You know how Qi2 was touted as “MagSafe for Android”? Well, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Qi2 (it’s pronounced “chee”) is split into two profiles, and only one of them uses magnets.
The Magnetic Power Profile (MPP) is contributed by Apple and is essentially MagSafe without the Apple trademark. There’s also the Extended Power Profile (EPP), which is an improvement over the original Qi, but doesn’t feature magnets.
There are ways to determine which devices support MPP and which don’t, but it’s not easy. Early guidance suggested that if the device has magnets, the Qi2 logo should be in a circle. No magnets, no circle. However, it appears the WPC has changed its mind, and not without some confusion.
The HMD Horizon became the first Android to support Qi2 and it has built-in magnets, so it supports MPP charging. The logo on the box has no circle. What’s wrong?
Other guidelines say that products without magnets should use the original Qi logo instead of the Qi2 logo, so that’s what HMD did. WPCs press release of November suggests doing just that, but the ChargeWithQi.com page still shows the circle logo.
You know what would have been the best way to avoid all this confusion? Require magnets on Qi2 devices. Oh well.
HMD Skyline supports MPP, Galaxy Ring does not
Please note: the TA-1600 and TA-1688 are only variants of the Skyline.
Interestingly, the Samsung Galaxy Ring case also supports Qi2 (here’s the entry in the WPC database), but it doesn’t have magnets. And funnily enough, Xiaomi makes a magnetic Qi2 power bank, even though it doesn’t have a single phone that can use it properly – but some iPhone users might want to buy a Xiaomi battery pack.