In a recent announcement, the Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus revealed that it is setting up charging stations on airports that will let users charge their OnePlus smartphones.
Support for the charging stations is being rolled out to OnePlus 7, 8, and Nord series devices as a feature that will notify the users of charging stations in their vicinity. The charging stations will utilize a wireless beacon to send notifications to the nearby devices.
According to OnePlus, when the phone detects a nearby beacon, it will trigger a notification which will give you directions to the station. The directions are not fancy and will not be like indoor navigation. Instead, the text on the notification will give you a rough estimate of the distance and will mention the directions.
Instead of using the UWB (Ultra-wideband) tech, OnePlus has decided to go with more-conventional, advertising-beacon style tech in order to support a large set of its existing users. Moreover, if you are at the airport and are not interested in charging your device, you can also mute the notifications.
The charging stations will be equipped with WARP Charge 30 USB ports. However, users will have to use their own proprietary red cable. Normal USB cables can be used, but they will not provide the WARP charge speeds.
The charging station pilot program is currently being tested in India. For now, the charging stations have been installed at Bangalore airport, and more will soon be launched at Delhi airport.
