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QI wireless charger - Universal charger includes the Google Nexus 4

7 May 2013

QI wireless charger for the Nexus 4 Android phone

I bought a Google Nexus 4 mobile phone. It is a high specification phone at a very good price, especially when purchased in full without a contract, compared with the long term costs of the in-contract price.

The most frustrating thing about the Nexus was actually getting hold of one as due to low stock and high demand it was a couple of months before I was able to place an order. Unfortunately that's still the case for some of the accessories including the wireless charger which is still not available in the UK. The Nexus 4 uses QI which is a standard for inductive chargers. I found several expensive chargers before I settled on this charger from Clever Gadgets. The title says GMYLE, but the one I received was branded as a PowerQI wireless QI charger. This appears to be in a similar way that other items such as Media centre remote control for the Raspberry Pi which appears to be the same product available under different names through different suppliers.

The wireless charging plate is a little bigger than the Nexus 4 (which is a large smartphone). One of the reviews (also from Clever Gadgets) says it came with a UK adapter to a non-UK plug, but when I bought mine it came with a standard UK transformer plug with no adapter needed. Positioning the phone is fairly straight forward (just above the writing). The phone lays flat which means you can't easily see the screen unless very close to the phone, but at least it means that the phone is not likely to fall off the chargers. The phone gives an audible beep when the phone is put onto the charger. It can repeat the beeps if the phone position is borderline.

I haven't done any tests on charging time, but I believe that the charge time is quite a bit longer than through a plug-in charger. As it's so convenient to put down the phone it spends more time on charge and so is generally not an issue.

As it is designed to work with the QI standard it will work with a few different models of mobile phones and is likely to work with more in future. You can also buy QI wireless charging shields for some other phones, but are almost as expensive as the charger.

This is a reasonable charger and is a good price for a wireless charger.