solitariness schist: LG WCP-300 Wireless Charger: Simple, small, effective

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

LG WCP-300 Wireless Charger: Simple, small, effective

LG WCP-300 Wireless Charger.

Wireless charging one day will take over the world. Someday. Maybe next week. Maybe not. Eventually, perhaps.

OK, nobody's getting rid of microUSB chargers anytime soon. So to that end we'll keep plowing our way through wireless Qi chargers. When we first saw the LG WCP-300 Wireless Charger (we picked ours up for $39 at Verizon) at Mobile World Congress, it was a pretty unassuming puck. It's smallish (about 2.7 inches in diameter) and is just a bit thicker than the phone you're going to charge it with. The included travel charger is rated at 1.8A, and the puck itself takes that down to 1A. So if you want a faster charge, you'll need to plug in. But wireless charging has always been more about convenience than speed. (The party line is that the WCP-300 will charge a 1500 mAh battery in less than 4 hours.)

So, one puck, one phone. Plug in the microUSB cable, plop a phone on top of it, and you're charging. There's an LED indicator light that doesn't do a whole lot of good unless you place your phone on the puck sideways -- it's hidden, otherwise -- but doing so just looks odd. The face of the puck is matte black. It's ringed in glossy plastic, and the bottom's got four rubber feet that keeps things nicely in place.

If you're going to delve into the world of wireless charging, you need to know up front that you'll be paying a little bit of a premium. Paying $39 to charge your phone isn't small potatoes. But the LG WCP-300 is a slim and stylish charging puck. In fact, it's probably going to end up in my travel bag, just because.

We've got more pics after the break.