Legit Mods and Ends Reviews
Wireless Phone Charging With PowerMat Review
| Manufacturer: | Powermat |
| Product: | Powermat Wireless Charger |
| Date: | Thu, Dec 24, 2009 - 12:00 AM |
| Written By: | Nathan Kirsch - |
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Powermat Wirelss Charging
The holiday season is in full effect and Christmas is right around the corner. If you haven't gotten a gift yet, you already know that you are in a bad position. That Barnes & Noble Nook eBook reader sold out last month and the arrival date for one is February 1st! Most vacation packages aren't nearly as discounted as they were a few months ago and gift cards have gotten a bad reputation as being insincere. Time is running out to top off all that bad news, as this past weekend was the last shopping weekend before Christmas!
I happened to venture out into the wild to fight the mass of people to do a little shopping of my own. I hit the usual places, but one of the electronic devices that had a crowd of people around it and was still in stock was the Powermat. At both Target and Best Buy the display of the Powermat was attracting attention due to the fact that it shows off a product that is mysterious and new to most consumers. For those that haven't seen the commercials on TV, the Powermat is a charging mat that allows you to wirelessly charge up to 3 electronic devices simultaneously. It also allows you to reduce the number of cords needed for charging and is a great conversation piece as you are charging your devices wirelessly.
This means that you won't have to fight that tangled mess of cords that every home has these days or searching for the right adaptor. You just plug in the mat's one cable and then you can place up to three devices on the Powermat to charge. The Powermat will work on nearly all of your favorite
devices, which means that it is compatible with iPhone, BlackBerry, MP3 players,
cell phones, headsets, hand held electronic games, digital cameras, and
GPS units. Whether you charge at home, at the office, on the road, or
in all of these places, Powermat has a solution for you as they have a Home & Office Mat as well as a Portable Mat.
The Powermat Portable Mat has all the same features as the Home & Office Mat, but folds up for easier transportation and comes with a travel pouch. With an MSRP of $99.99 each, these charging mats are not inexpensive, so let's see what you get for that price.
Opening up the Home & Office Mat we found the Powermat, power supply cable and one power cube universal receiver. The Portable Mat comes with the same exact bundle. One might expect it to come with a car charger for mobile use, but that is not the case. Right off the bat it should be pointed out that you can only charge one device with the Powermat even though it advertises that you can wirelessly charge up to 3 Powermat-enabled devices simultaneously (plus one USB power port). Powermat was a little tricky with their wording as the front of the box says 'wirelessly charge up to 3 devices', but the fine print along the bottom edge of the box says 'system requires both a mat and a receiver. Receivers sold separately'. We'll get to the receivers in a second, but for now let's keep looking at what comes with the base $99 wireless charging pad.
The Home & Office Mat has dimensions of .625" x 12.25" x 4.5625" (HxWxD), which is a fairly small and thin profile. The Travel Mat has exactly the same dimensions and only differs by the fact that it folds up. The back of the Powermat is where you plug in the single cord that goes to the wall outlet and you will also find volume and light adjustments for the PowerMat here. A unique sound tells you that a solid connection has been made and your
device is charging. A second, similar sound is heard when the device is
removed. The level of these sounds can be changed between high and low or they can be turned
off. The Powermat also features indication lights. Each of the three wireless charging access point has a corresponding light indicator that informs you
that your device is charging wirelessly. The intensity of these lights
can be changed between high and low or they can be turned
off. The Powermat can charge a fourth device via the USB port on the rear of the Mat as well.
Both the Home & Office and Portable Powermat come with what is called a Powercube. The Powercube is basically a universal receiver that gets its power wirelessly, but has a wired mini-USB charger on the end and comes with 7 other adapters that adapt from mini-USB to other form factors for charging. Powermat claims that this adapter can charge 1,000s of devices including Kindles, eReaders, digital Kodak cameras, Bluetooth headsets, handheld game players, many many cell phone brands and models and more. They go on to say that the Powercube replaces all of those individual power adapters, but the kicker here is that you can only charge one device at a time with the Powercube.
Taking the Powercube out of the box it comes in you can see that it also comes with a carrying case for all the charging tips, but when using the case we found that it wasn't large enough to hold all the tips that Powermat provides with the charging mat. This was a bit of a downer as you can't keep all of your tips in one location. Sure, you might never use some of them, but it would be nice to have a place that stores all them.
So, how do you charge other devices on this mat wirelessly? You either needs to buy a receiver ($29.99 to $39.99 each) or additional Powercubes ($29.99 each). That means for a best case scenario you will need a $99.99 Powermat and then two additional receivers for at minimum $59.98 in order to charge three devices at once. Let's take a look at one of these receivers on the next page.
Next Page - Powermat Wireless Receivers
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