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Satechi Aluminum Type-C PD & QC Wireless Charger review

REVIEW – It’s been a while since I had a smartphone with wireless charging capabilities but having recently splurged on a Huawei P30 Pro, I’ve been on the lookout for a Qi charger worthy of taking up space on my desk. The first one up for testing is the Satechi Aluminum Type-C PD & QC Wireless Charger. PD stands for power delivery and QC stands for quick charge. Let’s take a look.

What is it?

The Aluminum Type-C PD & QC Wireless Charger from Satechi is a flat desktop charger capable of charging phones and even Apple’s new AirPods.

What’s in the box?

  • Satechi Aluminum Type-C PD & QC Wireless Charger
  • USB-C cable

Design and features

The charger is circular-shaped with a diameter of 4 inches. The top surface has a black rubber mat with a large + in the center and the Satechi logo below it.

The bottom of the charger is made of brushed aluminum (hence the product name) in either space grey (which is the one I have) or silver. Four small rubber feet are attached to the bottom of the charger to keep it from sliding around on your desk.

The back of the wireless charger has a USB-C connector that you will obviously use to connect it to power. Note that an AC adapter is NOT included with this charger and it will not work with computer USB ports. That means it’s up to you to supple the power adapter. Just be aware that you will want to use a QC or PD capable adapter in order to take advantage of quick charging speeds of up to 7.5W/10W on compatible smartphone devices.

On the front edge of the Satechi charger is a small LED that glows green while it is charging a device, blinks blue if you place a non-compatible device on it, and turns off when the charging is not in use.

There really isn’t a whole lot more to say about this charger other than it looks nice and does a great job charging any Qi capable device on it quickly and safely.

There’s almost no lag to when it detects the device and it either starts charging or lets you know it’s not a compatible device.

What I like

  • Looks nice
  • Simple to use

What needs to be improved

  • Need to include a power adapter

Final thoughts

I forgot how much I enjoyed the convenience of wireless charging after not being able to use one for the last couple of years. It’s funny how satisfying it feels to be able to drop my phone on the Satechi charger to charge it instead of needing to plug in a cable. I know that plugging a cable into a phone is not a difficult task, but the Satechi charger looks so much nicer on my desk than a stray cable. This charger has earned a permanent spot on my desk.

Price: $44.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Satechi.

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Satechi Aluminum Type-C PD & QC Wireless Charger review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 15, 2019 at 9:11 am.

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VicTsing 10W Qi Wireless Fast Charger Car Mount review

REVIEW – One of the joys of getting to review gadgets is being introduced to obscure brands. Sometimes, they really do surprise you — in a good way — like this little Qi Wireless Fast Charger Car Mount (which is the official product name I believe) from a heretofore unknown manufacturer, VicTsing.

What is it?

VicTsing’s Wireless Charger Car Mount is a phone holder with an embedded Qi-enabled wireless charging pad. It can be easily mounted to any flat surface or securely clipped to a vent.

What’s in the box?

  • wireless charging bracket
  • air vent clip
  • 3M adhesive surface mount
  • user manual
  • USB-C cable and adapter
Also comes with some mild amounts of dust.

Hardware specs

  • Latest Qi Standard Tech
  • Material: ABS+PP mirror + silicone
  • Compatible with 7.5W and 5W
  • Input: 5V/2A 9V/1.67A
  • Compatible devices: iPhone Xs Max/Xs/XR/X/8P/8,Galaxy S9/S9 Plus/Note 8/9/S8+/S8/Note 5/S7 edge/S7 and other Qi enabled devices
  • Automatically adjusts to hold phones of size from 4.0”-6.0”
  • Charging distance: <= 8mm
  • Charging efficiency: >=82%
  • Product size: 11.3 x 6.8 x 4.5 mm
  • Color: Black

Design and features

VicTsing’s iteration of the simple car mounted charger looks very much like many other phone mounts you may have seen. It’s a basic side-arm mount with an adjustable support foot that the bottom of the phone rests on.

The red strips on the charging surface gently glow and turn blue when charging. You can see the white lens of the IR sensor as well.

However, one unique feature of this phone mount is the IR-activated arms that extend out when an object is placed near the sensor, and automatically “hugs” the phone to form a solid grip. It’s a cute feature that never fails to make me smile, seeing this small charging pad’s arms extend out and grab on to the edges of my phone like a warm embrace.

Initial setup is easy, but your mileage will definitely vary on where the mount itself can be positioned. My car, thanks to Japanese efficiency, has no flat surface to spare, so I had to opt for a vent-clip mount approach.

Might as well just turn that vent off.

