Choetech mini wireless charging pad – Review

Qi wireless charging has become more of a convenience for us as a higher volume of smartphones support it. The reason for their convenience is because you don’t have to stumble around at night or even during the day trying to find a cable and making sure that it is inserted the right way. With wireless charging it is effortless as you just place your device on the QI enabled pad and it begins charging.

In the box:
Wireless charging pad
3ft USB to micro-USB cable
quick start guide

Specs:
Input: 5V/2V (MAX)
Output: 5V/1V (MAX)
Charging distance: 0-5mm
Dimensions: 3.3 x 3.3 x 0.7 inches
Weight: 64g

After testing and using this Qi wireless charger as my ‘daily driver charging unit,’ I have to say that I was pleased with the results. Before I got this wireless charger I previously owned the official wireless charger by Google for the nexus 5. It was pretty cool at the time but now that I have upgraded to the nexus 6, it has a bigger batter which supports turbo charging and the official wireless charger doesn’t cut it anymore. As I am used to the quick charge of the nexus 6 I knew that having a wireless charger would be slower.

But I was surprised at the speed at which this wireless charger charged my phone. Of course it wasn’t as fast as Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 but from my experience it was faster than my old wireless charger. As I only have one device as my daily driver at the moment, it is convenient for me to place my wireless charger on my bed side table.

The build quality it is rather nice compared to my other wireless charger that i had, as my first initial impressions of the wireless charger was that it has very beautiful build quality as the bottom half of the Qi enabled charger is made from aluminum. It has a rubber ring around the bottom to stop it from moving around too much when placed on surface. The top half of the wireless charger is made from plastic and also has a rubber ring on top which doubles as a cup holder as well, and it helps to make sure that the device does not slip.

On the surface of the wireless charger there is a small ambient light sensor, and also a ‘skyline’ notification LED which turns on when you place your device on it so that you know your device is charging. This is a nice feature as my old wireless charger did not have an LED indicator to let me know when my device was charging. Also as the wireless charger has an ambient light sensor, it would turn off after 30 seconds or so if it was in a dark room. This is handy when sleeping as you are not distracted by a light when sleeping.

One thing that I didn’t like about this product is that it was a single coil, this means that you have to make sure that you place the phone in the correct position to that the coil on the phone and the wireless charger are aligned. It would have been nice to have three coils instead of one. However I have to say when I did place my nexus 6 on the charger, 70% of the time it started charging the first time I placed it onto the charging pad. Other than that the product works great and I would recommend you checking this product out.

At this time of this post it only costs .99. Purchase link

Choetech mini dual USB car charger – Review

Choetech is known for their wide range of smartphone accessories. Here I have the new mini dual USB car charger in for review. Not all car chargers are the same and the Choetech mini car charger is one to stand out from the crowd.

Specs:
Auto Detected Charging Port: 5V/2.4A Max
Quick Charge & Auto Detected Charging Port: 5V 2.1A/ 9V 2A/ 12V 1.5A
Dimensions:1.1 x 2.5 x 1.5 inches
Weight:20g

The packaging was nice as most companies are going for the recyclable packaging, with the cardboard box and cover sleeve. In the box was the mini dual USB car charging device and they also included a flat style 2ft USB to micro USB cable which is always a bonus when it comes to mobile accessories like battery packs and chargers. My initial impression of the products was that it was very small in fact it is smaller than my old USB car charger which had a coiled micro USB cable build in.

As for design and hardware, it has a smooth glossy black plastic body (it comes it white as well). Even though you won’t be taking this in and out of the car, it isn’t much of a fingerprint magnet which is a good thing, as I really can’t stand fingerprints! The best thing about this product is its size, as it is smaller than most of the other car chargers on the market and is lightweight and portable. This means that you can easily fit it into your pocket, and or transfer it from one car to the other on the fly with no hassle.

One of the best features of the mini charger is having dual USB ports instead of the one, this can be handy when traveling. In addition to this, when charging my phone it has a dedicated port for quick charging as only my Nexus 6 supports it. But also when it comes to charging my dad’s, sisters or moms phone, I like the fact that it has this ‘Auto Detect’ feature this means that the car charger will automatically detect the type of charge (voltage/power) that goes into your device(s) which are plugged in. This is very important because it helps to prevent overheating and overcharging that could potentially damage your device.

