All it took for me to take wireless charging seriously was a MagSafe charging stand on my desk.Unless I need a fast-charging top-up, this is now how I choose to charge my phone 90% of the time.This has me thinking, why can’t we add wireless magnetic charging to everything? If you can find some examples of these items that use wireless charging online for purchase, that’s great.
Unfortunately, most of these items have yet to fully embrace the effortless convenience of wireless chargers.Bike lights Modern rechargeable bike lights are so much better than the D-battery destroyers I had as a kid.They don’t last quite as long, but they get brighter, and many of them can even pull double-duty as USB power banks.
Unfortunately, they’re still largely dependent on USB cables for recharging purposes.Worse still, many have yet to even make the transition to USB-C (though the ones pictured above from Cateye have).I was recently in a bike store and saw a two-pack of Giant front and rear lights, one of which used USB-C and the other micro USB.
This is probably a case of the company getting rid of old stock, but it still irked me, considering the price.You could feasibly completely replace USB charging on most models, which would do away with a point of moisture ingress and mean I don’t need to worry about those rubber stoppers that never quite fit right ever again.It’s not like you’d even incur a charge time penalty, considering most are limited to around 5W anyway.
Game controllers While you’d be mad to consider getting rid of the USB ports on a game controller (they’re enable play-and-charge, plus wired connections offer lower latency compared to wireless), would wireless charging really be too much to ask? The MagSafe standard seems particularly well-suited to this, since those magnets are pretty sturdy and the charging pucks could fit neatly on the back of a modern PlayStation and Xbox controller.For the convenience of being able to sit my controller on a dedicated stand after each session, knowing that it’ll be charged the next time I pick it up, I’d swallow a minor increase in controller weight to accommodate the necessary charging coils.I’d probably even pay over the odds for a matching charging stand that could hold two or more controllers (take note, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo).
Portable speakers A Bluetooth speaker is something that you always want ready and charged when it’s time to go.The easiest way to achieve this would be to include a simple wireless charging plate in the box (or just include the coil and sell it separately).You could then place the speaker on the charger until you next need it, and it would also power the speaker for non-portable use.
My partner has an Ultimate Ears BOOM 3 that’s , but it’s an older model with a pitiful micro USB connector and flappy rubber cover.It also seems to lose its charge even when it’s off, which means you have to consciously make plans to get it ready for use.The BOOM 3 is compatible with an optional charging “dock” that uses metal contacts on the bottom, but it’s not quite the same as proper wireless charging.
Considering the size and cost of these speakers, it would be great to see manufacturers embrace the wireless future and incorporate standards like Qi2 into their designs so that these devices can charge universally.Portable consoles The fastest wireless chargers in the world currently top out at a power output of around 50W, while most devices support far lower speeds of 15 or 25W.Admittedly, this isn’t enough to keep a console like the Steam Deck OLED or Switch 2 powered up while playing demanding games, especially in docked mode.
Even so, I’m all about the convenience.I’m constantly forgetting to shut down my Steam Deck, so it’s dead whenever I need it.The Switch 2 has its own dock, which is fine, but the console is so thin and light that I feel like a bit more thickness to accommodate the wireless charging hardware would hardly have made a difference.
This mostly applies to dedicated handhelds, rather than hybrids.Portable Windows gaming machines, all-in-one retro emulators, that sort of thing.I want to be able to dock, pick up, and go.
You could even integrate some of this technology into the case (Valve’s excellent Steam Deck OLED hard shell is crying out for it).Flashlights We have a single cheap and cheerful rechargeable flashlight in our house, and it gets used so often that I feel like I’m forever charging it.It has several magnetic mounting points on it and two sources of light, with the only drawback being a dependence on flimsy micro USB.
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How-To Geek writer Bertel recently wrote about some cheap $9 flashlights that were their best purchase of 2025.The design here is solid: a night light that uses mains power, with disposable AA batteries for use whenever the power goes out.While $9 might be a tough price point to hit, I think the design could be even better if the flashlights were rechargeable and connected to mains-powered Qi2 magnetic charging plates.
A brief search online reveals a handful of flashlights that now incorporate wireless charging, notably the WUBEN X3 ($65), but they’re still very much the exception to the rule.While some of these devices, like the flashlight and bike light, might seem a bit small to include the requisite wireless charging hardware, the fact that you can wirelessly charge portable earphones like AirPods would suggest otherwise.Looking for a fast snap-on charger for your smartphone? Check out the 25W Baseus wireless charger with Qi2.2.
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