I know nothing about wireless charging - but I think I should

[Mr Moofo]

I never knew my current iPhone 11 could be wirelessly charged - but it can
That is about to be passed to wifey when I get a new one.

What are the best chargers or as the all much of a muchness


Any recommendations?

[Felix]

I just buy cheap ones from ebay. They work but the actual wireless part inside the charger is small so you need to be precise when putting it down and they can be weak so no leather cases. Got a rubber one in my Galaxy and it seems happy with that. You can get wireless charger phone holder for when in the car as well as pads.

[Felix]

Got these doated around the house

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354794835165 ... R5jsvuz9Yg

And two of these in the camperbus

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264034638042 ... R5Lsvuz9Yg

[Noggin]

I bought one from Lidl ages ago. OMG - it charges soooooooooo slooooooooowly I've now got a light about the area the phone goes (cos I also cross stitch there!) and the light has a USB socket so I can charge the phone there The lidl wireless one I tend to use as a stand once the phone is cahrged!!

[Count Steer]

I bought a cheap one and ended up binning it (slow and v picky about phone position) and bought a Samsung one which charges v quickly (as long as the phone isn't in a leather case....anyone want a nice leather 'Ocase' for an S23? )

[Felix]

I bought one from Lidl ages ago. OMG - it charges soooooooooo slooooooooowly I've now got a light about the area the phone goes (cos I also cross stitch there!) and the light has a USB socket so I can charge the phone there The lidl wireless one I tend to use as a stand once the phone is cahrged!!

How many amps did it run and what was the USB output? Older computers may only put out 0.5A. Even a 1A or 1.5 would be slow on a more modern mobile phone. Your wireless charger may say 2A but if plugged into a 0.5A USB port it will be dog slow. Some plugs you get for SUB cables are also just 0.5A Like the ones that came with my wireless speakers. Totally useless for my Samsung. I now have wall sockets with the built in USB Ports that are about 2.5A and they work well on either of them two chargers i linked.

[Count Steer]

I have a collection of chargers, mainly 1.0A and 2.0A (the one with the new Samsung wireless charger is 3.0A so I guess they aren't as efficient as a direct charge*). I'll use the 1.0A for slow charging in the, probably completely incorrect, belief that batteries last longer that way and the 2.0A for fast charging or bigger kit like the tablet.

* So if you're running one on a 1.0A charger it'll be meh.

[Slenver]

Pretty much all wireless charging follows the same standard, called 'Qi'. This *can* charge up to 15W, but that depends on lots of other factors: what the phone is capable of, the charging port you use, the cable, and the charger itself.

All iPhones max out at 7.5W using a Qi charger, but Apple have their own variant called 'Magsafe' which adds magnets for alignment and increases the speed to the full 15W. Qi2 is out now/soon, and is based on Magsafe. You can buy lots of 'Magsafe' cases for iPhones which won't increase the speed but does mean it'll lock onto the charging pad accurately and with a satisfying clunk.

iPhone had wireless charging from the 8 onwards, but the 12 was the first with Magsafe, so if you're only looking to charge your 11 then 7.5W is the max.

A lot of the cheap ones are going to be potentially underpowered of course, but just check the specs and reviews. Alignment is sometimes an issue too, as is reliability.

If you're only charging the phone at night, then speed isn't really an issue of course, and if you're plugging into a car then a USB port will likely be 0.5A/5V anyway, ie. 2.5W, so it's never gonna be fast anyway.

[Noggin]

I bought one from Lidl ages ago. OMG - it charges soooooooooo slooooooooowly I've now got a light about the area the phone goes (cos I also cross stitch there!) and the light has a USB socket so I can charge the phone there The lidl wireless one I tend to use as a stand once the phone is cahrged!!

How many amps did it run and what was the USB output? Older computers may only put out 0.5A. Even a 1A or 1.5 would be slow on a more modern mobile phone. Your wireless charger may say 2A but if plugged into a 0.5A USB port it will be dog slow. Some plugs you get for SUB cables are also just 0.5A Like the ones that came with my wireless speakers. Totally useless for my Samsung. I now have wall sockets with the built in USB Ports that are about 2.5A and they work well on either of them two chargers i linked.

Eeek!!!

I'll answer best I can!!

The wireless charger is a Tronic and I 'think' it says on the back 2A (bit difficult to see exactly!)

It's plugged into an Anker multipoint USB charger - there's no parkings to say the level of charge on the ports on the Anker block, but one says Q1 (Qi?) and so I've now put the Tronic cable into the Qi socket and will test it later

Will report back! LOL

[Count Steer]

One thing I noted with a multipoint charger was that the more things plugged in, the less juice each outlet seemed to get. I'd assumed that each outlet got the same, and it probably does on some, but this one didn't.

