Wireless charging had a rough start to life, with the technology only really gaining mainstream acceptance after some fruit company started including it in their eco-system lock-in devices. Now Qi charging is the dominant standard and various fast wireless charging options have been rolling out.
9to5 Google did some code sleuthing in the Android 12 Beta code, and found a reference to a new Made by Google Wireless charger that seems to support fast charging. The new charger codenamed ‘Luxuryliner’ includes code to control an inbuilt fan to dissipate the heat created with wireless charging.
The two big drawbacks of wireless charging are the relative inefficiency, meaning you lose a lot of energy, and heat build-up (that’s where all the lost energy goes). The solution to the first issue is more powerful charging (and thus even greater loss and heat), and so the solution to the second is active cooling.
As yet no one has created a huge heat sink Qi charger, but we bet you it’s coming, instead, OEMs have been building in fans to cool the charger and the device while the current is wirelessly pumped in. Google’s new Pixel Stand will have such a fan, but it will be variable speed.
The new Qi charger will be able to dynamically change the fan speed and thus noise to suit the situation, there is a quiet mode that will activate when you say OK Google, are on a call or put the phone in Bedtime mode. There will also be an ultra-quiet mode for when you’re using the recorder app.
There a few details about the stand itself, however, it does look like the dock will include a physical switch to let you set the fan manually between, Auto, Quiet, and Power Boost, personally, I’d like an off switch, I’m happy with slow and cool charging myself.
