My current personal phone is a Samsung Galaxy S5. A good phone when I bought it, just as the 6 was released, and I am not about to splurge on another one just yet. I use the Rokform mount system in my car, and love the security and versatility of it. This is relevant to this post.
A year ago my employer issued us Galaxy S7 phones. These are equipped with a Qi wireless charging interface. At the time I jumped into it head first. My first purchase was a Belkin Boost Up QI charging pad and a Qi Wireless Charging Receiver Card for the S5, which does not include a wireless charging interface as delivered.
The S7 was easy to drop and charge on the Belkin pad. The S5 with the receiver card had it's difficulties, as I had added a Rokform universal mount to my existing case and the added thickness made the wireless charging very picky about placement. I cannot recommend the custom Rokform case more, as now there is no added thickness to the case and with the magnet removed the wireless charging is perfect and it it now truly drop and charge. It appears that the S5 case is much more difficult to find now.
A note on both charging pads, they are limited to a 1 amp charging rate. This will be slower than plugging directly into the cable, but for a charging opportunity it is sufficient.
The QI Wireless Charging Card for the S5 is very easy to install, but there are a couple of issues.
- First, you will loose the NFC functionality from your phone. This will not affect most users, but you must know that it will happen.
- Secondly, it does add a little thickness to the phone that MAY compromise it's waterproof seal. This doesn't affect me much as I only have to deal with rain and am not likely to immerse the phone.
It is a great solution for easy charging and saving wear and tear on the charging port on your S5 with the above caveats.
For phones that don't have a custom method for adding a Qi receiver there are generic options that plug into your USB port, but I have no experience with them so have no recommendations.
This year I decided that I needed a second charging pad as the first one is now in regular use at my home desk. The new one would be a shared use pad for my workstation. I found the Yootech Qi Wireless Charging Pad at Amazon and decided that it was worth the small investment. It works as well as the Belkin for a third of the price. Neither charging pad included the power supply, the best recommendation is to use the factory included charger for your phone which will supply the 2 amps that the pad requires for charging your phone at 1 amp.
In summary:
- Qi charging is a great thing for ease of use, but it is slower than plugging the charging cable into the phone.
- A case may interfere with the drop and charge functionality of wireless charging.
- Upgrades are available for older phones, but may degrade the phone's integrity and other features.
It is a neat add on if your phone comes with the option. If you have to add the functionality to your phone, I would recommend against it.
Items reviewed in this post:
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