The USB cable which comes in the box is a flat cable which means that it doesn’t get tangled easily, saying that it is shorter than a standard 3ft cable so this helps with it being tangle free. As there is nothing more annoying than tangled cables. When you are done using it you can easily stow it away safely as it takes up very little space. Overall, you can’t go wrong with this charger. Not only is it small so it is basically hidden, it also blends into central units in most cars. If you have a smartphone and you have trouble keeping it alive throughout the day, I would definitely recommend this product.

At the time of this post it is only .99 on Amazon. Product Link

Choetech Qi Wireless Charger under $20 - Review

I've been looking out for a Wireless Charger since the Samsung Charging Pad gave up on my S6 Edge+ on the first day itself. I did get it replaced, however, the second one didn't work either. I know there are some good wireless chargers out there, but frankly, the ones I liked were quite pricey. Its just that, I didn't want to spend more than on something I might never use and not to mention, I just spent like 0 on my new phone.

I came across this CHOETECH Circle Wireless Charger which looked really good. Having seen the reviews of other CHOETECH products, I expected a descent quality out of the brand and the price tag looked just perfect for what I was looking. So, without further thinking, I just ordered one. I've been using it for a week now and I don't have any regrets at all.

Like most of the product brands, CHOETECH also reached out to me asking about my experience with the product and if I'm willing to write a review on it. Hell yeah, I'm always ready for a review and since I'm writing one, why not on XDA. So here's how it goes:-

I have set a standard for reviewing any product on following categories:-
1. Packaging & Content
2. Build Quality & Design
3. Functionality
4. Pros & Cons

I'll go through each of them one by one.

Packaging & Content

From a user's perspective, this might not be the best category for reviewing, however, a consumer's first impression comes with the packaging of the product. It is definitely one of the reasons for so many unboxing videos that we see on YouTube. Now, the one about this product which didn't really impress me is its packaging. It comes in a sleek soft box as shown below:-




As you can see, the box doesn't really give an impression of a top notch brand as it doesn't even mention the exact name of the product which is CHOE Circle Qi Wireless Charger [highlighted above]. It also lacks any kind of seal [highlighted above] or mentioning some of the unique features of this product that I read online while ordering. May be I'm expecting too much of a product, but that's just me. This may not even bother most of you.

Looking through the contents of the box, we have the following items:-
- Wireless Charging Pad
- USB Cable
- Instruction Manual
- Service Manual




So, you did notice that we don't have a charging adapter coming up with this one. May be that's why the charger is priced at just . I don't really care for this (since I've plenty of spare chargers) but, for some, it might be a deal breaker because if they want to use it at their office and the original fast charger at home, they might have to buy a spare charger (with atleast 2 Amp output).
Moving on to the next category...

Build Quality & Design

With an Alumnium back, this product is definitely one of the best out there at this price range. Not just the top, the bottom also has a thick rubber ring to hold onto its ground, no matter where you place it. It has the perfect grip to keep the smartphone in place even without a case on S6 Edge+ and Note 5, which are extremely slippery due to their glass back. The top surface is shiny plastic to provide wireless charging capability. Although it is slightly smaller than Samsung Wireless Charger, the size is just right for any smartphone or smartwatch (Moto 360).




Overall, it might not give you the best premium feel that you would get with brands like Samsung or Google (Nexus), but it is definitely made out of a good quality material and gives feeling of a quality product.

Functionality

Where the Samsung Wireless Charging pad failed to charge my S6 Edge+, this one didn't dissapoint me at all. Just like the former, the CHOETECH Wireless Charger is QI based and it also has an illuminating Blue LED around it which starts glowing once the phone has been placed over it and the charging starts. The blue LED also notifies you when it is unable to charge wirelessly when you place a phone (without wireless charging capability) on top of it. I love the blue illumination since it tells me that my phone is charging alright, but with the Samsung Pad, it used to bother me at night with the illumination being too bright. Thanks to CHOETECH's Smart Light Sensor, this charger dims or completely turns off the bright blue LED depending on the nearby ambient light. That means, if I turn off the light at night, the blue LED around it turns off automatically, but the charging continues.

