Infinix brought wireless charging tech to CES that can juice up your devices from eight inches away
You can hold your phone comfortably while keeping it charged over the pad.
It's been a while since we saw over-the-air wireless charging demos from the likes of Oppo and Xiaomi, so CES 2024 caught us by surprise when we came across a new one from another Chinese mobile brand, Infinix. This "AirCharge" tech uses low-frequency magnetic resonance to deliver up to 7.5W of power wirelessly, and this works across a distance of up to 20cm (7.87 inches) — doubling that of Oppo's previous demo — and at angles of up to 60 degrees. To be specific, you get somewhere between 1W and 5W over a distance of 10cm (3.94 inches) to 20cm for a single device.
Infinix believes that this use case is ideal for users who want to keep their phones charged while gaming or watching videos, without having a cable getting in the way of either hand. With this improved charging distance, you can also install the AirCharge pad to underneath a table, and then you'll have yourself a stealthy charging area. Before that, though, Infinix will need to figure out a way to avoid accidentally heating up metallic objects nearby. There are foreign object detection methods for existing "2D" wireless charging solutions, but it's more complex when the charging space goes from "2D" to "3D."
Another safety measure to keep in mind is for the case of a sudden drop in distance between the phone and the charging pad — it's not good to abruptly crank up the voltage on a device like that. As such, Infinix has already implemented (and patented) an over-voltage protection circuit on both ends of the chain. The company doesn't have a time frame for launching AirCharge on a mass production device just yet, but it hopes to eventually use this tech to push for an industrial standard on over-the-air wireless charging.
Infinix also showed off its "E-Color Shift Technology," which uses E Ink's Prism 3 to let you change the color patterns on the back of your phone. This feature supports eight basic colors, which are then expanded by multiple levels of shades, and this can be implemented onto a pattern with over 100 customizable areas. As is the case with conventional E Ink displays, once this Prism 3 panel has been refreshed, the new color pattern remains without consuming power.
Once the company figures out how to tackle the challenges related to thermal performance and thickness, it hopes to bring this funky feature to consumer devices within a year or two. By which point, you'll be able to customize the color pattern through an app — which we didn't get to see, as our demo used dummy phones instead. Even Lenovo is considering this display tech for decorating its laptop lids.
Last but not least, Infinix teased its "Extreme-Temp Battery" tech for users who have to brave the cold. While conventional lithium ion batteries will have their capacities drastically reduced or even get damaged in low temperatures, Infinix's solid state battery will continue to operate even at a temperature as low as -40°C or -40°F. Similarly, when measured at -20°C or -4°F, Infinix's solution will apparently have a 50- to 300-percent boost in endurance time compared to others. We may see this battery tech on an Infinix phone as soon as the second half of 2025.
Update, January 14 2024, 3:46AM ET: This story has been updated with the correct power output of AirCharge.
We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.
