Apple Joins Wireless Power Consortium As Qi-Compatible iPhone 8 Rumors Persist

by Brandon Hill — Monday, February 13, 2017, 11:20 AM EDT

It looks as though Apple may have just confirmed one of the biggest rumors concerning the upcoming iPhone 8 flagship that will launch this fall. The company this week popped up as a member of the Wireless Power Consortium — the group behind the Qi wireless standard. More than 200 companies belong to the consortium, including some big names in the mobile industry like Samsung, LG, HTC, Qualcomm and Huawei.

This confirmation comes just days after Mac Otakara suggested that the iPhone 8 design will return to a glass back (like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s) and will support wireless power delivery. In typical Apple fashion, however, the publication stated that while the iPhone 8 will support wireless charging, the requisite charging pad to support this functionality will be sold as an optional accessory.

The wireless charging accessory is said to be based on technology from Chinese company Luxshare. Luxshare also just to happens to be a member of the Wireless Power Consortium.

In other iPhone 8-related news, well-connected and Apple-centric KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that the OLED-equipped smartphone will have similar dimensions to that of today’s 4.7-inch iPhone 7, but will have comparable battery capacity to that of the iPhone 7 Plus (around 2700 mAh). Apple will reportedly be able to achieve this feat by using a “substrate-like PCB (SLP) mainboard”, which would allow it to dramatically shrink the size of the PCB. Apple would then employ an “L” shaped battery to fill in the freed-up space.

The larger battery capacity combined with the inherent energy efficiency benefits of going with an OLED-based display should lead to some rather impressive runtimes for Apple’s next generation iPhone.

The iPhone 8 is expected to feature an edge-to-edge OLED display (5.1- to 5.2-inches in size), glass on both the back and front of the chassis, a dual-lens camera system, next generation 10nm A11 processor, and a new Touch ID sensor that is embedded into the display screen.

Tags: Apple, iPhone, Wireless Power Consortium, Qi, (NASDAQ:AAPL), iphone 8

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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