Following the lead of Xiaomi and Oppo, Motorola has now showcased its over-the-air wireless charging technology dubbed as ‘Space Charging’ for smartphones, claiming that it can charge several devices (up to 4) at a time, even if they’re placed at different distances.
Motorola developed ‘Space Charging’ in partnership with GuRu Wireless, and provided us the first look at it through a presentation at parent company Lenovo’s Tech World event this week. The presentation began with a look at the central charging station, which looks like an enterprise-level router, then a person introduces four smartphones into the scene placing them into their holders, and showing that the phone is charging.
The video also showcases varying distances to demonstrate Space Charging’s long-range charging abilities, from one to three meters, and for the imperial measurement crowd, devices equipped with the corresponding chip can charge from nearly 10 feet away from the battery base.
Motorola in its Weibo account said, “no charging cable is required, and no need to consider the location of the power source.” The company added Space Charging has 100-degree wide-angle coverage, can charge phones through obstacles, and has a “phased array composed of 1,600 antennas” in the base station. Additionally, it also has in-built “bio-monitoring,” which can identify when a person has stepped into the room.
Presently, there’s no information about the speed of Motorola’s over-the-air charge but Digital Chat Station claims Motorola’s Space Charging tops out at 5W. For comparison, Oppo’s over-the-air solution has 7.5W, Xiaomi’s has 5W, and OnePlus has 30W wireless chargers.