Zens QI Wireless Charging Pad Review

Mobile phones are moving forward in terms of technology used, however, until recently, Mobile Phone Chargers have not.  You get your standard mains chargers, you can often use USB cables as chargers, you might be lucky enough to have a dock that charges, but why limit yourself to being plugged in?  QI offers the ability to charge wirelessly!

In The Box

- Instruction Leaflet

- Charging Pad

- Mains Charger

Specs

- QI Certified Wireless Charger

- LED Indicator

- Overcharging Prevention

- Seven Induction Coils creates a large charging area to “drop and go”.

Compatibility

This is a QI certified charger so will charge any device that is QI certified, this includes but is not restricted to the Nexus 4 and the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820.

Other devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Note2 are compatible if you have a Zens QI Charging Case (to replace the stock battery doors) which are sold separately.

I believe the Galaxy S4 will be compatible (subject to carriers wishing it to be included) without the requirement for a replacement battery door, but sadly the HTC One is not compatible.

Price

£39.99

Walk through

It is simply a case of taking the pad and plugging in the mains adapter, making sure the light flashes orange (briefly) to indicate there is power and no fault.  You then simply place your QI compatible device onto the pad and watch it charge.

While charging the LED goes Green, when it is finished charging the LED goes off (over-charge prevention mode).

If your device is full, or another reason why it cannot be charged the device will flash red every few seconds.

A full explanation of the lights is given in the enclosed instructions.

Good Points

- Drop the phone anywhere - the 7 coil large charging zone means you do not have to be so specific in where you place your phone, this is often one of the biggest criticisms of other QI chargers.  It also means if you knock your phone it is less likely to be moved to a “non-charging zone”.

- LED is clear but not overly bright, so you could use it in your bedroom overnight if you wished.

- Prevents overcharging.

- Small but not fragile - I was expecting this item to be much larger than it is

- Flat - phones do not go sliding around.

Bad Points

- Overcharging prevention is not perfect - if your phone screen is left on (e.g. android daydream mode) it will charge forever.

- It doesn’t always allow for charging up to 100% (over-charging prevention kicks in at around 97% on my Nexus 4)

- Requires its own mains adapter -  it does not allow other mains adapters or USB charging.

- Pad gets warm on long-charges - if you want to use it to charge from low to full the pad and phone might get warm, if you disturb the charge during this warm phase it will not allow for charging to resume until the pad and device have cooled down (usually around 5 minutes).

Conclusion

Although this is my first experience with a QI charger I have spent a lot of time reading reviews and comments about lots of different models on the market.  This one doesn’t appear to suffer from most of the negative issues that others raised regarding different chargers.  It is small, well built, decent price with a helpful LED that is not too dim or bright, a large charging area with overcharging prevention.  It is flat, so devices like the Nexus 4 (which has a very slippery back) stay put.

SCORE

[rating rating='4']