A recent report by Gizmodo offered some details on the pricing for the Galaxy S10 and its release date, and it also slipped in a little nugget about Samsung's next flagship being able to wirelessly charge other devices. This was already rumored in an earlier report by the Wall Street Journal, and we have learned that Samsung is indeed developing such a feature for all three models of the Galaxy S10.
Reverse wireless charging the next big battery gimmick?
We haven't gotten any details, but we can confirm that the feature is called Powershare, as mentioned in the Gizmodo report. Powershare does suggest that it's a reverse wireless charging feature, though. Huawei's Mate 20 Pro was recently announced with this feature, and while wireless charging itself is considered a gimmick by many, it looks like smartphone manufacturers are now looking at making reverse wireless charging a thing.
Of course, the temptation may partly have come as a result of Apple finally bringing wireless charging to iPhones. However, the Mate 20 Pro's reverse wireless charging has been found to be extremely slow and practically unusable, and it remains to be seen if Samsung's implementation will be any better. It's unlikely the Galaxy S10 will offer fast wireless charging to other devices, even if Samsung manages to make standard wireless charging work.
Since Powershare is apparently a part of all three Galaxy S10 models (and most likely the 5G variant as well), we can hope that the battery in even the smallest Galaxy S10 will be bigger than what we have on Samsung's small flagships at the moment. A 3,000 mAh battery won't do another phone any good after all, and for many of us, only being able to charge something like a smartwatch wouldn't be enough to justify the feature's existence.
What do you think? Is reverse wireless charging something you would like to see on your phone?
