The iPad has gone through numerous iterations, with each bringing new features to the popular tablet. This brings the question, do iPads have Wireless charging? Why not? And, will we ever get to see wireless charging on the iPad?
iPads don’t have that cool wireless charging feature. It’s because they have an aluminum chassis, and that doesn’t play nice with wireless charging.
In this article, I’m going to go over exactly why the iPad currently does not support wireless charging, the benefits of wireless charging on an iPad, and if they’ll ever have the feature.
Reasons Why iPads Don’t Have Wireless Charging
Apple is known to implement features slowly. However, there are a few particular reasons why iPads currently do not have wireless charging. Let’s go over these reasons.
Aluminum Design
All iPads currently have an aluminum chassis. Wireless charging requires the principles of electromagnetic induction to work. Aluminum is an insulator and cannot be used for induction. Therefore, for wireless charging to work, the back of the iPad would need to be made of glass or some other conductive material.
So, currently, it is not possible for the iPad’s chassis to support wireless charging. So, unless we see some titanium iPads coming about, the current versions simply do not have the hardware capabilities necessary to support wireless charging.
No Coils
Image Credits: iFixit
iPads in their current stage do not have wireless coils on their back to support wireless charging. Without them, no device can be wirelessly charged. Moreover, unlike a phone with a smaller chassis, it’s quite hard to position your iPad in the right position for wireless charging.
Wireless Charging Inefficiency
Wireless charging works by using coils to create an electromagnetic charge that fills up your device’s battery. Most phones have smaller batteries, around 3000-4000 mAh, and wireless charging can be a bit slow because it loses a lot of energy as heat, making it less efficient than wired charging.
Now, think about the iPad Pro 12.9″. It has a much larger battery, about 10578 mAh, and using wireless charging for it would lose even more energy as heat. So, not only is wireless charging slower for iPads, but it’s also less efficient. When you consider that fast wireless charging still isn’t very fast, there’s really no big advantage to using it for an iPad.
It would take more than 12+ hours to charge your iPad with current technology.
Lack Of Demand
Apple has just recently implemented USB-C in their iPads and gotten rid of the headphone jack. In essence, Apple does make market-altering decisions when they want to do it. That’s the key takeaway here.
The brand generally does not really care about consumer demand. And surprisingly, wireless charging has not seen widespread implementation or isn’t really cared for, even with phones that have it. Sure, it’s a great feature to have. But you won’t stop buying a phone or an iPad simply because it doesn’t have wireless charging.
So, instead of focusing on features that don’t really make a difference in the grand scheme of things, Apple has seemingly spent more of its time going for features that have more of an impact.
Cost Increase
If there’s a lack of demand, and the R&D spent by Apple on implementing wireless charging isn’t worth it, you can expect to see a large drive-up in the overall cost of the product. This is because since the company doesn’t exactly believe in the feature, they won’t risk decreasing their margins for it.
So, that’ll ultimately lead to a price hike up in the iPad, and that too, for no particular reason. Since, let’s face it, wireless charging isn’t a feature you’d be happy to pay a premium for.
Advantages of iPad With Wireless Charging
When we do eventually get the iPad with wireless charging, here are a few features that’ll truly be game changers in how you use your iPad:
- Charging Stands: Having the ability to charge wireless while popping it down on a magnetic stand is an extremely useful feature. Think about it this way; you can have your iPad automatically charge when on a stand, ensuring it always has a full charge when you decide to use it on the go.
- Reverse Wireless Charging: With a charging coil implemented, you should also be able to wirelessly charge your AirPods, Apple Watch, and iPhone right from the back of your iPad. In essence, you can turn your iPad into a glorified power bank!
- Convenience: The wireless, convenient nature of wireless charging is still quite important. Gone will be the days when you need to carry wires around constantly and can still rely on a singular charger for everything.
Will There Be an iPad With Wireless Charging?
For now, none of the iPads have wireless charging. Even the newest released iPad Pro (2022, October) doesn’t have it.
There’s also no official information from Apple that they plan to make an iPad with Wireless charging.
However, it’s important to note: Apple often introduces new features and improvements with each generation of their products. Therefore, it is possible that future iPad models may include wireless charging functionality
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I'm a writer and editor in iPads & Android Tablets, Windows Tablet section. I'm passionate about technology, especially about tablets. I'm on a mission to assist people in discovering their ideal tablets. In addition, I'm dedicated to producing helpful how-to guides and sharing top-notch tips and tricks. In my early carrier I founded and became and editor at worldoftablet and have been a guest author at many other tech blogs. In wolfoftablet I'm focusing on iPads, Tablets, Apple Pencil, Apps, Reviews, Buyers Guides and Tablet Accessories. In free time I like to play games on my PS5 or iOS.
