Ah, AirPower, Apple’s ambitious wireless charging mat unveiled in September 2017 and canceled in March 2019. Who could forget the unreleased product that never even got a price tag?
Multidevice Qi chargers and Apple’s MagSafe technology have long since made AirPower look basic and dated. Even Apple’s MagSafe Duo charger hasn’t caught up with fast charging capabilities on newer devices.
Still, there’s one AirPower promise that only Apple could fulfill to make the canceled wireless charging mat completely obsolete while improving another product.
AirPower was unveiled (a little too early) during the iPhone 8, iPhone X, and Apple Watch Series 3 event nearly six years ago when Apple declared that the future is wireless.
Despite never managing to ship AirPower, wireless charging capabilities on the iPhone have been very well received. Nomad and Belkin have made multidevice Qi and MagSafe chargers common enough. Apple eventually released its own iPhone and Apple Watch dual charger with MagSafe Duo as well, and AirPods Pro 2 can even use the Apple Watch magnetic charging puck to power up.
The thing about AirPower, though, is that it was a flat mat that would have been capable of wirelessly charging an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods.
Charging the Apple Watch with AirPower would have presented a challenge with certain closed-loop bands like Apple’s Link Bracelet. Apple updated the popular Milanese Loop to address this challenge, however, by allowing the loop to come unclasped.
Apple has since released more closed-loop bands, but its MagSafe Duo charger features a magnetic charging puck that can lay flat or pop up.
But here’s the thing that was special about AirPower: it didn’t use the magnetic charging puck to charge the Apple Watch. Instead, AirPower was a dense arrangement of wireless charging coils based on Qi charging and firmware that communicated between the mat and devices.
Things have changed so much since the AirPower era that the Qi wireless charging standard is moving to version 2.0 while using Apple’s MagSafe technology as its foundation. MagSafe’s benefit is using magnets to snap devices into place and ensure the most efficient placement for fast charging.
None of that means anything for the Apple Watch, though. You can charge AirPods Pro 2 with Qi, MagSafe, or the Apple Watch charging puck, but the Apple Watch is charging puck only.
In my view, adding Qi and MagSafe charging compatibility to a future Apple Watch would be a convenience worth the hardware upgrade. Starting with the larger Apple Watch Series 7, Apple has increased the speed limit on charging overall. Now we just need the ability to throw the Apple Watch on any wireless charging surface just like with iPhone and AirPods.
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