I can’t say I’m a fan of having to block an entire vent, of which there are only four, effectively decreasing cabin air conditioning by 25%. I’m even less than a fan of the charging pad and USB cable covering up the stereo system buttons. The overall effect is ugly, as you can see.

I had tried mounting the charger a little to the left of the wide vent, but that resulted in activating the “hug” every time my hand veered too close to the sensor when my phone was undocked. After several times of hearing that sad little robotic embrace, I had to move the charger back to its original place over the stereo buttons.

I should mention that this isn’t a knock against this mount in particular. I’d have the same issue with any vent-clip design. It’s, unfortunately, the most universal approach to making a phone mount work with as many vehicles as possible.

However, the clip was quite secure. Once I got the 360º knob tightened and the clip positioned as deep as it would go into the vent, my phone didn’t go anywhere, even around sharp corners.

The functionality of the charger is great. It’s a standard 7.5W fast charger, so you can expect it to juice up your phone as quickly as one would expect, if your device supports it. I’d say it was a pretty consistent 4-5% per 10 minutes for my iPhone XR, but that would depend on the total capacity of your battery. No issues here.

It takes a little bit of practice to center your phone in the charger while placing it in the holder. Once your phone is about 3” away from the charger, the IR sensor triggers and the arms extend to their maximum width of about 6”. Then, after a 2-second delay, they close. That’s about the time you get to try to center the phone in the charger, place it flat against the charging pad, and make sure the bottom of your phone is nestled against the “foot” of the harness. Then the little arms hug that phone and sort of lock into place.

A profile shot of the phone resting in the grips.

If you’re a little bit too far to the right or left, it doesn’t create as good of a grip, so you sort of have to give your phone a little wiggle to get it into place. It might have to do with the silicone case that I have on my phone, it might be gripping the rubber on the foot a little too much to allow it to easily center. But I’ve gotten used to it, and you really only have to mount it once before you start driving.

To detach your phone, there are two silver capacitive buttons near the bottom of the charging pad. Simply brushing one of them with your finger is enough to trigger the arms to open again, and you can lift your phone out. You could try to lift it out without engaging the opening action, but you’d probably pull the entire charging pad and vent clip out before removing just your phone. That happened to me at least twice before I got the hang of the whole operation.

It’s a nice way of having access to a map if your car doesn’t already have GPS or CarPlay built into the console.

But once I figured out how to play nice with this little charger, I liked having my phone in a spot where I could fast-forward a podcast or check out a map without palming my phone.

I imagine anyone with a CarPlay system wouldn’t have much use for a charging mount, however, or anyone with a newer car that have Qi wireless charging pads in the console somewhere.

For $22 (yes, just 22 bones) you get a no-fuss phone mount, wireless charger, and friendly little hug-bot all in one. That’s pretty hard to beat.

What I like

  • IR sensor auto-opens to give your phone a little hug
  • Excellent value for the price

What needs to be “improved”

  • Blocks vent air flow
  • Potentially blocks other buttons due to cable

Final thoughts

I feel any of the negative thoughts I could have about this charger are more of an indictment of any vent clip or suction mounted holder, and aren’t specific to this particular device. This is a great little charger mount, especially for the very low asking price of $22.

Price: $21.99
Where to buy: WalMart.com
Source: The sample of this product was provided by VicTsing.

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VicTsing 10W Qi Wireless Fast Charger Car Mount review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 6, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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Zohmo iPhone Battery Case review

REVIEW – I am a high screen time phone user and regularly drain my battery – as well as spend a large portion of most days with it plugged in to a lightning cord to keep from it dying on me. I have a love-hate relationship with phone charging cases as they typically come with quite a bit of convenience, but at the cost of carrying around the equivalent of a hot brick in your pocket. I have a few standalone battery packs, but the problem there is that I never remember to put them in my pocket or backpack before I leave the house! I was intrigued to give the Zohmo Z Series Battery Case a try.

What is it?

The Z Series is a minimalist design battery back up charging case for your iPhone that will provide charging capabilities while also providing some protection from daily wear and tear.

What’s in the box?

  • Air Vent Magnetic Mount
  • Magnet with adhesive sticker for non-battery case
  • Braided Charging Cord
  • Warranty Card
  • User Manual
  • Promo Tag
  • Battery Back-up Phone Case

Design and features

My phone slid easily into the batter case, it has a lightning adapter in the bottom that fits into the power/data port. Push the upper two corners over the edge of the phone and it is then snug within the case for use. Excuse the cracks from my screen protector but you can see that the case doesn’t change the profile of the phone any more (and maybe less) than most cases. This is great since the iPhone X screen does stretch so close to the edges of the screen.

