Wireless Phone Charging With PowerMat Review

Legit Mods and Ends Reviews

Manufacturer:	Powermat
Product:	Powermat Wireless Charger
Date:	Thu, Dec 24, 2009 - 12:00 AM
Written By:	Nathan Kirsch -
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Powermat Wireless Receivers

To go along with the Powermat Wireless Charging Mats we picked up the Blackberry Bold receiver battery door ($29.99), the dock for iPod & iPhone ($39.99) and the receiver case for the iPhone 3G S ($39.99). If you aren't following along with the math here let's break down where we are at right now:

Powermat Home & Office Mat - $99.99
Powermat Portable Mat - $99.99
Blackberry Bold Receiver - $29.99
Docking Station for iPod & iPhone - $39.99
Receiver Case iPhone 3G S - $39.99

That puts us at $309.95 before taxes and shipping for us to charge our three main devices wirelessly with all the bells and whistles. Sure, you really only need one mat, but that still puts you at ~$210 by the time you go truly wireless and purchase receivers for your devices. As for receivers you only have a few to select from since at this time only BlackBerry, Apple and Nintendo DS receivers are available.

The primary workhorse here at Legit Reviews when we are on the go is the trusty BlackBerry Bold that we have used since the day it was released here in the United States. The Powermat receiver for the Blackberry Bold is simply a new battery door. You just need to pull off the battery door from your phone and pop on the new one from PowerMat. This simple swap takes just a few seconds and no tools to complete. The Powermat receiver for the Blackberry Bold is slightly thicker on the back as it has a raised area for the wireless charger and wraps around the bottom corners of the phone as that is where the external power contacts are to charge a BlackBerry bold with say a docking station or stand.

Taking a look inside the PowerMat receiver you will find a sticker that tells you to keep your original battery door should your phone ever need service. In the two corners you can see the positive and negative charging contacts that will carry the current that travels wirelessly to the receiver into the Blackberry Bold. Other than that there really isn't much to see on the inside of the battery door.

With the new cover installed on the BlackBerry Bold you can see that the fit is perfect and that the added thickness of the wireless charger is a little taller than the camera bezel. The 'wings' that come out on the corners take a little getting used to when holding the phone in your hand, but then again this is a phone that we have used daily for over a year.

Now that the cover is installed you can sit the device on the Powermat and it will begin to charge. The Powermat has a magnet in it that helps align the receiver to each access point on the mat. The entire mat isn't just a big charge pad like many assume, so you do have to align it. The magnet is strong enough in the BlackBerry Bold case door to align the device, but sometimes the iPhone 3G S needs a little help to get aligned properly. Powermat claims their system has the ability to charge your devices as fast or faster than the original power adapter. Our testing showed that it was on par with the wired charger than came with our devices. If you look close in the picture above you can see that the charging light is on in front of the iPod docking station. This is the light that can be enabled to turn on to show a device is being charged.

We tend to be pretty tough on our devices, so we have OtterBox sleeves for both the BlackBerry Bold and the iPhone 3G S. We were told that the Powermat receivers were strong enough to charge through rubberized sleeves, but found that neither of our OtterBox Impact Series sleeves would work with the Powermat. It would appear that the sleeve on the BlackBerry Bold is too thick for the wireless charging signal to get through. You can feel the magnets align, but the phone doesn't begin to charge. On the Apple iPhone 3G S we found that the sleeve would not fit as the Powermat case for the iPhone adds a good half inch to the phone since it is an actual case the phone fits into. This was a let down as the Powermat receivers don't help protect the faces of the phone and none of the corners on the BlackBerry Bold since the Bold just got a new battery door. This would be a big deal, but the plastic used on the Powermat receivers has a slick feel to it and not a rubberized one like some new plastics have. Down the road it would be nice to see Powermat add some texture to their receivers or see them designed for impact protection as well since you can't uses sleeves on the devices.

Next Page - Final Thoughts and Conclusions

Review Index

Page 1 - Powermat Wirelss Charging
Page 2 - Powermat Wireless Receivers
Page 3 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions

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