You know how Qi2 was advertised as “MagSafe for Android”? Well, it turns out it’s not. Qi2 (pronounced “chi”) is split into two profiles, and only one of them uses magnets.
Magnetic Power Profile (MPP) was provided by Apple and is essentially MagSafe without the Apple brand name. There is also Extended Power Profile (EPP), which is an improvement on the original Qi but does not involve magnets.
There are ways to tell which devices support MPP and which don’t, but it’s not easy. Early guidelines suggested that the Qi2 logo should be inside a circle if the device has magnets. Without magnets, there’s no circle. However, it seems that the WPC has changed its mind on this matter, and not without causing some confusion.
HMD Skyline is the first Android to support Qi2 and has built-in magnets, so it supports MPP charging. The logo on the box is not a circle. What’s going on?
Other guidelines say that non-magnetic products should use the original Qi logo instead of the Qi2 logo, so that’s what HMD did. A WPC press release from November suggests doing just that, but the ChargeWithQi.com website still shows the circle logo.
Do you know what would be the best way to avoid all this mess? Making magnets mandatory in Qi2 devices. Oh well.
HMD Skyline supports MPP, Galaxy Ring does not
Note: TA-1600 and TA-1688 are only variants of the Skyline model.
Interestingly, Samsung’s Galaxy Ring case also supports Qi2 (here’s its WPC database entry ), but it doesn’t have magnets. And funnily enough, Xiaomi makes a magnetic Qi2 power bank, despite not having any phones that can use it properly – but some iPhone user can buy a Xiaomi battery.
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