Although we’re just weeks away from Lego introducing its Smart Play system, one of the biggest changes to the iconic brick in years, there’s still plenty of discussion about the first three sets. Much of it focuses on the all-important Smart Brick.
One of the most understated, but truly impressive, parts of Lego’s new Smart Play system isn’t the lights or speaker inside the Smart Brick. This is how the brick stays lit and how it recharges without interrupting the game.
Like the custom silicon and other technologies inside the Smart Brick, the wireless charging system itself is not available. It’s not Qi-based and doesn’t rely on existing wireless charging standards for consumers, and according to Lego, that was very intentional.
“We didn’t just want you to be able to put it anywhere,” Tom Donaldson, director of Lego’s Creative Play Lab, told me. “We actually wanted to be able to load at height when you’re on a model.”
That distinction matters. The goal was not simply the freedom to place Smart Bricks on a charging pad, but the ability to charge Smart Bricks while they are still integrated into a build.
Donaldson confirmed in a one-on-one conversation with TechRadar that the underlying technology was designed with transfer power in mind, meaning energy can travel through other Lego bricks.
In practical terms, a Smart Brick could remain inside something like a Lego car and still receive power when driving or parking the model on the charger. Donaldson confirmed that capability, although he was careful not to delve into the technical details.
“This is a basic charger, so I can’t say much about it,” he said, before adding that the underlying technology was designed so that bricks could remain inside a model while charging.
“That’s actually pretty advanced compared to at least the point where we started the program,” Donaldson said. “And that’s why we really set quite high levels of ambition there, and that’s why we went for the property.”
Development of Smart Play charging technology began approximately eight years ago, long before today’s more flexible wireless charging approaches matured. At the time, off-the-shelf solutions simply couldn’t support Lego’s goal of uninterrupted play: where Smart Bricks behaved like regular Lego bricks, not like electronic components that need to be constantly removed, aligned or plugged in.
For now, along with the three Lego Smart Play Star Wars sets available for pre-order, builders get a first-generation Lego wireless charger. It supports charging up to two Smart Bricks at a time, in any orientation, and is vaguely reminiscent of Apple’s canceled AirPower concept, although it already ships.
In that sense, the charger is not just a technical solution. It’s philosophical, keeping the technology in the background so that Smart Play still feels like Lego first and technology second.
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