How to buy the right wireless charger

 (upbeat music) - Wireless charging is great, and pretty much every phone has it now. You just take your phone,you drop it on the pad, and it starts charging likemagic, except it's real. But if you're actuallylooking to buy a charger for the first time, it canbe a little intimidating. There's a whole bunch ofspecs you need to think about, stuff like wattage, andhow many coils it has, what the charging speed looks like, what the form factor is. And it can just be really confusing to just go to the store, and buy one, or go on Amazon and buy one. If you're looking to cutthe cord for the first time, and again, you should it's great, here's a couple things thatyou're gonna want to think about when you're buying a charger. (upbeat music) First off, QI. It's spelled Q-I, and it's thewireless charging standard, your phone uses it,basically every charger out on the planet's gonna use it, but just double checkto make sure it's there, you'll save yourself some time later. The most important spec for buying a wireless charger though, is how much power can it push? Now, base charging forQi starts at five watts, which is fine. But a lot of devicessupport fast charging, so Apple phones like the iPhone XR or XS, can support up to seven and a half watts, which will charge fasterassuming your pad can support it. Samsung phones go up to nine watts. Some Android phoneseven go up to 10 watts. Pixel phones basicallyonly just fast charge with a Pixel stand whichis a limit from Google. Sorry Pixel owners. But generally speaking,you're gonna wanna make sure that to get the fastestpossible experience, you want at least 10 wattsfrom any charger you buy.


There's lots of different form factors out there for wireless chargers, and where you plan on using yours is probably gonna helpdetermine what kind you want. So if you're planningon charging your phone by your desk a lot, you'llprobably want a standing one, where you'll easily be able tosee the screen of your phone without craning over. If you're hoping forone by your bed though to charge overnight, you'll probably want a flat charger, so that your phone isn't standing up, and blinding you every time someone texts you at two in the morning. And if you're indecisive, orjust want the flexibility, there are pads that convertfrom flat to standing, so you can get the best of both. (upbeat music) Another thing you might wanna look out for when you're buying a wireless charger, is how many charging coils it has. Now, there's two ways thiscan affect your experience, the first is for chargersthat are still only meant to charge one device, but still have multiple coils.


 The advantage here isthat having multiple coils will make it easier tofind that sweet spot where it lines up, and actually charges. On the other hand, there are also devices like Samsung's dual charger that have multiple separate coils so you can chargemultiple devices at once. So if you have two phones, or a phone and a smart watch that you wanna charge at the same time, that might be a good option for you. Most wireless chargersuse a standard adapter to plug into walls which is great. Most of them use Micro USB, or some newer ones even USB-C, which is really useful 'causethose are standard cables, which means that youcan easily swap them out if you need a longerone, or your break yours.


But some chargers useweird proprietary ones, or even have cables embeddeddirectly into device, which you probably will wannaavoid unless you really can't. In that same vein you'realso gonna wanna look at what kind of wall brickcomes with your charger, if it comes with one at all. A lot of companies don'tinclude a brick in the box, which can be frustrating because if you only have a five watt brick for your 10 watt wireless charger, it won't matter that your charger can fast charge your phone, because it won't have thepower supply to do that. And if you're hoping to save money by buying a cheaper chargerthat doesn't come with a brick, just remember that unless you already have a high watt charger with you, you'll probably end up justhaving to buy a new one anyway, which means you haven'treally saved any money at all. Wireless chargers come inall sorts of weird shapes, and sizes, materials, and designs, so a lot of it also just comesdown to personal preference. Do you like leather, geta fancy leather charger. Do you like fabric, get a fabric one. Do you want one thatjust charges your phone? Get a cheap plastic one. Now obviously there'sgonna be some variation between chargers. 

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