A very interesting article by Eric Ravenscraft for OneZero, “Wireless charging is a disaster waiting to happen”, reveals the surprising inefficiency of wireless charging bases for smartphones and other devices, at a time when their use is growing and rumors that some upcoming smartphone models may come without ports or cables.

Eric Ravenscraft为OneZero撰写的一篇非常有趣的文章，“ 无线充电是一场灾难，正在等待发生 ”，揭示了智能手机和其他设备的无线充电底座使用率在不断增长的时期令人惊讶地低效，并谣传着一些即将推出的智能手机型号可能没有端口或电缆 。

As the article shows, wireless charging consumes between 39% and 80% more energy than its cable equivalent, energy that is lost as heat. The extent depends on the design of the charger: when the coils in the phone aren’t aligned properly with the coils in the charging pad, an easy enough mistake to make.

如文章所示，无线充电所消耗的能量比电缆等效消耗的能量多39％到80％，这些能量以热量的形式损失掉。 程度取决于充电器的设计：当电话中的线圈与充电板中的线圈未正确对准时，很容易犯错。

Many users might be willing to swap efficiency for convenience or aesthetics, and the extra cost of electricity at the individual level is really very small. But with more than three billion smartphones on the planet, if a change in their design leads to the majority use of wireless chargers, that’s around 50% more energy on average being used than now. This would have a measurable impact on power generation infrastructure at a time when there is increasing pressure to increase efficiency.

许多用户可能愿意为了方便或美观而换用效率，而个人层面的额外电费确实很小。 但是，随着地球上超过30亿部智能手机的出现，如果改变设计导致大多数使用无线充电器，那么平均使用的能量将比现在多50％。 在提高效率的压力越来越大的时候，这将对发电基础设施产生可衡量的影响。

This may have been what led Apple to cancel its wireless charging base a few years ago after it had already been announced, and that speculation about the launch of an upcoming, cordless iPhone may be about trying to improve design in that regard. Either way, this is a subject we need to keep an eye on, and we may need to redesign devices to avoid a pointless drain on the world’s energy.

这可能是导致苹果在几年前宣布取消其无线充电基地的原因，而有关即将推出的无绳iPhone推出的猜测可能是试图在这方面改进设计。 无论哪种方式，这都是我们需要关注的主题，并且我们可能需要重新设计设备，以避免无意义地消耗世界能源。

As the saying goes: the devil is often in the detail.

俗话说：魔鬼往往在细节上。

(En español, aquí)

( Enespañol ， aquí )