Toss the batteries! Samsung’s amazing new remote uses your Wi-Fi to charge
Samsung’s SolarCell Remote may be the first-ever to wirelessly charge via your router.
The South Korean tech giant took the solar-powered Eco Remote it introduced at last year’s CES and gave it a remarkable upgrade for CES 2022: the ability to harvest RF signals from your router to maintain a charge.
The concept of RF Energy harvesting is not new. The ubiquity of RF signals from Wi-Fi and outdoor cellular systems makes them an attractive, low-power energy solution for systems that can’t necessarily be connected to AC or DC wiring. But this may be the first time the technology has been employed in consumer electronics. Unlike other wireless charging solutions, such as the near-field Qi, the Eco Remote remote control doesn’t have to be very near or in contact with the router. RF Energy Harvesting can – unobstructed – reach devices up to 40 meters away.
The new Samsung SolarCell Remote (Image credit: Samsung)
Since the remote doesn’t need a charging base and employs a pair of wireless charging technologies (solar and RF energy harvesting), it can constantly sip energy from your router and, if face down, the solar panel on the back that can charge via your end table lamp. According to Samsung, the remote doesn’t need or even have batteries. There must be some place to store the sipped energy, however. That could be something similar to a smartphone battery, but Samsung told us, “There is no lithium-ion battery in the remote.”
“Whether it’s a bright and sunny day or the middle of the night, the battery stays fully charged by collecting routers’ radio waves and converting them to energy,” Samsung representatives told TechRadar.
The SolarCell Remote is made from recycled materials and now comes in black or white (the previous model was available in black, only). Samsung said it ships with every 2022 Samsung QLED 4K and 8K TV.
