Xiaomi (also called the “Apple of China”) may offer wireless charging in its smartphones going forward, as its name now appears on the Qi Wireless Power Consortium list. Although Xiaomi has not released any official statement, the consortium lists it as a member.
Brands like Samsung, Nokia and Google have supported the Qi standard for wireless charging for years, but the technology is still in an early phase. Apple, which joined the consortium in February, has embedded wireless charging in the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X.
Now the newest member of the Wireless Power Consortium is Xiaomi, suggesting that its upcoming phone might well support wireless charging. Most likely, it will be the Xiaomi Mi 7, which is due for release in the first quarter of 2018, notes PhoneArena.
Xiaomi has its own loyal base of customers who wish to have wireless charging for their phone but do not want to spend a lot of money on brands such as Samsung or Apple. So the news of Xiaomi joining the Qi Consortium will be welcomed by fans. However, so far there are no reports about the Xiaomi Mi 7 coming with wireless charging.
The upcoming Xiaomi Mi 7 is expected to run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 chipset and feature a 6-inch OLED display made by Samsung. The Xiaomi Mi 7 could be available in two variants, one with 6 GB of RAM and the other with and 8 GB. On the camera front, the handset will reportedly come with a dual-lens rear camera similar to the Mi 6 and have wide-angle and telephoto lenses. The smartphone will possibly be encased in glass with a ceramic body design and have an edge-to-edge display and in-screen fingerprint sensor.
The Xiaomi Mi 5 and Mi 6 were launched in April, but the Xiaomi Mi 7 is expected to be launched sometime between January and March 2018. The upcoming handset will probably compete with the Samsung Galaxy S9 and LG G7, which are expected to be released around the same time.
In addition, rumors suggest that the Chinese smartphone maker is also planning to introduce 3D facial recognition technology with the Xiaomi Mi 7. Currently, only the iPhone X offers 3D facial recognition tech. If these reports are to be believed, Qualcomm has even started working on SLiM 3D camera technology, and mass production will start in January. Qualcomm already revealed its structured light module (SLiM) 3D solution in partnership with Himax last month. Even Samsung may be exploring the technology for its next flagship.
The Qi Consortium was formed in 2008 with the mission to create and promote QI wireless technology across all tech firms, and it presently has 243 members. The wireless power consortium got noticed in 2012 when Nokia and Google launched their phones compatible with the Qi standard. In a Qi system, a device is put on a pad which is plugged into an outlet. With the help of induction charging, a magnetic field is created when coils inside the device and pad come into contact with each other, and this produces electricity. Such pads can be seen at fast-food joints, which use them to attract hungry smartphone users who are running low on battery charge.
