Qi2 Wireless Charging Samsung's GalaxyRing and Its Limitations

TapTechNews August 21st news, Qi2 is an upgraded version of the Qi wireless charging standard developed by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), announced in January 2023 and officially launched in April 2023, but as of now, mainstream Android brands haven't released any Qi2-certified mobile devices.

According to AndroidAuthority, the certification file submitted by Samsung to the WPC confirms that the GalaxyRing is not only Samsung's first smart ring product, but also Samsung's first mobile device with Qi2 certification. The charging case of the GalaxyRing can be wirelessly charged using Qi wireless charging, and the charging case actually obtained Qi2 certification.

TapTechNews noticed that other Qi2-certified products in the WPC database include HMDSkyline, which is the first Android phone to obtain Qi2 certification. It also includes all iPhones released since the iPhone 12.

The iPhone 12 was released in late 2021 but supports Qi2 charging, because Apple played an important role in the development of the Qi2 standard. In fact, it is because of Apple's MagSafe technology that the new standard came into existence.

Qi2 is also known as the Android version of MagSafe. This description can be said to be roughly accurate, because the biggest feature of the new standard is the introduction of the Magnetic Power Profile (MPP), which uses magnets to align the wireless charging receiver and transmitter. By using magnets to perfectly align the charging coil, Qi2 can improve the charging efficiency and reduce the energy loss due to misalignment of the coils. Magnets can also be used to magnetically connect other accessories.

However, when trying to connect the charging case of the GalaxyRing to various MagSafe and Qi2 chargers, it was found that the charging case couldn't magnetically attach to these chargers, indicating that it doesn't have any magnets built in at all.

This is surprising because the Qi2 standard has always been strongly promoted for its magnetic charging function. However, the Qi2 charging standard actually does not mandatorily require support for magnetic charging. In fact, the Qi2 standard actually consists of two profiles: the previously mentioned new Magnetic Power Profile, and an improvement to the existing Wireless Charging Extended Power Profile (EPP) that doesn't include magnets but complies with the Qi v2.0 standard.

According to a press release from the WPC in November last year, Qi2-certified products that don't support magnetic charging will use the existing Qi logo familiar to consumers. The current brand guidelines of the WPC show that only Qi2-authorized products with MPP support can use the new Qi2 logo on the packaging, while Qi2-authorized products without MPP support cannot use the new logo.

In fact, there is indeed no Qi2 logo on the packaging of the GalaxyRing. Through in-de pth research into the WPC database, it can be found that the GalaxyRing only supports the Basic Power Profile (BPP) of the Qi2 standard. This means that although the GalaxyRing does support Qi2 charging, it doesn't support the most useful feature of the new standard: magnetic charging.