Another feature that I noticed on this is, even if the phone reaches 100% battery, the charger doesn't turn off (like Samsung's did) and when you get up in the morning, you get your device with 100% Charge. This might be a good thing for some, because I've seen people complaining over it on Samsung Wireless Pad's review that it turns off automatically and the phone charge goes down by the time they get up in the morning. Anyway, this is definitely a matter of personal choice, and I would have preferred an auto-off system against this one.

The charger specification mentions input as 5V/2A, so any modern day charging adapter would do just fine with this wireless pad. The output mentioned is 5V/1A which is same as any other wireless charger available in the market. With this specification, a 3000 mAh battery should charge within 3 hours. So, does it really stand upto it's bold claim? Let's find out...

So, I used a USB power meter to see how much current is drawn when a Nexus 4 and S6 Edge+ is charging. Its hard to tell if the shown current is being drawn by the wireless charger for itself or is it the rate at which, the phone is charging. If I have to take a guess, I would say it's the current that the charger is drawing for itself in order to generate the wireless charging through it's induction coil. Here's a comparison between the Nexus 4 and Edge:-




I also noted down the S6 Edge+ charge time at specific intervals while charging it from 6% - 100%. You can see a constant charging rate from 6%-80% in the graph. And then it takes a little more time from that point to 100%



From the readings above, one can tell that the average time from 0%-100% would be around 3 hours for a 3000 mAh battery (S6 Edge+), which is exactly the time a charger would require if it's output is 1 Amp. And this is where I felt I've made the right choice. A 3 hour charge time for wireless charging is definitely a good sign and I'm 100% satisified with this product. I also ran some tests using different cases for my Edge+ (2 SPG and 1 Arozel) and it didn't make any difference at all. The charger was able to charge my phone through all the cases, which again is a good sign as I read in many of the Wireless Pad's reviews that they don't charge when a case is used.




Pros & Cons

Here's a list of pros and cons for Choetech QI Wireless Charger :-

Pros
- Solid Build Quality
- Small in Size
- Top & Bottom Grips
- Good Power output
- Smart Light Sensor
- No Beep Sound on charge completion

Cons
- Poor Boxing (No Seal on Box either)
- No Charging Adapter
- Doesn't turn-off after 100% charging


So, overall, I'm extremely satisfied with this product. If you're looking for a cheap wireless charger that looks good and gets the job done, this one is definitely for you. However, if your budget isn't limited, you can always opt for a wireless charger from brands like Samsung or Google (Nexus).

Here's a quick video review of the same: CHOE TECH Circle Qi Wireless Charger - Quick Review

Choetech QC2.0 solution - ext 15600mAh battery and dual car charger w/pics!!!

This is a review of Choetech 15600 mAh QC2.0 ext power bank (http://www.amazon.com/CHOETECH-15600...g=vectron00-20) and QC2.0 Dual USB car charger (http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Charge-C...g=vectron00-20)

External Battery and Charger market is probably the most saturated out of all smartphone accessories. From everything that I have tested, I think I shared only a third in my published reviews because the rest is either re-branded, or poorly build, or has low efficiency. But there are products that stand out not just with their quality but also technological innovations that put them ahead of competition. I recently reviewed Choetech USB/AC charger and surge protector which replaced a lot of my other multi-port usb chargers, and now I had an opportunity to test and to review their latest Quick Charge 2.0 (Qualcomm certified quick charger technology) external battery charger and QC2.0 dual car charger. Without exaggerating or hyping anything up, I can tell you with certainty these are two of the most advanced products in their corresponding category I have tested so far. Let me tell you why.

I will start first with Choetech 15600 mAh QC2.0 external power bank. I'm glad to see how a lot of companies adapted environmentally safe boxes with a plastic free packaging. This external battery was no exception, arrived in a carton box with a clean cover graphics. In addition to external battery, Choetech also provided a detailed instruction booklet in English and premium quality high current cable - 3.9ft long with 22AWG gauge rating!!!

