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iPhone 11 May Have Bilateral Wireless Charging Installed but Disabled

By Laura Tucker
News Iphone 11 Wireless Charging Featured

The new iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max have been criticized for not having many new features other than cameras. Truthfully, there are a few things, but Apple really hyped the cameras, and the other things just aren’t that exciting.

It appears there was another feature, but they disabled it and haven’t mentioned it was there either. All three iPhone 11 models have the hardware for bilateral wireless charging, yet Apple has reportedly disabled the feature in the software.

iPhone’s Bilateral Wireless Charging

Sonny Dickson, who often leaks Apple information, tweeted, “Reliable sources are saying iPhone 11 and 11 Pro do include the hardware for bilateral charging, but that it is software disabled. Uncertain whether this was removed prior to final production run.”

What isn’t known is why Apple decided to disable the feature after making the decision to add the option into the hardware.

Bilateral wireless charging would allow the iPhone user to wirelessly charge other Qi-compatible devices. The feature is included on some Android phones, but it seems there would be more use for it on the iPhone. The lightning port doesn’t support reverse charging, yet iPhone users often have other Apple products, such as an Apple Watch or AirPods, and bilateral wireless charging would offer another method to charge those.

News Iphone 11 Wireless Charging Qi

Prior to the new iPhone’s release last week, many of the sources who are usually dead-on with pre-release Apple products, such as Mark Gurman of Bloomberg and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, were reporting that bilateral wireless charging was going to be a feature on the iPhone. But they suddenly changed their tune just before last Tuesday’s Apple event.

It’s a possibility, since the hardware is there, Apple could decide to reenable the feature at some point, but being that they haven’t mentioned it’s there, it seems they want users to forget about it.

Similarly, there were also indications that Apple would release something they’re calling Tags, trackers that work like Tiles. They weren’t released or mentioned, but there is information on the website that they will be released at some point; however, there’s nothing on there about bilateral wireless charging.

When Will We Know?

Once iPhones start shipping out, we’ll know whether the hardware for that feature is included or not. There are always groups that take new phones apart to examine the hardware. However, it’s not going to provide the answer to why it’s in the hardware but has been disabled.

Are you interested in whether the iPhone 11 family has the bilateral wireless charging feature? Would you be more likely to buy a phone with that feature included? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

Image Credit: Apple

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Laura Tucker Avatar
Laura Tucker
Laura has spent more than 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with the majority of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past 35 years. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.

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