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10 Best Wireless Chargers for 2021

The best wireless chargers for hassle-free safe charging

Best Wireless Charger
  • Forget cables – wireless charging is now the future
  • Most phones and smartwatches will now offer wireless charging capabilities
  • Simply drop your phone onto the charging pad and you’re done
  • But with a lot of copycats out there, you need to ensure you get one which is safe

Our Top Picks

The Best Wireless Phone Chargers

Tired of losing charging cables and plugs? Maybe you’ve gone through quite a few of them because the ends have frayed.

Well, with a wireless phone charger, you simply drop your device on the pad and leave it to it. Some are dedicated to particular brands of mobile, and others will allow you to charge up to three at a single time. There are even charging stations which allow you to charge smartwatches, wireless earpods or tablets.

You don’t even have to opt for a plain basic wireless charging pad – some lamps, speakers and radios are now designed with wireless charging abilities on the product surface.

If this is your first foray into wireless charging, or you want to replace that underwhelming one you currently have, below we have picked out the best from the dozens available.

The Essential Wireless Charger Buying Guide

Qi Certification

Pronounced “chee”, Qi is a standard for wireless energy transmission. It is meant to standardise wireless charging across all platforms, products and brands, the same way in which USB chargers made life easier for us all when the wires started coming separately to the plugs.

When a phone or charger is Qi-certified, it’s tested by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) for safety, effectiveness, and compatibility. This ensures your phone won’t overheat or overcharge and the charger won’t energise surrounding objects.

If your smartphone doesn’t support Qi wireless charging, you can purchase a separate Qi-Certified case. Never opt for a charger which isn’t Qi-certified – genuine products can be bought cheap enough, and it is a risk not worth taking.

Capacity

This is how many devices your charger will accept at once. Some will only take one but can be flexible over what it is – a flat pad can allow you to place a phone, watch, tablet or earphones on to it if done correctly.

Others will be a bit more strict, only being for a phone or a smartwatch for example. Others can charge two or even three items at once. However, you will likely spend a bit more on these items, and it may even mean your devices don’t charge as quickly as using a dedicated pad.

Extra Functions

This is a mixed bag, depending on your brand of phone/other devices, and the brand of charger.

One simple one is whether you want to use your phone while it is charging. If so, have you thought about getting a charger which will allow your phone to sit upright, in either portrait or landscape mode?

Some chargers for smartwatches can allow your watch to be turned into an alarm clock as it is used. There are also chargers which double up as speakers, alarm clocks, lights or even just plain ordinary side tables too, in case you want something which blends into your home really well.

You May Also Want To Know...

Will my mobile phone be supported with this wireless charger?

If your charger is Qi-certified, it should accept all compatible devices, whether it be from Samsung, Apple or other.

But the thing to look out for is wattage and power. Most will charge Android devices at around 10W, whereas third-party chargers which accept Apple will likely keep it at 5W-7.5W (Apple limits the charging speed of their phone batteries). Genuine Apple products which charge the latest models may be able to use 15W, though.

You want to get a charger which will give your phone (or another device) enough power without going overboard. Therefore, try to stick to buying a charger which explicitly says it will accept your make and model of phone.

As well, some have just been tested with certain products, so sticking with certain ones is another way to guarantee everything is safe.

Is wireless charging better than wired?

This is a big debate and depends on your outlook on technology.

Yes, because it is a lot easier to set up. No fiddling with wires, trying to find your wire, or dealing with frayed wire ends. Anybody with an Apple product especially will know that frayed ends can actually be quite common.

Some will also accept different brands, so if you have an iPhone which needs a Lightning cable, and a Samsung device with a USB-C, you could charge both with one item, again without being overloaded with cables.

But wireless chargers aren’t as fast as most wired connections, especially if the cable is dedicated to that product. They can also conduct heat which is wasted energy, and although most brands have limited this, it still makes them slightly less energy-efficient.

How does wireless charging work?

Wireless charging isn’t new. Think about your electric toothbrush. Electricity pioneer Nikola Tesla actually demonstrated magnetic resonant coupling in the 19th Century.

Charging pads contain an induction coil which creates an electromagnetic field. The item being charged, such as your mobile phone, has a receiver coil which interacts with this field. This is why only compatible phones can be charged and not that old Blackberry from 10 years ago.

How large the copper coils are then decides how far the electromagnetic field can travel. Because they’re relatively compact in a charging pad, your phone has to be sitting on the pad in just the right spot to communicate with it.