QC2.0 enables faster charging of your mobile devices, but at the expense of supporting higher voltage and higher power. Cable is a bottleneck of your charging chain, thinner wires will not be able to carry as much current, can overheat, and will cause the efficiency and the speed of charging to go down. Regular USB data wires were designed to support a standard USB2.0 protocol rated at 0.5A. The thicker the wires, the lower its AWG rating and the more current it could handle. I do have some premium quality cables, but most of them don’t go beyond 24AWG, so I was very impressed with a high quality cable Choetech included with their external battery.

The battery itself is not as compact or lightweight: with dimensions of about 5.7” x 2.9” x 0.8” and a bit hefty in weight with about 355g. But that is expected since we are talking about high capacity 15600 mAh battery that has a number of charging cells. And speaking of charging, before you can start charging your phone the battery itself needs to be charged up. Usually, that’s where you have to wait a long time since most of the battery inputs are rated at 1A. Here you are dealing with a fast 5V @2.1A input which cuts down charging time by a half. And on top of that, the input also accepts QC2.0 charging at 9V @1.5A – an even further acceleration of charging time. Oh, and if that is not enough, Apple fans gonna love this – this battery also has a lightning input port to charge at 5V @2.1A. I have never seen anything like this before.

All these ports are located at the front edge of the battery with an easy access. Right next to the two Input charging ports, you have 2 Output ports to charge your phone. One port is a standard 5V @1A for your older phones or tablets, and another one – the star of this ext battery – QC2.0 port with an adaptive multi-voltage output to support either 5V @2.4A, or 9V @1.7A, or 12V @1.3A. The output voltage and current will vary depending on your phone/device.

On the top, you have a power button to check the battery status and to start the charging. Next to it there are 4 LEDs, corresponding to 25% power increments. What I found to be really cool, the right most LED is bi-color where it’s blue during normal standard speed charging and green during high speed QC2.0 charging, of either the battery itself or the phone. This is an excellent visual feedback and another innovation like I haven’t seen before. And when it comes to charging itself, battery has a healthy 90% efficiency, so you don’t lose as much of the rated capacity.

Bottom line – if you have a smartphone supporting QC2.0 fast charging, this ext battery is absolutely must have due to its high capacity, input flexibility charging from either standard usb input, QC2.0 input, or apple lightning input, and of course being able to quickly charge your smartphone at full accelerated speed. Add 18-month warranty on top of that and a very reasonable price under – and you got one heck of a deal.





















Next is Choetech dual USB car charger with QC2.0 quick charge port. This one also arrived in an environmentally safe box and, in addition to a charger, also included a premium 3.9ft thick 22AWG cable to handle high current without losing efficiency or charging speed. The unit is very compact at 2.4” x 1.2” x 0.8” and lightweight at about 30g. Even so it has dual USB ports, it’s still very small around usb port area. It’s quite impressive to maintain a size of a regular single usb port charger while providing 30W of power with over-current, over-charging, and short circuit protection.

When you look during the daylight, you can see QC2.0 port having a blue outline to easy find your quick charger port. That port is equipped with auto-detect charging which handles 5V @2.1A, 9V @2A, and 12V @1.5A. A regular usb port next to it is a standard port with a fixed 5V @2.4A charging speed. But where it gets interesting is in a dark when you look at the backlight. Without any cable connected, both ports have a cool blue light so it’s easy to find your charger in the car when it’s dark. When you plug in a cable into a regular charge port, the other open port remains lit up in blue. When you connect a fast charging QC2.0 port – the adjacent LED turns green. I absolutely love the visual indication with a different color for QC2.0 charging.

There are many car chargers, and I’m sure we are going to see more QC2.0 enabled ones soon. But a little detail like a background LED light and a changing color when QC2.0 charging in progress is what makes this product stand out from the crowd. And it's always a good option to have both charging ports because QC2.0 charging is fast and if you have a long drive - the annoying message of "unplug your phone" will stay up. In a summary, Choetech is a reputable company and offers 18-month warranty on their products, and for under this is another must have product if your phone supports QC2.0 fast charging. Definitely gets my recommendation.