OnePlus 5T won’t have wireless charging and here's why

OnePlus has been very open about the OnePlus 5T considering the phone hasn’t been launched yet, and the latest official news is that it won’t have wireless charging.

Taking to the company’s forum, CEO Pete Lau has explained that while he believes wireless charging is an “exciting concept”, it’s not currently as good as the company’s wired Dash Charge.

He notes that Dash Charge produces 20 watts of power, which is enough for “a day’s power in half an hour”, while even the best wireless charging pads would max out at 15 watts, and require the phone to be positioned correctly, so you can’t really move your phone around or use it while it’s charging, which you can with a wired charger.

He adds that Dash Charge is power efficient and stays cool, and that for wireless charging to be truly convenient there need to be charging pads readily available around your home, which can add up to a significant expense.

It's not one or the other

They’re solid points, but it almost sounds like he’s arguing from an either/or perspective, when in reality adding wireless charging support to the OnePlus 5T wouldn’t remove Dash Charge, it would just give you more choice, and surely therefore more convenience.

But it would also presumably push up the cost of the phone, and a relatively low price is one of the main selling points of OnePlus handsets. It may also require a more drastic redesign than we’re expecting from the OnePlus 5T, since wireless charging doesn’t work well through metal.

If you’re disappointed by the lack of wireless charging there is hope for the future, as Lau finished his post by saying that “we’ll consider wireless charging when the time is right.”

So it’s always possible that the OnePlus 6 will support wireless charging, though we can’t imagine his issues with the tech will have been solved by then, so the wait might be longer.