Could the wireless charge be obsolete before it could catch on?

saikee

I bought the UMI Z2 pro because I wanted to know about the wireless charge.  The reason is because I have an old Zopo 999 that has its micro USB port worn out to a state that the phone can no longer be reliably charged after some 4 years heavy usage.  Wireless charge requires no wire connection so theoretically the USB port can last much longer.

Many Z2 pro owners are not happy with the wireless charge and complaining both the charging pad and the phone could get very hot.

I do not have such a problem and can confirm using UMI's own Q1 wireless charging pad, supplied with the Ceramic version of Z2 pro,  the phone does get warm initially but steady to a luke warm state once the battery is nearly fully charged.  The wireless can sometimes drop out to a non-charging mode, with the led turns from blue to red, but that is easily rectified by adjusting the phone position relative to the charging pad.

In connection with its wireless charge two issues have surfaced in the Z2 pro cell phone:

(1) Due to the accommodation of the wireless charging loop circuitry Z2 Pro has a battery of 3550 mAH which is significantly smaller than its previous flagship S2 Pro that has a 5100 mAH battery easily can last for two days usage.  It is no coincidence that phones offering wireless charge seem to have only small batteries.  It is this Forum informed authority who confirmed Z2 pro’s battery size was compromised by the installation of the wireless charge components.

(2) The Wifi and possibly the phone reception performance of Z2 pro are currently worse than many of UMI's phones.  Although it is unproven but z2 pro by default could suffer unwarranted interference by having the wireless charging loops close to the phone's antenna.  It is already known that any foreign metal piece left between the wireless wiring and the charger can lead the phone being cooked locally if the wireless magnetic flux were diverted/altered by the foreign matters..  Not having the wireless charge loops can make the phone a lot cleaner in its design.

The convenience of the wireless charging appears to nullified by the advent of the magnetic USB cables.

A magnetic USB cable is a normal USB cable but with its micro USB, USB-C or Iphone head separated into two parts.  The first part is very small and can be left inside the phone almost permanently.  It can be pulled out or removed whenever required.  The second part is mated to the  first part by a strong magnet.  Such cable is very cheap costing about USA$3 ~4 so if it wear out it can be replaced painlessly.  I found the magnetic USB cable offering the following features relative to the wireless charge:-

(I) It is nearly as convenient as the wireless charge as the two magnetic parts would chase and catch each other when placed in close proximity.  This ensures a perfect contact is made every time.   In a wireless charge arrangement I usually have to adjust the phone position to initiate a trouble free charging process.

(2) A higher charging current is possible with a wired magnetic USB cable.  Already magnetic USB cables able to cope with 5Amp and compatible with Qualcomm 3.0 are on the market.  UMI's Q1 wireless charger is claimed to be the fastest in the world but it is significantly slower than UMI's own wired charge using the identical AC charger.  A magnetic USB cable can deliver the maximum fast charge UMI can engineer.

(3) A magnetic cable costs less than a wireless charging pad which always needs a USB cable regardless.
(4) A phone without the wireless charge has more room for a large battery and less interference with its antennas.

Therefore based on one consumer's standpoint I would forget about the wireless charge from now on when purchasing my next phone.  Personally I do not see a future for the wireless charge and UMI should be mindful the advent of other technologies can depreciate quickly their investment in the wireless charge research and development.

nmset

Yep, but Umi is faced to competition. Wireless charging is a fancy that's readily exciting to basic customers. If other phone makers succomb to customers' fancy, Umi will follow. Face unlock is just one more flashy functionality.

I'd prefer see Mediatek build a 4.19+ kernel AND configure it rightly to mirror the phone's screen via an USB-C to HDMI adapter, and to allow the device to be seen both as a USB drive and as a CDROM drive. My previous phone could do the latter function, allowing to boot a PC connected to the phone; it's the only regretful regression I discovered with the Z2 PRO. Upscaling the device's usefulness to the capabilities of Linux would be simple justice done to the kernel.

