The Gadget: The Uniden Wireless Power Starter Kit with iPhone Sleeve.
The Price: $180
The Verdict:It seems we’re in the midst of a wireless charging renaissance. We’ve had wireless chargers launching in recent weeks from the likes of Olin, Powermat and Uniden. And it turns out they’re not all created equal.
The Uniden mat is slightly different to the devices from Powermat, using conducting charging rather than magnetic induction. This means the Uniden device requires a metal on metal contact to charge, which means that it probably won’t develop beyond the case and mat solution. It also means that if you touch the mat during charging it will stop charging.
The shiny metallic backing is a real fingerprint magnet and the power cable looks to stick out awkwardly from the top. It’s not very large either – you could probably squeeze three iPhone-sized gadgets on here if you were a little creative.
But on the upside, this charges your phone fast. After attaching the required skin to my “less than 10%” iPhone, it was completely charged within two hours.
While we’re on the topic of the iPhone skin, it doesn’t actually feature any output connections, which means that if you want to sync your device, you’ll need to remove it from the charging case. Which really is a bit of a hassle for a device that’s designed to save you the hassle of plugging in your iPhone.
To me, there just doesn’t seem to be enough with this wireless charger to make it worth the $180 asking price.