Charge Your Samsung Phone with Wireless Charging

Have you tried wireless charging yet?  I’ve used wireless charging for my Samsung Gear S2 watch for over a year and it works great.

Wireless charging is now available for phones.  I tried out the belkin Boost UP Wireless Charging Pad with my Note 5 and I love the simplicity of it.  

Belkin Boost UP Wireless Charging Pad

No cables and no need to figure out which way to plug in my micro-USB cord,  I just set down my phone on the charging pad and it begins charging. The belkin Boost Up Wireless Charging Pad is even faster than most wired charging solutions.  It uses Qi technology to work with other Qi-certified smartphones, tablets, and wireless charging cases.

The belkin Boost UP Wireless Charging Pad is made for Note 5, Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, S6 edge+, S6 edge, S6, and other Qi compatible devices.  As a Samsung phone lover, this is a great accessory to have.

What about my case you ask?  I use a Speck Candy Shell Grip phone case for my Note 5 and the wireless charging pad charges just fine.  It charges through cases up to 3mm thick.

For the belkin Boost UP Wireless Charging Pad to work correctly, simply place your phone so its center is in the center of the wireless charging pad.  A green light will come on to acknowledge that you have placed it correctly on the power charging circle, as shown in the picture above.
 

A Note About Wireless Charging  & Power

Qi is the technology that allows for power to pass from a wireless charging pad to the Qi-enabled phone.  Typically, wireless charging isn’t necessarily faster than wired charging.  

But how do you know how fast a charger is…aren’t they all the same?  And isn’t true that a Samsung or Apple charger is faster than other company’s chargers?

First off, no, Apple or Samsung’s chargers aren’t necessarily the fastest.  Companies like belkin, Ventev, Lander, myCharge, and more are constantly pushing the envelope to provide faster chargers and battery packs.

How To Figure Out How Fast a Charger Is

To figure out how fast a charger is you need to determine the wattage.  Wattage is determined by multiplying the charger’s volts by the Amps.  Here’s the formula…

Watts = Volts * Amps 

The higher the wattage, the faster the power.  Volts for any USB charging device is always 5 V – this stays the same for all chargers.  

It’s the USB standard, as USB chargers take the line voltage coming from your electricity outlet (either 120 or 220 volts) and converts it to 5 volts.  So power provided over any USB cables is always 5 volts – no higher or lower.

Amps, on the other hand, varies from charger to charger.  This is the number to look at.  Consider Amps to be the strength of the power going through the charger.  If it’s a higher Amp number, it’s going to provide more power through the charger.

In conclusion, the two most important numbers are the Watts (W) or Amps (A).  So, if you have a charger that provides 5 V at 2.4 A, your wattage would be 12 W, that’s pretty good throughput.

You may of heard of Quick Charge 2.0 before – it’s a technology created by Qualcomm, and used in many devices for quick charging.  Quick Charge 2.0 chargers typically have 15W or more – so devices are charged more quick

 Because the belkin Wireless Charging Pad came out later than the Samsung wireless charging pad, it offers the latest technology, thus allowing for a faster charge – for those later model phones that support up to 15 watts.

 

The belkin BOOST UP Wireless Charging Pad is available from Amazon for $69.99 plus free shipping.

A Mom’s Perspective

As Moms, we leave and return to our homes a lot.  Whether it’s going to work, carpooling kids around, going grocery shopping, helping our aging parents…you name it…we are in constant flux.  

I am fortunate to work at home, but I pick up and leave at a minimum 4-5 times a day and I take my phone with me every time. 

Upon returning home, I used to plug my phone in every time.  Now, I simply place my phone on the wireless charging pad and I’m back to work.  

No more searching for my cord, which had fallen over my desk or been used by my son’s gaming tablet.  I love how easy it is to charge my phone now.  No hassle.

I have some issues in the past with bad cords and worried that my constant unplugging and plugging in charging cords was damaging my phone’s charging port.  Even if you have experienced something similar and your charging port barely works, wireless charging is your solution.

Although the belkin Wireless Charging Pad works mostly for later model Qi Samsung, LG, Nexus, HTC, and Nokia Lumia phones, it can also be used for Apple phones which use a Qi charging case.

* I was given a belkin BOOST UP Wireless Charging Pad for review purposes.  All opinions are my own.