Qi adapters and chargers?

[marcplante]

I want to put a Qi adapter on a new Samsung S5 to spare the USB port wear and tear.

Is there a decent guide to the adapters and chargers?

Are the adapters different in functionality? quality?

What about the chargers? better charging rates? Better device locking with stronger magnets? etc?

Thanks,

 

[Ravynmagi]

I don't know much, but since nobody has replied yet, I'll share my little experience.

I have the Nexus Qi charger. Works really nice with the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 2013. The magnet locks it into the sweet spot after a couple of wiggles and charging rate seems good.

Then I got a Nokia Icon which also support Qi. But the Icon doesn't seem to have magnets that lock the phone onto the Qi sweet spot. So I have to find it manually. Ironically though the Icon seems to have a larger sweet spot for charging than the Nexus 5 does and I can basically just plop the Icon on the Nexus charger and it immediately starts charging most of the time.

So my small experience with on Qi charger and two phones seems to be, the Nexus 5 has magnets, but a fairly small sweet spot. The Icon has no magnets, but seems to have a bigger sweet spot.

 

[soccerballtux]

yes on quality, one downside to the openness of Qi is there are horrible chinese knockoffs of the $10 chinese pads that are already of questionable quality. The first one I bought was nice, has rubber feet/pads, good construction, no problems.

The second and replacement they mailed me came in identical packaging, but didn't have the rubber feet advertised which is also on the first one I purchased, so it slides on the table, and exhibited a bug where you would have to unplug the charger from the wall and plug it back in to reset the charging circuit detection software to get it to recognize the phone to get it to start it charging the device.

that tarnished the Amazon name too, those guys are idiots allowing random chinese crap on the site from multiple sellers some of which are selling knockoffs. If I were in charge that seller would have been axed/banned. That would guarantee no one ever tried to come up with a non-working, defective, corners-cutting knockoff

 

[s44]

that tarnished the Amazon name too, those guys are idiots allowing random chinese crap on the site from multiple sellers some of which are selling knockoffs.

That is a problem all over Amazon, esp with phone accessories. It's ridiculous.

Anyway, isn't the problem with Qi the inability to hit the high charge speeds modern batteries need and get over wire?

 

[paperwastage]

that tarnished the Amazon name too, those guys are idiots allowing random chinese crap on the site from multiple sellers some of which are selling knockoffs. If I were in charge that seller would have been axed/banned. That would guarantee no one every tried to come up with a non-working, defective, corners-cutting knockoff

http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/08/fulfillment-by-amazon-what-amazon-doesnt-tell-third-party-sellers/

If a buyer in Nevada selects a product from a third-party seller in Florida and Amazon’s system finds an identical product offered by a California seller whose merchandise is located nearby, the Florida seller will get credit for the sale, but the buyer will receive the California seller’s merchandise. Since the products are identical, theoretically that shouldn’t be a problem.

I don't remember if amazon does this as well for items that they sell themselves.. At least its opt in

 

[soccerballtux]

That is a problem all over Amazon, esp with phone accessories. It's ridiculous.

Anyway, isn't the problem with Qi the inability to hit the high charge speeds modern batteries need and get over wire?

Well, for the longest time I considered Amazon the slightly more expensive option than ebay, but sometimes worth it for the quality. I'm seeing it's little better than ebay.

I've been getting 1A on Qi, it's 2A from the wall at 50% loss. Personally that's good enough for me. I just plug into the wall if I need it charged ASAP. I'm usually home long enough that 30m to 1h is all the top up I need.

Use MightyText and put one of the $10 chargers at work. You never need to pick up the phone.

 

[soccerballtux]

http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/08/fulfillment-by-amazon-what-amazon-doesnt-tell-third-party-sellers/

I don't remember if amazon does this as well for items that they sell themselves.. At least its opt in

most things fulfilled by Amazon are of sufficient quality

and most things I buy aren't fulfilled by Amazon

Prime is kinda pointless for me especially considering it's only 2-day-weekdays. I'm sorry but if I buy something on Wednesday pm, it should be shipped out by 3am, 9am at the latest, and there should be Saturday delivery. That it sits in the warehouse until UPS does their daily pickup at 6pm PST the next day and doesn't get here till Monday mid-day, makes the service worthless as I just waited an entire week.

Or they use Lasership and sometimes it comes the very next day, other times it comes on Friday when I ordered Monday with 2 day shipping.