[romil.shroff]

• I can use the phone even while its charging.

Agree with most of the points except the above one. You could use the phone through Android Auto/Apple CarPlay itself! In fact, it's easier and safer to use the phone via steering mounted infotainment controls and/or voice command buttons. 9 out of 10 cars that have wireless charger will have Android Auto/Apple CarPlay. AFAIK, the only exception to this is the latest gen Toyota Camry.

[charanreddy]

Voted for Wireless but not by choice.

The number of ports in a phone are reducing as phones evolve.

In older generations of iPhone we had the lightening charging port + 3.5 mm jack. I used to like this arrangement. Now, the iPhone has on the charging port which doubles as the head phone jack too.

In the near future, phones will not have wires. period. For multiple reasons,

1. Wireless phones are easier to protect against water / environment and increase the desirability quotient. The day is not far when we won't have an opening in the phone including sim slots. my iPhone already comes with an e-sim. This will trickle down to budget phones as well.

2. Wires are tough to manage. I have gone through countless chargers for my iPhone. they are messy.

Most importantly

3. Wireless is the new 'Cool', starting from uber cheap blue tooth headphones. They are the new 'in' thing.

For my car to be future proof, I'd rather have a wireless charging provision and not use it rather than the other way around.

[TheCatalyst]

Apart from the all the points mentioned above, one point which we underrate is the radiation aspect of it. Most of the articles debunk this, however the engineer in me disagrees. Wireless charging is basically is two coils interacting with each other through an electric field. Its not the frequency, but the power in each amplitude. For short duration, this aspect is probably insignificant, but not so for continuous operation.

I do own the Anker wireless pad and use it frequently with my samsung s8 and it usually works fine. However the fine print in the help manual did mention to keep a distance of about 27cm (1 feet) when the pad is charging a phone for health and safety reasons.

So I wouldnt advise trying to use the phone (or keep your hand near it) when its charging.

[rbabar]

Any new technology is a hype for a certain period of time. Same is with wireless charging right now. For now, wired fast charging is able to cater the masses. Its cheap and available in most variants. In future it may happen that wireless charging technology evolves and becomes a common feature. Till that time, I feel its overhyped.

[audioholic]

Well its good to have a wireless charging facility in a car, but that would never be a deal breaker for me, nor would I invest in an aftermarket solution for wireless charging - Until the day my phone still comes with a charging port

I regularly use various cars with a wireless charging port and I rarely use it since I am always habituated to charge my phone overnight, and the battery goes on the next day without giving me any anxiety of going dead. Only if I am on a long trip, then I would use the phone and charge it while navigating. Apart from that, for all the shorter drives, I dont find wireless charging to be a very serious feature manufacturers should go neck and neck with competition. However, one thing is that if we use wireless Apple carplay or Android Auto, it would help in not draining out the battery. Thats the only need I can think of.

[landcruiser123]

Whether in-car or anywhere else, I feel wireless charging is a technology that has a ways to go until it becomes useful. Except for bedside chargers, wireless chargers a backward step compared to the fast chargers. They are slow, and generate excessive heat.

A neighbor used to charge his Oneplus 3 only in his car (using a wired charger) for many years.

[Wanderers]

Voted for wireless charging. Like it or not, this is the future so why not embrace it now. I like dashboard or centre facia to be clutter-free. Switched to small cable to be just near the port but you need to take the phone up so a bigger cable is required. Bigger cable = more clutter, wire tangling with gear lever or hand brake.
Only thing, wireless charging + wireless CarPlay go hand in glove. No point having any one alone.

However I don’t have wireless charger or wireless CarPlay in my Ford Endeavour, so I use magnetic cable from Baseus.

[PaddleShifter]

Voted for Wired.

My phone has the wireless charging feature but my car doesn’t. One can add wireless charger to any car for less than Rs2000 (Just get a Spigen branded wireless charger for the car).

Points in favour of wireless:
1. Clutter free.
2. No need to remember to plug in the wire. Just keep phone in the area and it works.
3. USB port stays free for pen drive.
4. Makes sense in cars that support wireless android auto and apple carplay.

