CHOETECH Wireless Charger REVIEW A Panda Lovers Dream
As our smartphones become ever smarter, we tend to use them for more and more activities. We have come a long way from the ability to simply make a phone call and painstakingly trying to text. Our modern phones are now movie/video players, music players, cameras/video recorders, gaming devices, personal data repositories and essentially mini-computers. If you use your device anywhere near as often as I do, you are charging your smartphones at least nightly. Since I work in an office, I charge my phone on my desk with a wireless charger. When I am out and away, I carry portable batteries to maintain power. The CHOETECH device looked exciting and I wanted to give it a shot.
The CHOETECH Wireless Charger arrived in a 4 1/4 inches tall by 4 3/16 inches wide by 1 5/16 retail package. The plain white box was accented by a blue-green ridge along the bottom edge of the cover and the left/right side panels. Except for the lower edge, the only other area with significant color was the blue-green background for the title “CHOETECH POWER TO THE BEST,” along the top left of the cover. The wireless charger was represented along the right side of the cover, using an ink-outline of the puck-shaped charger. If you are a panda bear enthusiast, this charger may be the perfect addition to your collection. The cover, and the left/right sides of the packaging listed “Fast Wireless Charging Pad.” The back of the packaging provided a QR code, linking to their website, and oddly, a section that tries to preemptively ease your worries. I found it odd that they started with the statement “To resolve any worry about our product.” The packaging promises a 30-day return for any reason, 18-month warranty, lifetime technical support. They follow the three icons with a paragraph detailing the unconditional 30-day warranty.
Inside of the packaging, you will find the 3 1/2 inch diameter by 5/8 inches thick charging puck resting inside of a transparent plastic tray. Beneath the tray, you will find a Panda Bookmark with the same CHOETCH QR code and a request to comment on their product at support@choetech.com. Additionally, you will find a six-panel instruction manual and a 47-inches long USB-A to USB-micro cable. The first page of the instruction manual detailed the same warranty information, the packaging contents and Qi compatibility information. The second/third page listed the instructions, troubleshooting, and contact information. The manual was well written, easily understandable and clearly stated the need for a QC 2.0 or 3.0 charger or a 5V/1.5A minimum charging brick. The fourth page was likely the most important of the pages, providing a very useful diagram of the product in use and the correct placement of your phone. Lastly, the fifth page listed the QR code, website, support email, and links to Facebook and Twitter.
When ready, remove the opaque, thin, plastic wrapper from the CHOETECH charger and plug the USB-micro end into the top of the charger. You can then plug the USB-A end into a computer/laptop or into a USB charging brick. The cover of the CHOETECH wireless charger has raised rubberized ridges for the panda ears and nose and the circular face was etched into the cover. The bottom face of the charger has four 3/16 inches wide by 3/4 inches long rubberized anti-slip feet around the outer edge. The feet added a significant amount of anti-slip to the disk. Along the middle of the chargers underbelly, you will find the specifications (5V/2A or 9V/1.8A input and 10W max output). Just to test, I placed my phone on the underside of the charger and it did not charge. Flipping the charger over and placing my phone into the middle of the disk, I heard the characteristic ding and my phone began to charge. If your phone is hanging off very far, it will not charge. For apple phones, make sure that the area between the Apple logo and “iPhone” is centered on the charger and you will not have any issues. It is important to note that Apple phones are not capable of QC 2.0 and 3.0 speeds and cannot use the 10W max output. As of iOS 11.2, we can enjoy 7.5W wireless charging, which was a significant upgrade to the 5W charging.
To test the device, I placed my iPhone X inside of Catalyst Waterproof Case for iPhone X onto the charger at 8:34 PM with 52% power. At 8:48 PM the phone at 59% power, and at 8:57 the phone had 62% power. For a second test, I put my iPhone X onto the charger at 4:45 PM with 24% and then checked it again at 5:00 PM to have 32% power. The above tests showed a charging rate of roughly 1% every two minutes, which was very reasonable. Using a DROK USB C multimeter, I found that the charger provided 4.8–5V with anywhere from 0.8–1.22A output. Again, this was reasonable for this type of charger. The surface temperature of the charger and iPhone did heat up minimally but did not get terribly hot. For a full charge, I expected it would take overnight to charge. To test this, I put my iPhone X on charge at 11:00 PM at 36% and then checked it when I got up at 5:45 am and found my phone to be at 99%. If you are looking for the fastest possible charge for an iPhone 8/8Plus/X, wireless charging is not the best option. For fastest charging, it is recommended to use the 87W MacBook charger or a charger with 18W+ (18W CHOETECH USB-C charger) and a USB-C to Lightning cable. Macrumors tested numerous charging options for the iPhone X and found the 18W+ to provide 0–50% in 30minutes and nearly 80% in 1 hour. Whereas we cannot get these rates with wireless charging, we also do not need to spend nearly as much for the charger/cables since the USB-C to Lightning is still only available from Apple.
To maximize the use of this charger, you may need to obtain a QC 2.0 or 3.0 charging cube and some thicker cases may need to be removed. I was able to charge fine with the Catalyst Waterproof case but you will have to move your phone around until you hear the charging jingle. The device was on par with many other 5–10W chargers and the iPhone charged 5–7.5W regularly when tested with my DROK USB C multimeter. It would have been nice to have USB C input but this is not yet industry standard. If you are looking for a very reasonably priced wireless charger, this may be the device for you. If you also love Pandas, you should buy at least two of them.
Learn more about the CHOETECH Wireless Charger.
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Originally published at macsources.com on June 11, 2018.