You can see here on the back, there is a power button, as well as 4 led indicator lights that show how much charge time is remaining. To turn the battery pack on, it takes a long press of the button. You can turn off with another long press, or it will turn itself off after fully discharged. It also has the cut out for the cameras, so you have no loss of functionality there. Along the side is a cut out for your mute/vibrate switch and then buttons for the screen power button and volume controls.

Performance

For about a month now, I used this case on a daily basis. And there hasn’t been a day go by that I didn’t utilize it to recharge my phone. Typically once I get my 20% battery remaining warning, I switch it on and let it go to work. Within an hour or so, depending on how much I continue to use it, I’m back over 80% at least and it lasts me through the rest of the day. The case only weighs 3.7 ounces, so with the phone it comes in at 10.0 ounces total weight. There is a bit of heat produced, even more so if I keep it in my pocket while but overall much less heat than previous batter cases I tested. Finally, the poly-carbonate material that this is made from is really great in that it not only looks nice, but it also provides a little bounce back when dropped and protects the phone.

The sample I was provided came with the optional car kit, which has a magnetic air-vent mount which installed very easily in my truck.

The only problem I experienced with this is that on rough or bouncy roads, the magnet in the mount wasn’t quite able to hold the phone in place, either it would start to slide sideways or it would fall completely off and send my phone flying to the floorboard – not ideal while driving.

The only other thing I wanted to touch on is the charging port. It accepts any standard lightning cable and it located in the same place as all iPhone charging ports. The problem I experienced is that the charger cord (regardless of brand, make, model, etc.) simply slides into the port, it doesn’t really clamp or click into place. So again while driving, or even moving the phone around while cord charging, the cord slips out easily – especially while vertical on the mount. This is frustrating and even more so when you don’t notice it’s moved out just a bit and stopped charging either the case or your phone.

What I like

  • Light weight at only 3.7 ounces
  • Poly-carbonate material is soft, sleek and has a little bounce to it
  • Doesn’t overheat
  • Provides a reliable and consistent charge
  • Car mount kit with braided charging cord is useful

What needs to be improved

  • Plug in port for charging cord needs better hold on the lightning connector, falls out extremely easily
  • Magnet air-mount kit could afford to have a stronger hold

Final thoughts

Overall, I’m very satisfied with the Zohmo battery pack case. It doesn’t exactly what it’s designed to do and does so without the extra weight or heat I’ve experienced with other battery cases. The only problems I found with the unit are rather ancillary – in as much as they don’t impact the utility of the product, just become minor annoyances. I have yet to have to “abandon” my phone and leave it charging somewhere while I carried on with my day, although some could argue I probably should try and do that some time!

Price: $59.99
Where to buy: Can be purchased directly at Zohmo.com
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Zohmo.

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Zohmo iPhone Battery Case review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 2, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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MyCharge Unplugged10K wired/wireless charging pad review

REVIEW – We all count on our phones.  We count on them for different reasons, calls, texts, social media, calendars, cat videos, games, and so on. No matter what your particular reason is, the underlying common denominator is that all those activities drain your battery. The MyCharge Unplugged10K can help alleviate dead-battery anxiety by giving you 10,000mAh of portable wired or wireless charging goodness.

What is it?

The MyCharge Unplugged10K is a portable battery pack. It is Qi-certified, meaning it can wirelessly charge any Qi-certified device.  In addition, you get two USB-A ports to attach your micro-USB, USB-C, lightning or other charging cable. This will allow you to charge just about any mobile device.

What’s in the box?

MyCharge identifies themselves as a hip, funky bunch, as evidenced by their fun shipping box.

The actual box is a little more standard. The box comes with a lift cover.  Lifting it uncovered the unit in a plastic carrier.

Inside, we find:

  • MyCharge Unplugged10K battery pack
  • USB-A to micro-USB charging cable
  • Quick start card

Hardware specs

  • Dimensions: 5-7/8″ l x 2-3/4″ w x  3/4″ h
  • Weight: 8.9 ounces
  • Capacity: 10,000 mAh
  • Input: 2.4A micro-USB
  • Output: Wireless 10W; 2 x USB-A 2.4A
  • Soft touch finish

Design and features

Setup

I expected no setup since the box says that it shipped pre-charged. When I hit the power button, the battery indicator only showed two dots out of four (the top one is a power light).

So, I plugged in the charging cable and let it charge.

Each light flashes during charging and then goes solid as it hits 25/50/75/100% charge levels. At full charge, all four lights glow solid.

Hitting the power button turns the top light blue, indicating that the unit is on and ready to deliver power to your device(s).

Performance

Once we were charged and ready, it was time to try charging something.

I dropped my Galaxy S9+ still in Samsung’s LED flip case onto the Qi pad.  Much to my delight, it immediately started charging.