Points against wireless charging:
1. I may not want to charge my phone at random times. Need to find alternate storage for phone or remember to switch off the wireless charger.
2. Wired Apple carplay works very nice. And so does the wired charging (quicker than wireless charging).
3. Cost addition to car price would most likely be disproportionate to what one pays in the aftermarket.
4. In my car(s), I always prefer to keep a microfibre cloth as shock absorber in the mobile storage area for my mobile. That cloth doubles up as dashboard cleaning cloth as well. Doing so will leave the wireless charger unusable.
5. Wireless charging stops working if phone gets displaced from a certain position. This happens in my room so it might happen in the car as well which is a moving space.

[BhayanaV]

In current scenario wired is the preferred option. In fact more of these gizmos are further complicating the cars. There are so many features in my car (ecosport) which I use so rarely, I almost forget that they exist. If wireless charging becomes mainstream and fast as wired (few more years) might be the preferred option.

[neelkumar]

Voted for wireless charging!

IMO it is not over hyped. Infact, I believe no technology is over hyped.

Everyone complaining about the charging speeds or the heat or the usability should understand that every technology should start somewhere and based on the usage and acceptance the technology will improve. Remember the initial resistive single touch displays and think about where we are right now with the multi touch and bezel less mobiles. If the touch screens weren't used much, we wouldn't have seen such leaps in it's development.

As soon as we start preferring this, we will start seeing better standards in wireless chargers and more number of cars and mobiles which support this.

My only request though, to the car manufacturers is it to also support wireless Apple Carplay and Android Auto. Without this we are back to square one.

[Jash2709]

I dont know about you guys out there, while driving, 80% of times I forget to connect my phone beforehand, and then it’s a clear struggle, slotting in the cable and driving simultaneously.
Wireless charging is really convenient that way but not implemented well by cars.
And yes, though slow, it does the job for me since my drives are pretty long for the day!
My current car has the facility and I don’t have to position it as such but the problem is the phone heats up too much which leads to the CarPlay lagging like anything.
Certain cars do provide a cooled slot for charging.
So I think the technology is catching up soon enough!

[TrackDay]

Voted for Wired. As of today (2021) I would go with wired charging. The only issue, if any that I have with wires is that mostly the cable is long and personally don't feel comfortable with the cable hanging here and there. Mostly it is me being lazy and not going out there and sourcing a shorter length cable. A few years down the line, I think wireless will go mainstream, say 5-6 years and hopefully then the tech will be more refined.

[abhijet.sen]

It is matter of time when wireless replaces wired charging fully. Quite a few phones now support wireless charging higher than 25W, which is quite decent in charging the phone while still in use.

Remember Dial Up internet eventually got replaced by ADSL, or landline phone by mobiles. While wired is still better, it may loose out to wireless in 3-5 years timeframe completely.

[TechSavvy]

Well, I believe the wireless chargers in cars are not be used at all times especially in desperate low battery situations.

But many just keep their phone in an area near the gearbox and having a pad that just charges their phone is really convenient and it adds to the cars quirkiness and lastly, when you forget your cable it can help you in those tricky times.

[Reinhard]

I'm definitely in for innovative tech like induction based wireless charging. Its quite convenient. Most importantly - it removes the hassle of plugging in that USB2/C pin into phone and pulling it out multiple times in a day. Thus - reducing the chances of lose contact / failures significantly. I'm quite glad that wireless charging has started becoming commonplace in our cars. For most users - this will be very convenient.

However - I voted for wired.

• I am a big fan of Android Auto / Apple car play. There are very few cars and phones that support these applications in a "wireless mode" reliably. So anyway for using these - quite probably we need to connect the wire.
• Phones that support wireless charging - are exorbitantly costly. I don't feel a device prone to accidental dropping (touch wood - I have not dropped my handset in 2+ years now) deserves such money. So personally I have never purchased a phone costing more than 11K INR.

This said - whether there is a wireless charging pad or not - carmakers really should make proper flat spots under the AC controls to securely place mobile phones now. Its atrocious that my 2019 made car, has no real dedicated place to keep my mobile phone while driving!
With a properly shaped mobile phone storage in that area - people have the option of simply bringing an after-market charging pad with 12V input and placing it in their car. For future use when they buy such a compatible phone.