I won’t go so far as to say it’s the best camera out there, but at the very least, I’m far happier with this than I have been with any Samsung camera in recent memory.

Due to the size of that camera, wireless charging would be a terrible experience on the OnePlus Open if it were installed. The bump is so big that it would add a few millimeters of distance between the wireless charging coil and the charger itself. That would generate heat, be far less efficient, and/or make alignment a nightmare. And it just takes looking back to the Oppo Find N to prove it, as wireless charging was installed on that device. But it felt as though it wasn’t, given how inconsistently it worked. Qi2’s magnetic alignment, in theory, could help here, but I kind of doubt it.

If OnePlus had responded to complaints about the lack of the wireless charging with this logical, totally reasonable argument, I’m not sure anyone would complain. A stunning camera is absolutely worth the loss of wireless charging in my mind.

Yet, that’s not the argument we’ve gotten. We just keep getting the same stupid excuse, and it’s not the first time OnePlus has come up with an explanation that makes no sense. I’ll end with this. On the OnePlus 10T, the brand said that it moved back to a USB-A charging brick because hotels have USB-A ports, not USB-C ports (yes, they actually said this).

Needless to say, I didn’t exactly have much faith when OnePlus told members of the press that it is “considering” wireless charging for upcoming releases.

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Top comment by CaptainUnderpants

Liked by 49 people

With USB C charging taking just 25 minutes, wireless is pointless, especially after you find out that when you dropped your phone onto a wireless charger, you missed and it didn't charge

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