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 a lot of talk 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 Smart Brick’s lights or speakers. This way the brick stays on and charges without interrupting the game.
Just like an iPhone 17 or Pixel 10 Pro, the Smart Brick is placed into a special bright yellow Lego charger to charge. How long it takes depends largely on play style, but Lego says a typical play session should last around 40 minutes with active use. The brick can sit idle for much longer and Lego notes that this charging method will not damage the battery cells over time.
Like the custom silicon and other smart brick technologies, the wireless charging system itself is not commercially available. It’s not Qi-based and doesn’t rely on existing wireless charging standards for consumers, and Lego says that was completely intentional.
“We didn’t just want it to be able to be placed anywhere,” Tom Donaldson, director of Lego’s Creative Play Lab, told me. “In fact, we wanted to allow high loads in a scale model.”
This distinction is important. The goal was not only the freedom to place Smart Bricks on a charging pad, but also the ability to charge Smart Bricks while they are still integrated into a build.
In practice, a smart brick could remain in something like a Lego car and continue to receive power while you drive or park the model on the charger. Donaldson recognized this capability but was careful not to go into technical details.
“This is a basic charger, so I can’t say much about it,” he said, adding that the technology behind it was designed to allow the bricks to remain on the model while it charges.
“It’s actually pretty advanced, at least compared to when we started the program,” Donaldson said. “That’s why we have big plans and why we became owners.”
Development of Smart Play charging technology began about eight years ago, long before today’s more flexible wireless charging approaches matured. Back then, the solutions available simply couldn’t support Lego’s goal of non-stop play, where smart bricks behave like regular Lego bricks rather than electronic components that need to be constantly removed, aligned or plugged in.
In the package with the three pre-orderable Lego Smart Play Star Wars sets, builders initially receive a first-generation Lego wireless charger. It supports simultaneous charging of up to two smart bricks in any orientation and is a bit reminiscent of Apple’s discontinued AirPower concept, although it actually ships.
In this sense, the charger is not just a technical solution. It’s a philosophical thing to keep technology in the background so that Smart Play always feels like Lego first and technology second.
