The Wireless Charging Consortium today announced a major update to the Qi Wireless Charging standard that will allow future Qi chargers to deliver up to 15W of power to your device. Right now, Qi wireless charging is all about convenience, and charging devices via it is significantly slower than charging them directly via a microUSB cable. The difference is especially evident with devices that support Quick Charging, where charging them via a USB cable can be up to 1.5x times faster in certain scenarios. With the latest update though, Qi wireless chargers will also be able to deliver the same amount of power as a quick charger to your phone. This means that upcoming Qi chargers built in accordance to the latest spec, will be able to wirelessly charge your Android device from 0 to 50% in only around 30 minutes. The new standard is also backwards compatible with existing Qi devices. It is unclear if existing Android devices that already support Qi wireless charging will be able to support this new standard via a firmware update or not. Nonetheless, it is great to know that Qi wireless charging is soon going to charge your device just as fast as a quick charger.