[Slenver]

One thing I noted with a multipoint charger was that the more things plugged in, the less juice each outlet seemed to get. I'd assumed that each outlet got the same, and it probably does on some, but this one didn't.

Most chargers/docks etc have a quoted figure, but that's in total, not per input. You have to be a little careful looking at the specs sometimes too. For eg. one of those wireless chargers linked to above says it charges at 15W, which is the maximum the standard allows. I'm no electrician, but in its specs it says it has an input of 10W from the power supply, and an output of 8W, so unless there's a cold fusion reactor inside I imagine the max is actually 8W

[MrLongbeard]

Load of old bollocks it is, at least whilst plugged in I can still use my devices in hand whilst charging.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Load of old bollocks it is

I love it

I have a charger from IKEA (with it's own 240V plug, doesn't need a separate USB charger) which sits on my desk, my phone sits on it all day pretty much. It's the only time I ever really charge said phone, it's just sat there merrily keeping topped up when it would otherwise be in my pocket.

The other place it's really good is in the car. My car, like lots these days, has a wireless charger in the centre console. Chuck your phone on there while you're driving. It also uses NFC to connect the phone to the car's outside aerials and improve reception. And as an added bonus, the car reminds you to pick your phone up when you open the door.

[Slenver]

Load of old bollocks it is, at least whilst plugged in I can still use my devices in hand whilst charging.

TBH, I think it's of limited value and all came a bit late really... I mean, I got my first wireless charging pad in a car just at the same point at which phones reliably lasted all day and I didn't need one any more It was mainly a place to forget it while I went into a shop and then had to come out again to get it.

Mind you, I bought one recently for my bedside and it's great. Locks into place with the magnets, switches automatically into alarm clock/electric blanket switch mode, and charged by morning.

[MrLongbeard]

Load of old bollocks it is

I love it

I have a charger from IKEA (with it's own 240V plug, doesn't need a separate USB charger) which sits on my desk, my phone sits on it all day pretty much. It's the only time I ever really charge said phone, it's just sat there merrily keeping topped up when it would otherwise be in my pocket.

The other place it's really good is in the car. My car, like lots these days, has a wireless charger in the centre console. Chuck your phone on there while you're driving. It also uses NFC to connect the phone to the car's outside aerials and improve reception. And as an added bonus, the car reminds you to pick your phone up when you open the door.

Horses for courses chap, I've yet to find it useful at all, I have an Anker USB hub in the study, everything (headphones, phone, tablet, vape etc etc) gets chucked on that for the cost of one socket.

I did add wireless charging to the car, it's still there but unplugged, with everything running that I use it's charge rate was rubbish barely giving an extra percent or 5 on my commute, as opposed to proper USB charging where I can start with less than 50% charge, use all the apps and get to work with a fully charged battery

[Mr. Dazzle]

I suspect the reason they fit a wireless pad to the car is actually 'cause Android Auto / Apple Car play spank the battery On the rare occasions I've used AA it munches through phone life.

Fortunately the car's native system is way better than AA. So much so, I wonder if they've made AA deliberately clunky to make you use the native one.

[Slenver]

In fairness, I do use car power (don't have wireless charging in current cars) for satnav on long journeys as it does suck the battery dry. Have wireless CarPlay though, wired is for mugs!

Would never really conceive of using any car's native system though. I've seen some nice ones, but nothing that provides the same slickness and usefulness as CarPlay.

[Mr. Dazzle]

In that case, either car play is miles better than AA, or the system in my car is amazing, 'cause IMO Android Auto (wireless AA in my car) isn't a patch on the native Since I don't have an Apple phone, I shall never know.

[Slenver]

In that case, either car play is miles better than AA, or the system in my car is amazing, 'cause IMO Android Auto (wireless AA in my car) isn't a patch on the native Since I don't have an Apple phone, I shall never know.

I've never actually used AA, but my understanding is that it's much the same. I know it didn't have a multi-pane option that CP had, but think it does now?

TBH, I find the simplicity of it/them useful as it's mainly going to be in map mode with notifications popping up and everything controlled by voice. I suppose I sometimes use the multi-pane view if I want to see what chapter/track is playing in a book/music while using the map, but I don't really look at it much.

What do you prefer about your native setup?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Not really the point of the thread, but I just find the native system massively slicker and more responsive. Navigation is much better/speedier too, but TBF it actually uses one of the major map suppliers to drive it all. It's not really fair to compare, 'cause AA is never going to be able to use all the car native hardware (HUD for example) in such an integrated way. The Frauline in the dashboard is bloody brilliant too, she actually understands me!

AA can do multi plane though, yeah.