BPNL

I really like wireless charging, last Phone (Elephone P9000)had it bought a desktop and car charger wireless had no problems.
For the wifi I've made a change in MTK engineering app. and enabled auto channel selection, SSID  GHz and 2.4 GHz same name, no moren Wifi drops up to now

blueye

MTK engineering app does not work for me. It says I don't have stock Android. Could you pls help?
I really like wireless charging, you just put your phone on your desk and you never run out of power. What are you using in your car?
Ho

BPNL

blueye 发表于 2018-11-9 18:33
MTK engineering app does not work for me. It says I don't have stock Android. Could you pls help?
I  ...

MR01 did a good post on getting MTK working (have to root, but with Magisk works great)
http://community.umidigi.com/for ... p;extra=&page=2
On the last post of me you see the WiFi change if made it's really stable now
Bought this charger for in my car (and my wife's car :-))
https://www.gearbest.com/car-pho ... 95.html?wid=1433363

saikee

I have put away my Q1 wireless charger back into the box.  In usage I found the magnetic cable is faster, easier, more convenient and simpler.

Here is a picture of the magnetic cable.  


The magnetic force is really as strong as this photo shows as I have tried it myself.

Initially I even have bought a USB-C plug, (can be bought separately additional to the magnetic cable for multiple devices) inserted into the Q1 wireless charger so that the same magnetic USB cable can be hooked to either the wireless charger or directly to the Z2 pro.  The phone has its own USB-C plug insert of course.

I like the wireless charge too as it moves the Z2 Pro closer to the premier league.  Personally I prefer a larger battery to the wireless charge.

Recently I persuaded a friend to buy a z2 pro.  His wife has a stomach pain which was severe and had to be admitted to a hospital.  He was calling the family and relatives overseas but battery ran out on him.  He was jumping up and down in the hospital.  He wouldn't had this mishap had I selected the S2 pro for him.

Techno1

I don't think they've sacrificed battery capacity in favour of wireless charging. I just think they've put a smaller battery in. Quality control seems to be an issue in general with the problems you've mentioned but I guess I've been lucky apart from a few minor things along with all the others who don't post because everything works fine. I've had no issue with wireless charging that I use pretty much exclusively on the Q1 and another no name charger without issue. My battery life is also excellent and I run a VPN 24/7. I have a magnetic USB cable but that's just because I hate plugging in and out in the car. I hadn't even thought about wireless car chargers! Definitely going to check that out. It's just more convenient to me to place it on a pad wherever I am.

iamdravenman

I bought two of https://www.gearbest.com/mobile- ... 33.html?wid=1433363 when I got my Z2 Pro. They do just fine charging the phone, however, I've noticed that when I charge with them my screen acts like it's taking a lot of random finger input.
For example, I lock the screen and place the phone on the wireless charger, once the phone recognizes that it's on the pad, it makes the "I'm charging" sound and the screen comes alive like normal, but then it makes twitching jumps up and down as if I'm rapidly brushing my finger up and down in small strokes on the screen.
If I leave the screen on, like if I'm reading something as I place the phone to be charged, it does the "I'm charging" sound, and then it goes crazy. I've seen it bring up the open apps menu, jump to the settings menu, close my app, go several levels deep in the settings...
Please tell me this isn't normal and that it's got to be something up with my chargers... or that it's a bug that can be fixed in a future update...
Has anybody else experienced this type of behavior?

Gamerbuilt1

Is this odd or what but I get better download speeds when On the wireless charger

naturesbandit

Gamerbuilt1 replied at 2018-12-20 11:08
Is this odd or what but I get better download speeds when On the wireless charger

That's an interesting observation. I'll have to give that a try...
Just tried Netflix's "Fast" app. Got roughly the same speed away from the charger as I did on the charger.
Speedtest app got 2/3 slower download speeds and 1/3 slower upload speeds wile on the charger.
I'll try again when I get home to see if my home network does better than my work network.