Even though we’re a few weeks out from Lego unveiling its Smart Play system – one of the biggest changes to the iconic brick in years – there’s still plenty of discussion around the first three sets. Much of it centers on the all-important Smart Brick.
One of the more understated, but genuinely impressive, parts of Lego’s new Smart Play system isn’t the lights or speaker inside the Smart Brick. It’s how the brick stays powered – and how it gets recharged without disrupting play.
Like the custom silicon and other technology inside the Smart Brick, the wireless charging system itself isn’t off the shelf. It’s not Qi-based and doesn’t rely on existing consumer wireless charging standards – and according to Lego, that was very much intentional.
“We didn’t just want that you could put it anywhere,” Tom Donaldson, Head of Lego’s Creative Play Lab, told me. “We actually wanted to be able to charge at height when you’re in a model.”
That distinction matters. The goal wasn’t simply the freedom to place Smart Bricks on a charging pad, but the ability to charge Smart Bricks while they’re still embedded in a build.
Donaldson confirmed in a one-on-one conversation with TechRadar that the underlying technology was designed with pass-through 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 by driving or parking the model on the charger. Donaldson confirmed that capability, though he was careful not to dive into the technical specifics.
“This is an entry-level charger, so I can’t talk too much about it,” he said, before adding that the underlying technology was designed so bricks could stay inside a model while charging.
“That’s actually quite advanced compared to at least where we started the program,” Donaldson said. “And so we really set some pretty high ambition levels there – and that’s why we went proprietary.”
Development of Smart Play’s charging technology began roughly eight years ago, long before today’s more flexible wireless charging approaches had matured. At the time, standard solutions simply couldn’t support Lego’s goal of uninterrupted play – where Smart Bricks behave like normal Lego bricks, not electronics that constantly need to be removed, aligned, or plugged in.
For now, bundled with the three Lego Smart Play Star Wars sets available for preorder, builders get a first-generation Lego wireless charger. It supports charging up to two Smart Bricks at once, in any orientation, and is vaguely reminiscent of Apple’s canceled AirPower concept – albeit one that actually ships.
In that sense, the charger isn’t just a technical solution. It’s a philosophical one, keeping the technology in the background so Smart Play still feels like Lego first, and tech second.
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jacob.krol@futurenet.com (Jacob Krol)
