OnePlus’ reluctant wireless charging game is over – and it’s a bug

OnePlus has arguably done more than most smartphone makers to expand the wireless charging experience in the short time it has offered the feature. Now the company refuses it completely.

The new OnePlus 11 won’t offer any form of wireless charging as it believes the 100W speed provided by wired charging makes the tetherless option unnecessary.

This can fully charge a phone’s 5,000mAh battery in 25 minutes under ideal conditions, and our reviewer felt it easily lasted a day (closer to two) before requiring a USB-C cable to be inserted from the bottom.

“Battery life is an area where the OnePlus 11 really excels, with a 5,000mAh battery to keep you going all day without a hitch. I was able to safely make it to the end of each day of testing with at least 30% battery left,” he wrote.

However, the complete absence of wireless charging is surprising. This didn’t match the Honor Magic 4’s 100W wireless charging, but the official 50W wireless charging pad sold for the OnePlus 10 Pro was faster than the maximum. wired charging speed of most other top smartphones. For example, the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a maximum charging speed of 45W.

The company touched on the decision during the OnePlus 11 presentation on Tuesday, but also expanded on its comments in a statement to 9to5Google.

The statement read: “We believe that if wired charging is fast enough and the device can last for one day, then user need scenarios for wireless charging are limited. The OnePlus 11 is capable of charging from 1% to 100% in just 25 minutes (27 minutes in North America), and in this case, users do not need to charge their phones frequently.”

Users have spoken?

As such, OnePlus decided to remove the option entirely, making it the company’s first major flagship phone not to offer the feature in three years since it finally offered wireless charging in the OnePlus 8 Pro.

It was also absent from last year’s OnePlus 10T, but it wasn’t a flagship release and it was expected to return with the OnePlus 11.

OnePlus has always been a company that takes its user feedback very seriously, at least that was the case in previous days when the vast majority of its public postings came through the company’s community forums. Whether this will hold up in the post-Oppo merger era, I’m not sure.

Perhaps the company has good credibility with loyal users that they don’t use wireless charging capabilities and would be happy to do without it to promote elsewhere and a few dollars off the phone? It couldn’t be an easy decision.

However, I can’t help but think that this is a mistake. If you’re known for being good at something, that’s not a distinction you should easily give up. In my opinion, this makes the company’s phones less special. We understand that OnePlus doesn’t see the value in continuing to innovate and push for faster wireless charging speeds, but abandon it entirely? This is strange for me.