As you can see, if your device can handle fast wireless charging, this pad will do the trick. Also, these photos were taken at different times.  It didn’t take a day and a half to charge from 78% to 94%. 🙂

This is a side-by-side of my wife’s Galaxy S9+ in Samsung’s LED flip case.

The pad is just about a half-inch shorter than the S9+ and just about the same width and thickness. The S9+ with the LED case weighs in at 9.5 ounces.  Bottom line is that if you carry a new iPhone, Galaxy, Pixel or another large phone, this pad will essentially double your carry weight and size.  Not too bad considering that it will be able to recharge your phone at least twice without needing a wall plug.

About that…at 10,000 mAh, and my S9+ with a 3,500 mAh battery, simple math says I should be able to get nearly three charges from dead.  In the real world, however, there are losses during charging, so it will be more like two full charges and a little more wiggle room. How many charges you get will depend on how big your battery is.

A big attraction with this device is flexibility. Along with the Qi charging pad, you get two, count ’em, two USB ports.

You can actually use all three methods at the same time – two wired USB connections plus a Qi charge. That’s a pretty cool thing. The wired charging is 2.4A but doesn’t trigger wired fast charging as a dedicated fast charger does. Still, at 2.4A, the charge will be pretty quick.

What I like

  • Big battery capacity
  • Fast Qi wireless charging
  • Can charge three devices simultaneously
  • Soft touch feel

What needs to be improved

  • The package said “pre-charged” but it was only 50% – OK, perhaps I’m just whining

Final thoughts

The MyCharge Unplugged10K is a great portable charging solution.  You can be the cell phone battery hero among your group of friends and provide most of a full charge for three phones all at the same time.

Price: $69.99
Where to buy: MyCharge and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by MyCharge.

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MyCharge Unplugged10K wired/wireless charging pad review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 23, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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Nomad Base Station Apple Watch Edition review

REVIEW – Looking for an alternative to Apples now defunct Airpower wireless charging pad? I finally got my hands on Nomad’s Base Station Apple Watch Edition, and it just might be the perfect replacement.

What is it?

The Nomad Base Station Apple Watch Edition is a wireless charging pad for Apple iPhones and AirPods with an integrated Apple Watch charger.

Hardware specs

  • 3 Qi-certified coils at 7.5W wireless charging each
  • Integrated MFi-certified Apple Watch Charger
  • Padded leather wireless charging surface
  • LED charging indicators
  • Ambient light sensor dims LED’s at night

What’s in the box?

  • Wireless charging pad
  • A/C adaptor
  • International EU & UK adapters

Design and features

I reviewed Nomad’s Base Station Hub Edition back in November, and the Apple Watch Edition uses the same design. It retains the sleek lightweight aluminum chassis and the soft padded leather charging surface. 

There are 3 LED charging indicators on the front and an ambient light sensor on the back.

On the bottom of the device, there are two no-slip grip rubber feet.

The only obvious difference is the integrated magnetic Apple Watch charger. Its located on the back left of the charging pad. There’s even a small rubber pad that cradles the bottom of your Apple Watch when it’s on the charger.

Charging

Like the Hub Edition, the Apple Watch Edition has 3 Qi-certified charging coils, allowing multiple charging orientations for your phone.

Or you can simultaneously charge your phone and Apple AirPods with wireless charging case.

Charging with this device is simple, all you have to do is center your phone over a coil, and it begins to charge.

To charge your Apple Watch just place it onto the magnetic charger.

The built-in Apple Watch charger is compatible with Apple’s Nightstand Mode. This allows you to see the time, date, and your alarm. You can interact with Nightstand Mode by tapping your nightstand.

It’s great for me because I don’t use an alarm clock and my previous charger wasn’t compatible with Nightstand Mode. It’s now nice to roll over and tap my nightstand to see what time it is without having to pick up my phone.

No more clutter

The best thing about the Apple Watch Edition, it instantly decluttered my nightstand. I went from having separate chargers (and their cords) for my Apple Watch and iPhone XS Max to one single beautiful charging pad for both. Thank you, Nomad.

What I like

  • Premium design
  • Compatible with Nightstand Mode
  • Decluttered my nightstand
  • It’s made by Nomad

What needs to be improved

  • Nothing

Final Thoughts

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Nomad’s products and the Base Station Apple Watch Edition is no exception. If you charge your Apple Watch every night like I do It’s the perfect bedside companion.

The Apple AirPower charger is dead, long live the Nomad Base Station Apple Watch Edition!

Price: $139.95
Where to buy: Nomad and B&H Photo
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Nomad.

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Nomad Base Station Apple Watch Edition review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 18, 2019 at 10:34 am.

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