Wireless Charging

Dell has introduced a new laptop that supposedly has a wireless charging mechanism. This is great. Finally, a solution where I don't have to carry around a heavy, bulky AC adapter.

Or so I thought.

See, when I saw the headline, "New Dell Laptop Introduces Wireless Charging," I thought it was going to utilize radio waves or some innovative method where you plug something very small into an outlet and it magically charges the laptop across the room. However, this does not appear to be the case.

Instead, you get a dock on which you mount your shiny new laptop, and it charges via some coils. True, you're not plugging in a wire, so I suppose it could technically be called "wireless." Seriously, though? Seriously?

That's almost like buying a product that touts itself to be lead-free only to find it contains mercury. Practically speaking, it doesn't matter.

Moreover, what's the point if you have to carry around the dock anyway? Wouldn't a dock be more cumbersome than an AC adapter? I know that to be true for cameras, having sold many Kodaks and Casios some years back when they thought a charging cradle was a good idea.

But then I read on, and found this line: "a standard plug is also available when you're on the road and away from the dock." Uhh... Right, the dock isn't intended to be carried around. Perhaps I am missing the point, but I am utterly baffled. Looks like I have to carry the heavy, bulky AC adapter after all.

I use a laptop at work. It's pretty much always plugged in, unless I have to take the computer to another room. As a result, my AC adapter sits in a corner of my desk, plugged into a surge protector. If I need to move my computer, I just unplug the connector that is plugged into the laptop itself. The AC adapter does not move unless I'm going to be in the other room for more than the life of the battery charge.

Now, I can see how this can all be replaced by a dock. I don't see why I'd want to do it, but yes, it can be done. If I want to go to the other room, however, I have to find my AC adapter.

Furthermore, how does the dock receive power from the outlet? Do I dare say that it might be plugged in? Maybe with something like, a wire?

The bottom of the article mentions a completely separate dock that can be used to connect to USB devices and an external monitor without using cables. This means the laptop doesn't need to be plugged into the projector, printer, etc. This is very useful because it means there are fewer cables I need to remove when I want to move the computer. Also, if I'm giving a presentation, I don't need to be within 12 inches of the projector, being blasted by heat waves coming from the fan on the side

However, according to the author of this article, "It's probably less useful than some of the machine's other innovations (the range of the wireless dock is only 12 feet)."

At this point I have to dismiss any sort of credibility this man had remaining. This is the sort of person that is convinced into buying something for its cool new features that are actually worthless. This is a salesman's favorite customer. For him, novelty is more important than practicality. I mean, if the charging dock had a range of 12 feet, that would be excellent. Instead, "Getting the laptop situated just-so on the dock so that the two coils are in contact didn't seem as easy as it should be, but overall I found the innovation to be decisively cool." So this is not 12 feet we're talking for the wireless charging. We're looking at under 12mm here.

Rubbish.