Apple may have been late to the wireless charging game, but that won’t matter one bit. The fact that the iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will pick up the feature changes how we’ll all be charging phones in the near future — Android phone owners, too.

For a long while now, only a handful of phones had the tech, including the old Google Nexus 5 from LG, a handful of Lumia phones and Samsung, in its flagship Galaxy series. But wireless charging hasn’t at all become mainstream; the rest of the phone users make do with messy cables.

That’s all going to change for a simple reason.

17

iPhone X in photos

Apple’s iPhones have long been the benchmark standard and trendsetter for Chinese Android brands like Oppo, Xiaomi and others. These brands push out dozens of midrange phones to markets all around the world. So it’s no surprise to find phones from manufacturers like Oppo mimicking some of the iPhone‘s design and features, but wrapped in an Android shell. Why? Getting as close to Apple, without being as costly as Apple, sells phones.

Take for example Oppo’s recently launched R11. The phone features dual cameras with an Applesque portrait mode and comes with a very similar camera app as well. Xiaomi, which previously did not have dual-cameras or portrait mode on its phones, just introduced the feature on its flagship Mi 6 earlier this year and on its midrange lines such as the Xiaomi Mi A1 as well. (Of course, other brands have had dual-camera phones for a few years, including fellow Chinese phone maker Huawei.)

With Apple’s inclusion of wireless charging, we’ll soon see a lot more midrange Chinese phones do the same. The manufacturers can’t afford to fall behind the trend, or the lucrative opportunity to churn out wireless charging pads.

The pivot to wireless charging will also see a design shift in materials. If you’re sick of seeing cookie-cutter metal unibody midrange phones from China, you’ll soon get sick of seeing cookie-cutter glass-backed unibody midrange phones from China if I’m right about these phone makers’ quick adoption of the feature.

Wireless charging is finally going to be mainstream for Android devices, and the thing that’ll bring us there is the competition.

Now Playing: Watch this: iPhone X vs iPhone 8: Which one should you buy?

3:09