Wireless charging has started picking pace and is now a prominent part of smartphone spec-sheet. Although the technology has been with us for a long time, it shot to fame when Apple added the feature to its glass-body iPhones last year.
Although more and more OEMs are now including wireless charging on their phones, they do not bundle a wireless charging dock for obvious reasons.
The good thing is that there are a number of Qi-certified solutions out there that you can choose from. Cut to the chase, we recently got a chance to use Belkin Qi Wireless Charging Pad and here’s what we feel about the device:
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Belkin Qi Wireless Charging Pad Specifications
| Model | Belkin F8M747bt Qi Wireless Charging Pad |
| Weight | 200 grams |
| Product Dimension | 4.3x13x16cm |
| Supported Standard | Qi Wireless Charging |
| Price | Rs. 2,499 |
What’s in the Box?
- Belkin wireless charger dock
- USB-A to micro USB cord
- User Manual
Belkin Qi Wireless Charging Pad Compatible Devices
The Belkin wireless charger has the standard Qi (pronounced ‘chee’) support, which means it will charge every phone that has been launched with wireless charging. Here’s the list of compatible devices:
- Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+
- Samsung Galaxy Note 8
- Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+, and S8 Active
- Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, and S7 Active
- LG V30 series
- LG G7 ThinQ and ThinQ+
- iPhone X, 8 and 8 Plus
- Nokia 8 Sirocco
- Google Nexus: 4, 5, 6, 7 (2013)
- Sony: Xperia Z3, Xperia Z2, Xperia Z
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Belkin Qi Wireless Charging Pad Design and Build
The Belkin Qi Wireless Charging Pad comes clad in a plastic shell with no creeks or flexes involved whatsoever. The top surface has a matte finish to ensure that your phone won’t slide off with vibration and the rubbery finish at the bottom keeps the station firmly in its place. The overall quality seems good.
From the top, the device looks pretty much rounded-square shaped with Belkin branding, LED indicator on the front, and shiny circular ring in the middle which outlines the charging area.
The edges are tapered-down to the circle and a cut-out for USB Type-A port. The design of Belkin Qi Wireless Charger Pad is close to what you expect from wireless chargers. It is compact, lightweight (249g), unintrusive and easy to carry around.
Belkin Qi Wireless Charging Pad Performance
Generally, the wired charger beats the wireless hands down when it comes to charging speed, and the Belkin Qi Wireless Charging Pad does nothing to change it. To get the best out of Belkin Qi Wireless Charging Pad you will need a 5W/1AMP output adapter. Belkin doesn’t offer its own power adapter, but you can always use the regular adapter that comes with your phone. When we used a brick with less power output, charging was painfully slow and our phone heated up disproportionately.
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The charger offers satisfactory performance but takes double the time compared to wired chargers. I tested the Belkin wireless charger to a couple of wireless charging devices: LG V30+, Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, and S8, and on an average, it gave 40-50 percent juice in 60 minutes of charge.
The charging time is not only slower than the wired charger, but also against its competitor Spigen F300, which charges your device at relatively faster speed. In fact, there are a number of other 10W wireless chargers that you can buy in the same budget.
However, on the bright side, the Belkin Qi Wireless Charging Pad scores well in terms of accessibility. The bundled charging cable is 6-foot long – long enough to comfortably use it at all places.
The Belkin Charger has an overnight charging sensor that cuts the supply after the phone is fully charged and protects it from overcharging. Further, the charger also has a smart LED indicator on the front that remains off when there is no activity but blinks green when the device is charging or orange when the device is wrongly placed on its surface.
Belkin F8M747bt Qi Wireless Charging Pad Review Verdict
Pros
- Ease of Accessibility
- Universal Wireless Charger
- Compact and Lightweight
- 2-years Manufacturer Warranty
Cons
- No Fast Charging
- Does not come with charging adaptor
If you are buying a wireless charger for the first time, you must know that these chargers can’t match up with the charging speed of wired chargers. They are still convenient to use for overnight charging or at places like your office desk where constantly plugging and unplugging your phone can be grossly inconvenient.
Belkin Qi Wireless charging pad is well designed and ergonomic, but then again it does feel a bit overpriced considering it’s a 5W charger. Belkin’s own 7.5W boost up charging pad is priced nearly the same and offers faster-charging. There are various other 10W wireless chargers that you could buy for the same price. We could have recommended it to first time users looking for a reliable brand to get a taste of wireless charging IF it were priced a little lesser.
Why don’t you Apple fanboys go and kiss Tim cooks ass when that’s all that you are doing acting like a real techie with loads of knowledge on what’s cool and what’s not in the mobile phone world. Where do you guys come from? The stone age? Just because you are unaware of what’s happening around you and thus did not know about when wireless charging came in and got popular doesn’t mean that apple made it popular. This seems to be the one thing you paid reviewers have in common, take something that apple is late to market with and make it their invention. It’s like the morons on gadget 360 who are singing praises about the iPhone x and highliting things which are neither hardware dependent nor elusive to the iPhone x . Gadget 360 is singing about iPhone x and the points he lists as too features? Face time, which is present in phones for the past so many years and is a software feature not a hardware one . You need to understand though that no one else can have face time as that name is patented by apple but do you honestly believe the functionality it offers is ground breaking in anyway?. Then there’s the shitty retina screen which is not even HD but is talked about as if it’s the best display in the world. Then there’s the navbar on the macbook pro, out of this world man and you can use it to change volume levels, play media and so on. I have an HP pavilion 2500 series laptop from 2007 which has a navbar and it controls media player and a few other things using touch and gestures. It seems that that all the apple fans have their head so deep in their own or maybe Tim cooks ass that they are blind to everything that is happening in the world. My first Android phone was a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 back in 2009 0r 2010 and I had added wireless charging to it, the note 3 and note 4 had it as an option and then the note 5 and s6 series had it built in and it has been popular ever since. I hope you at least know the time line of these devices because that’ll tell you how stupid you come across as by saying Apple made it popular. It is paid reviewers like you who lead to a lot of morons thinking Apple is the pioneer in making advancements in mobile phone tech. Maybe you are related to Kim Jong Un Jr. and think everything from electricity, to electronics, computers, atomic power, and all the medical break through were brought about by his father or his own self. You are doing a good job by serving the interests of a company that fleeces people not on the basis of extraordinary products but manufactured hype and outright lies about having created new functions or features in their products. Apple Pay aka NFC which my first Android, the galaxy note 2 came with, the navbar I already talked about above, the retina display which isn’t even HD in these times when screens are dual or quad hd or 4k. Try to get the correct information before singing praises of Apple because there are a lot of people who believe you and will take you words to be fact when they are not!