One of the biggest issues that still plague our smartphones today is poor battery life. Sure, our smartphones today aren’t nearly as bad as they were seven years ago, or even just a few years ago. Battery life is constantly improving year after year, but only marginally so. Unfortunately this isn’t something that can magically change overnight, but despite that fact there other solutions to our poor battery life issue - how the phone is charged.
Along with the changes in battery life, there are also changes in how we charge our phones. Varying types of charging ports are one way, but then you also have solutions like docking stations and wireless charging. Docking stations have been around for a while, and have served as being a less intrusive way of charging; wireless charging, on the other hand, is a little newer, but in my opinion a lot easier to use.
In my opinion, there are never too many ways to charge a phone. Charging ports are extremely unreliable after a certain period of time, especially if you’re rough with them. Even if you’re gentle with them though, eventually you’re bound to make the same mistake everybody does when it comes to charging their phone: you use it while it’s still attached to the charger. Then the charger moves around the port, loosening things up, and slowly rendering the port useless. Next thing you know, when you plug in the charger it either falls right out or your phone won’t take the charge. And if your phone doesn’t have the ability to dock and doesn’t have wireless charging capabilities, what are you going to do? More than likely you’re going to have to replace the entire phone.
Wireless charging, on the other hand, is a lot less invasive. All you have to do is set the phone down on the charging pad and your job is done. No messing with cords, no worrying about putting a cord the wrong way while it’s plugged in (although if you decide to use your phone in the middle of charging your phone won’t continue to charge), and no worrying about damaging your only method of charging your phone. Because of these benefits over traditional charging, I feel that all phones should be aiming to also feature wireless charging at this point.
I’ve had my fair share of charging ports go out on me. I’ve had one break because I was too rough, I’ve had one get liquid damage somehow, I’ve had one charging port completely fall out. These things happen with time, but the big issue is having to get an entirely new phone just because of that one issue. Most phones don’t have a way of replacing the charging port once it’s messed up, or at least most companies won’t do it. The only option is to make an insurance claim replacement, or if you don’t have insurance you have to buy a completely new phone. That’s quite a hassle, and one that doesn’t have to be a hassle if every phone would just start incorporating wireless charging.
I have noticed that wireless charging is becoming more mainstream, but it’s just not quite where it needs to be yet. Every phone has a charging port because it has to have at least one way to charge, but I think having a back-up way to charge is equally as important given how important our phones are in our daily lives. It would just seem like given the current situation with our battery life, you would think having two different ways to charge a phone would be somewhat of an important feature to implement. So for phones that have implemented the feature, hats off to you. That’s what needs to be done.
Everybody else needs to get on the ball, because it’s just one of those features that makes sense to include on every handset.
Images via Extreme Tech, Phone Arena
