Qi fast charging will allow for charging devices wirelessly at 15 watts

A new announcement from the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) reveals the latest version of their Qi standard. This is especially exciting news to wireless charging enthusiasts who are limited by the technology’s current limitations to charge devices quickly. The new Qi iteration will allow for dramatically reducing the amount of time it takes to charge a device.

This technology’s feature is simply called Qi fast charging, and it will make it possible to charge devices wirelessly at 15 watts. To put that into perspective, current Qi chargers top off at around 5 watts. This means wireless charging speeds will triple, at the least. Of course, given that you have both a supported charger and device.

In fact, this is faster than many cable chargers out there. I just took a quick glance at an iPad charger that can juice up a tablet at 12 watts! Wireless charging at 15 watts is simply out of this world, and it may beat many of your regular, wired charging units.

This news comes only a day after we went in depth about the PMA/A4WP merger, which should bring forth more awareness on the different technologies available and convince device manufacturers to simultaneously support multiple.

Some device makers like Samsung have been adding both PMA and Qi inductive charging capabilities to their handsets, for example. This is a practice more manufacturers could adopt in order to end the disagreements wireless charging organizations currently have. Everyone seems to be pushing their own technologies, and that isn’t good for manufacturers or consumers.

If Qi moves fast and pushes their fast charging technology into the market soon, you can be sure not even PMA and A4WP will stand a chance. They need to counter attack soon, as Qi already has a foot hold on the market as it is.

Full availability details are still under the covers and more information will come in a later announcement. What we do know is only members of the Wireless Power Consortium have access to this new specification. Let’s hope things move quickly – I can’t wait to test this! Are any of you as excited about Qi fast charging as me?