I honestly don’t remember when was the last time that I used an alarm clock, but I do remember when I threw my old clock away – with that start of the Symbian era. My old Nokia 3650 paired with a (really badly designed) alarm app supported my small but effective library of MP3’s, and from then on, morning after morning, I trust my phones in getting my lazy ass out of the bed. Am I the only one? Nah, the research from YouGov found out that 60% of respondents aged 16-34 said they used their phone as an alarm, and this was back in 2011., now, almost a decade later, I think this number went up to 80%, at least.
So, it’s a fact that most of our generation nowadays uses phones to wake them up in the morning, and although I love my wake up tones, there’s nothing worse then hitting that snooze button and figuring out that although your day is about to start, your battery is reaching it’s end. To make the maters worse, I found myself in that same situation over and over again, and now, finally, there is a solution to it – Qi Wireless Charging Furniture.
By combining your phone and the new Qi Wireless standard, you can set up your alarm, place your phone on your night lamp and bam, you’re phone is charging. Next morning you’re going to wake up to a full battery, without even having to plug your phone in to anything.
With that said, welcome to the wireless charging era, where we combine night lamps with Qi technology, and in this article we’re going to pick out two lamps which are worth your money.
How does the process work? What type of phone do I need?
Qi Wireless Charging has been around for a few years, but since the standard still hasn’t picked up with regular users, you might need a quick refresh, so let’s cover the basics first:
- You need a phone which has built in Qi Wireless Charging (check the list below).
- You own a charger which supports the Qi Technology (either the lamp’s mentioned below or standard chargers available for cars and office desks).
- You place the phone’s back on the charger, the phone detects the signal and starts charging (expect it to be a bit slow though).
- You can pick up the phone and place it back on to the charger without worries, no harm is done to the device, battery or the charger.
With the above technology you can set up your alarm, place the phone on your night lamp with Qi Wireless Charging, and the night lamp will charge your phone wirelessly, without the need to do anything to the lamp or the device. You can go to bed without even thinking about a regular charger, cables and so on, and in the morning a full battery will wait for you to start off the day. Sounds good, right? Ok, now let’s check if you have the right phone for it:
Here is the list of Qi-Enabled Smartphones
If you own a newer phone which is not on the list below, then just check the user manual of that particular model to make sure it’s compatible with the standard.
- Apple iPhone: 8, 8 Plus, X
- BlackBerry: Priv
- Google Nexus: 4, 5, 6, 7 (2013)
- Huawei: Mate RS Porsche Design
- LG: G7 ThinQ, V30, G6 (US version only), G4 (optional), G3 (optional)
- Microsoft Lumia: 1520, 1020, 930, 929, 928, 920
- Nokia: 8 Sirocco
- Samsung Galaxy: Note 9, S9, S9+, Note 8, S8, S8+, S7, S7 Edge, Note 5, S6, S6 Edge
- Sony: Xperia XZ3, Xperia XZ2 Premium, Xperia XZ2
What to watch out when buying the right Qi Charging Night Lamp
Aside the lamp details, like watching out that it’s made out of good quality materials, looks good, fits on your desk, has a standard light bulb which can easily be exchanged and so on, the most important factor is the charging standard.
There are currently two standards, the Regular Charging and the Fast Charging standard, and you want to go with the latest. Although, within the spawn of those 7 hours in which you’re going to sleep, you will not see a difference in the charging time, but just for the sake of getting the newer and better standard, I would warmly recommend to go with the Fast Charging lamps.
So, go with the lamps which support Fast Charging, which can charge your iPhone x/ 8/ 8 Plus with up to 7.5W, or your Samsung Galaxy S8/ S7/ note 8 with up to 10W power/speed, just to be future safe.
Now, I already owned several of them, even the Ikea Qi Charging Lamps, and as of now I have only three suggestions for you which are worth your money – two of them are affordable, one is a bit on the pricey side, but still good, so let’s get to the recommendations:
Affordable Qi Charging Enabled lamps under $50
The market of cheap Qi Charging lamps is slowly being saturated with several Chinese companies which are not only presenting new models each month, but are also copying the manufacturer who copied the other person who copied the initial copier and so on – you know the drill.
So I went through all of the reviews and bought a few of them, tested them out, checked the charging times, and after several weeks of combining and reviewing, I came up with only one brand which is worth my $50, which is the TaoTronics.
What I liked about the TaoTronics Qi-Enabled Lamps:
- Their lamps feature Fast Charging Qi Technology, supporting both the newest iPhones and Samsung phones.
- The base of the lamp can hold a Plus sized phone without any problems.
- They have a separate USB charging port, which can charge up to 5V/1A, perfect for tablets.
- They feature 5 colors & 5 brightness levels, where you can personalize the light, save it and then the lamp automatically restores the previous settings (I genuinely *love* this feature).
- It features a 1 hour timer, basically you turn it on, turn the timer, start reading the book or watch the TV, in case you fall asleep, the lamp turns itself off. I don’t know if kids are reading this (sorry if yes), but this is perfect for “those nights” with your partner. I personally hate to get out of the spoon position to just turn of the light, and a timer solved this.
This is my personal favorite, the black TaoTronics Qi Night Lamp. It hold all the features mentioned above.
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My second favorite, the white TaoTronics Qi Night Lamp. Also has all the features mentioned above, just with a different twist:
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High end Qi Charging Enabled lamps above $50
Now, before I tell you that the Ampulla Bedside Lamp is the only proper choice when it comes to lamps above $50, hear me out first.
Through my research, this has been the only stylish lamp which could actually fit in to a modern home; it looks expensive, it’s made out of high quality material, has a Bluetooth speaker built in, offers the same fast charging as the above mentioned models from TaoTronics, but looks waaaay better then any other models I came across.
The best thing, it comes with a Cshidworld’s 40-day money back guarantee, 18-month hassle-free warranty with considerate customer service, and it costs less then a Tiffanny lamp.
Checkout some photos below, and if you decide to buy it, expect to pay a bit over $100. It’s available through the seller’s Amazon page.
Conclusion, the future looks bright… And charged!
The Qi standard is as powerful as the devices which support it, and as of now, it’s slowly building up. We have tables, desk lamps and proper charges which feature the technology, packed with up to 20 different high end phones which support it. Soon enough I expect to sit down in a coffee shop, place my phone and laptop on the table, which immediately enters charging mode.
Now, the only question which I have for the industry – Nintendo, when will you introduce a handheld console with Qi Charging Standard and who will be the funny guy who invents a Qi Standard charging paper roll holder? :)))