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35What you need: Qi receiver Time required: 30 minutes, plus charging timeO
ne of the most useful upgrades
you can make to an old phone is
to add wireless charging. More
and more devices, from Bluetooth
earbuds to the latest smartwatches,
support wireless charging and, while
there were once several competing
standards, the industry has settled on Qi.
Pronounced Chee, it’s supported by more
than 340 members of the Wireless Power
Consortium (www.snipca.com/41797),
including Apple, HP, Samsung, Google
and Bose.
Once you go wireless, you won’t want
to go back. It’s not only simpler (andquicker) to drop your device on a charger
when you head to bed. It also causes less
wear and tear to the device itself, because
you’ll no longer be putting stress on the
connector or lead as you plug in and
unplug every day. And, once you’ve
bought a charger or two, you can use
them with all of your devices, and use a
friend’s charger when you’re visiting,
even if your phone and theirs use
incompatible plugs and connectors.
To get set up, you’ll need a Qi-compatible
phone and a base station – but, if you’re
not ready to spend several hundred
pounds on a new phone, you can add1
Choose a compatible
wireless receiver
There are many Qi receivers
for sale online, although negative user
reviews suggest there are plenty of
dodgy models to avoid. One of the best
brands is Chinese firm Nillkin, so we
bought two chargers to test. One had a
Lightning connector for use with iPhone
(www.snipca.com/41782, pictured
right), and a second with a microUSB
connector for use with an Android device
(www.snipca.com/41783). They cost us
£11.99 each.
It’s important to choose a receiver withIssue 632 • 25 May – 7 June 2022Pull Out
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Issue 63244 Phone & Tablet Tips
46 Make Windows
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48 In the Club: Pass on
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in a side panelwireless charging for less than £12 using
a Qi receiver, as we’ll show you here.
As for the base station, IKEA sells its
Qi-compatible Livboj charger (which
we’ve not tested) for £5 (www.snipca.
com/41798, pictured above). The Livboj
doesn’t come with a cable but has a
USB-C socket on the back so, if you
already have a USB-C cable and adapter,
you should be able to reuse them. This is
just one option, though: there are dozens
of Qi chargers on the market.Add wireless charging to
your phone by Nik Rawlinson
The Qi receivers connect to our phones’ regular
charging ports, and can be stuck to the back of
the phonea compatible plug for your device, as they
aren’t interchangeable. If you’re buyingone with a microUSB connection, you
also need to keep an eye out for ‘narrow
side up’ and ‘narrow side down’ in any
description. The reason this is important
quickly becomes obvious: the receiver is
designed to sit behind the phone, with
its cable curled around the bottom of
the device to reach the socket. Doing so
changes the orientation of the plug so,
if you’ve bought a ‘narrow side down’
device, but the plug is now narrow side
up, it won’t fit.
You can easily work out which one you
need by placing your phone on a desk,
so the screen is facing up, and examining