Wireless connectivity is great, but despite pushing for wireless tech as hard as I could in my workflows, I can’t stay in the wireless charging camp. I’ve tried wireless charging for a year, and I’m sticking with my cables.

What’s Wrong With Wireless Charging?

Let me preface this by saying there’s nothing wrong with wireless charging itself. It’s a massively convenient function, but that largely depends on your phone. While it may be slow, wireless charging is still a feature you’ll want.

My iPhone 13 charges fine with the MagSafe wireless charger on my desk. However, the two Pixels I own (Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7a) tend to get extremely hot during charging, and the charging speed is downright terrible. I even started using MagSafe stickers on my Pixel 7a to help align the wireless charging coils better—and while it held in place, it had little effect on the charging speed or heat buildup.

Wireless chargers also cost significantly more than their wired counterparts. The cheapest disk-shaped wireless charging pucks on Amazon will cost you around $10 for a 15-watt charger. You can easily find 20-watt wired charging adapters for the same price. And this difference only gets bigger as you start looking for higher-powered chargers.

Not all wireless chargers are made the same either. Picking the wrong one means you might not make the most of your phone’s wireless charging capabilities.

Wired Charging Is Always Faster

Wired charging is significantly faster than wireless charging, regardless of your phone. In my case, my Pixel 7a charges at 7.5 watts wirelessly—less than half of the 18 watts charging over a cable.

This also stands true regardless of what phone you’re using. Whether on iPhone or Android, wired charging is always faster and more efficient. Factor in power efficiency and less heating, and a cable provides charging times significantly faster than any wireless charger.

For example, Qi wireless charging is used by virtually every smartphone manufacturer and provides anywhere between 5 to 15 watts of power. This can fully charge your phone in around three to four hours, although in my experience these times can vary significantly. We’ve covered how wireless charging works if you want to get into the details.

By comparison, most phones will go from zero to fully charged within an hour when using a cable. Phones like the Realme GT 5 have up to 240-watt fast charging that can top up the battery in minutes. The iPhone 16 Pro can go as high as 30 watts, and most Android flagships like the Samsung S24 Ultra can use 45 watts or higher.

Note that these are peak power outputs and can’t be sustained for long periods of time. Most USB-C chargers can communicate with the device they’re charging and adjust their power output to ensure battery safety alongside the fastest charging speed. That said, wired chargers are still more efficient and keep up faster charging speeds.

No Need to Hunt for Wireless Chargers or Power Banks

If you fully rely on wireless charging, you can sometimes find yourself in a tight spot if there are no wireless chargers or power banks around. Charging via a cable, on the other hand, means that you’ll almost certainly find a charging station or can ask someone for a Type-C charger to juice up your phone quickly.

As mentioned above, not all wireless chargers are the same. You’ll have to read the fine print and ensure you’re getting a charger that provides enough power for your phone to charge at a decent pace. Wireless chargers and power banks also cost a pretty penny, and in most cases are significantly more expensive than their wired counterparts.

Another thing to remember is that most wireless chargers end up plugging into a regular USB power adapter anyways, meaning you can skip the wireless charger and use a cable to charge your phone directly.

In emergencies, wired charging is always the best option. A huge number of phones today use Type-C charging, meaning you have access to potentially millions of charging bricks and cables. That’s as long as they can provide the power required to charge your device—which a majority of them will.

No Overheating Issues

If your phone is charging via cable at a very high wattage like 65 or even 45 watts, it will heat up about the same, if not more, than when you’re charging wirelessly. However, that heat is short-lived as your phone will likely fully charge itself within an hour at that speed.

In my experience with the Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 7a, and iPhone 13, the phone is consistently hot during charging. And while your phone may handle being hot, your battery won’t like it much.

Transferring electricity via induction can lose as much as 50 percent of the electricity to heat, which directly transfers onto your phone’s back—or more specifically, the wireless charging coil stuck right on top of your phone’s battery.

While wired charging also generates heat, most of it is dissipated by the charging brick, ultimately resulting in slower battery degradation. There’s only so much you can do to prevent battery degradation, but using wireless chargers every day over extended periods will affect your battery more than wired charging.

Which Charging Method Should You Use?

Ideally, a mix of both wired and wireless charging will serve you well. If you don’t face any issues like random charging restarts or overheating during charging, using a wireless charger on your desk or in your car can make your life much easier. For any other scenario, I recommend you stick to wired charging. I’d pick a fast-wired charger over a wireless charger any day.

As someone who aimed to go fully wireless with my tech, charging is the only place I’m still using cables (other than HDMI and Ethernet). My wireless charger has now become a phone stand, barely getting any use—especially if my phone battery’s on the lower side.

With most modern electronics (including laptops) now moving to USB-C charging, you can use one charger to power all your gadgets. Throw a couple of USB-C cables and a power brick or power bank in your backpack and you’ll thank yourself the next time your phone runs out of battery in an unexpected place.