Hidden Charges!
Strengths
- Simple installation
- Small and discreet design
- Works effortlessly with compatible phones
Weakness
- 10W speed isn’t very fast
- Included charging cable is short
- Doesn’t work well with phone cases
InvisQi Wireless Charger
The continued adoption of wireless charging tech in modern smartphones (and other electronics for that matter) has led to an increase in wireless charging solutions from both big companies, as well as new-and-upcoming brands. With that in mind, InvisQi’s Invisible 10W long distance wireless charger is designed to provide convenient wireless charging, as well as a more discreet approach to doing so. Let’s take a look!
What’s in the Box?
The InvisQi Invisible Wireless Charger comes in some rather straightforward packaging, which includes the main charging plate, a set of screws for mounting, an adhesive pad in case you want to forego the screws, a charge tester, and some paperwork. There’s no manual included however, as all you get is a slip with a QR code to view the actual manual online.
The choice to include different mounting options for the charger is a much-welcome addition, in case some users want to preserve the unpunctured underside of their tables or shelves.
Hardware and Charging Specifications
There’s not much to the wireless charger in terms of design – it’s basically a large round plate, although it does have a substantial amount of weight to it. Should you decide to mount the charger with screws, there are four screw sockets which you can use to attach the charging plate.
In terms of charging capabilities, the Invisible Charger will be able to provide easy wireless charging functionality to most surfaces, although as with any other electronic device there are some caveats to the hardware. There’s a limit of 30mm charging distance, so any tables thicker than that might not play well with the charger. InvisQi says that the charger will work through wood, glass, plastic, marble, quartz, and even granite surfaces. It will not be compatible with metal surfaces, however.
The charger comes with a maximum 10W charging speed, and while this isn’t anything to write home about, it does keep in line with a majority of wireless chargers out there, which more often than not still feature moderate (and sometimes even slower) charging speeds.
It should be said though that the included power cable isn’t too long, so an extension cord in this case would be very handy, should your table be placed with a bit of distance from an outlet.
Setup and Usage
Setting up the charger is pretty straightforward – once you’ve located an ideal spot for your charging area, you can simply mount the charging plate using either the screws or adhesive pad on the underside of your table. For this one, I opted to go and use the adhesive pad, since it does manage to cling on tightly, keeping the plate connected to the table. For reference, the table measures around an inch or so.
Once the charger is mounted, you can then plug in the power cable to both the charging plate and a nearby power source. There’s an LED bulb on the side of the plate itself, which glows red when on standby, and glows green when there’s a phone currently charging.
For this one, I used the Google Pixel 7a to test the wireless charger, which was fairly easy to locate as I knew where I had installed the charging plate. As mentioned earlier, there’s an included sticker which you can use to mark the charging area on your surface, in case there’s a bit of trouble making sure where exactly the charging plate is located. The Pixel 7a had no trouble charging, and instantly showed the wireless charging notification once I placed it on the table.
With that said however, using a case on your device might interfere with the Invisible Charger’s functionality, depending of course on how thick your phone case is. My Pixel 6 had a bit of trouble connecting to the charger, even though I was using a thin plastic case on it. This might prove to be a bit of a hassle for some users, who might not be too keen on removing their phone case everytime they need to charge.
The charger is advertised as having 10W charging speeds for most Android devices, and 7.5W charging speeds for iPhones. With that said though, this will still depend on your phone’s specifications, and in the case of the Pixel 7a it was a very long wait before the phone was fully able to charge.
So is it Worth it?
In terms of cost, the InvisQi Invisible Charger is priced at around £106 on InvisQi’s website, although you can probably get them for slightly cheaper with occasional price drops or from other online retailers. For the price, you do get a minimalist design, no-nonsense functionality, and a very easy set-up process. On the other hand, there are some factors to consider, such as the slightly limiting 10W charging speed, a short power cable, and charging issues when attempting to charge smartphones with cases.
However, if issues such as these aren’t an impedance to your usage, and all you’re after is an easy and quick way to set-up wireless charging in your home (or a business area), then by all means go out and grab the InvisQi wireless charger.
