Qi Wireless Chargers are now my friend
Tags :QI charging product review
I was hesitant about these Qi Wireless Chargers but getting a Samsung Galaxy S6 meant the capability was built in. I got to test a handful and here are my thoughts. The way they are dropping in price makes them such a simple charging solution. Some of you may ask what Qi is?
Essentially Qi wireless charging uses two coils of wire. The charging station contains one coil which produces an oscillating magnetic field, which in turn induces electricity in the receiving coil in your smartphone.
I enjoy being able to simply drop my device down on the pad and have it start charging. The Qi wireless charging ability is now offered by tons of vendors, built into phones, many cases and even a film you can place on the phone glass.
So here are a few of the chargers we got the chance to review and test
Powerbot PB1030 Qi Wireless Charger
Powerbot sent over their Qi Wireless Charging PB1030 for testing and the small and sleek design made it very unobtrusive on the nightstand. It comes in three colors and had small feet on the bottom to prevent it from sliding around. The square 2.5" shape (.4" thick) became invisible under the phone itself. It only has one charging coil inside so you have to find the sweet spot on your phone.
The charging light on the front changes colors to let you know it is ready or charging. The phone itself also has LED lights of status so I used to to make sure the Powerbot PB1030 was plugged in. Once the phone was on top I couldn't see the light anyway.
Charging time took just a little longer as plugging it in. The output is 1.5mAh and you do lose a bit of efficiency. The simplicity is what makes Qi work. The Powerbot PB1030 only runs about $20 right now.
Zoer Qi Wireless Charger
Next up was the Zoer Qi Wireless Charger. This was a round shaped device, with a soft rubber ring underneath and on top to hold the charger in place and the device. I got the same result in charging capability as the Powerbot and the space it took up was a bit less. It only has one charging coil inside so you have to find the sweet spot on your phone.
The Zoer Qi Wireless Charger. also had colors on the front to let you know it was ready and when it was charging. Once again those are hard to see with the device on top. Otherwise it functioned great and gave the same result in charging time. Zoer also makes a couple other stylish models invluding wooden and a cool slanted desktop one.
Belkin Qi Wireless Charger
This Belkin Qi Wireless Charging Pad was the largest and most expensive of the three sent over for testing. It still has a single coil inside so based on the size I wished it had more. The LED light let you know the status or ready or charging. The output was as expected and met the others in charging speed.
Since I got the same result and this was more expensive I am presuming you pay for the name. Adding more surface space really gave no benefit over the others outside of seeing the LED while the phone was on top.
Summary
One thing I should mention is I also started using these charging pads with the multi-port USB smarthubs. So now I have this and a couple USB cables readily available to charge every device at once. I will be writing a comparison review on the USB Charging Smarthubs shortly
I like the simplicity this offers and hope more phone types start using this technology You can grab any of the above chargers via Amazon with the links..
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On Friday, November 6th, 2015 by Chris Miller
