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Belkin Qi 15W Based Boost Up Wireless Charger is a Bit Ahead of Its Time

The Belkin Boost Up 15-Watt Qi Compatible Wireless Charging Pad & Charger can be considered industry's early example of 15W based Qi wireless charger. While it offers wireless charging up to future proof 15 watts, there are still not many Qi enabled phones out there that can take advantage of 15W wireless charging. A good example is the Apple iPhone 8 or iPhone X that only accepts 7.5W currently, but still can be used with the Belkin charger. Its main rival Samsung also supports up to 7.5W charging through its latest Galaxy models like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Note 8 which you can achieve through Samsung's own 7.5W enabled Fast Charge Wireless Charging Stand.

From our own testing, both the Apple iPhone X and Samsung Galaxy S8 were able to charge with the Belkin Boost Up 15-Watt Qi Compatible Wireless Charging Pad & Charger. However, the iPhone X could be charged only when placed exactly on the Belkin charging pad for it to be properly detected by the Belkin charger, which was also observed with the Samsung Galaxy S8. This makes it easy for charging to stop whenever the phone is accidentally knocked out of place on the pad which is a problem you don't have when just charging through a cable which is mechanically latched to the phone. Note you can also get faster charging through USB based charging which we see in this review where the Belkin Boost Up 15-Watt Qi Compatible Wireless Charging Pad & Charger would take 3 hours to entirely charge up the Samsung Galaxy S8's battery using 7.5W compared to only under 2 hours when tested with the 15W based Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging Charger.

Style-wise, the Belkin Boost Up 15-Watt Qi Compatible Wireless Charging Pad & Charger highlights Samsung phone, since this version of the packaging was done before the.iPhone 8 or iPhone X were announced.

It's also nice seeing that Belkin took extra effort to make the packaging much more interesting than the standard accessories box.

Belkin makes it clear in supporting the more recent Qi-enabled Samsung Galaxy phones (including the ill fated Galaxy Note7). However, Belkin doesn't make it clear that the phones listed actually can't take advantage of the 15W available on this charger, which is why the Belkin Boost Up 15-Watt Qi Compatible Wireless Charging Pad & Charger is more expensive than other Qi chargers like Samsung's own Fast Charge Wireless Charging Stand.

The Belkin Boost Up 15-Watt Qi Compatible Wireless Charging Pad & Charger shows that the Samsung Fast Charge Wireless Charging Stand  supports 9W of charging although we've observed only 7.5W in our tests.

Despite having purchased this Belkin Boost Up 15-Watt Qi Compatible Wireless Charging Pad & Charger new for in-store pick-up from Best Buy in Dublin, California, we were surprised to find that the box had already been opened with parts of the box torn and documentation manhandled. Best Buy apparently got a returned item but didn't bother to check inside the box, and the Belkin Boost Up 15-Watt Qi Compatible Wireless Charging Pad & Charger was restocked as a new item again.

Like the Samsung's Fast Charge Wireless Charging Stand, the Belkin Boost Up 15-Watt Qi Compatible Wireless Charging Pad & Charger also comes with its own AC power adapter accessory but with a tethered instead of a separate USB based charging cable.

You'll need to connect this 24W (12 volts @ 2 amps) based power adapter to the Belkin charging pad in order to keep it charged. Make sure not to lose this adapter since the Belkin charging pad doesn't have a USB charging in port unlike Samsung's Fast Charge Wireless Charging Stand. You can't easily plug in the Belkin charger to any available USB power source if there's no access to its own power brick. Note Belkin actually provides a USB charging in port for the lower end Belkin Qi Wireless Charging Pad supporting Qi Low Power (5W) that comes with a separate USB charging cable similar to Samsung's Fast Charge. 

Charging can only happen when the Qi-enabled phone is placed directly on top of the Belkin charging pad, like any standard wireless charger. Qi wireless charging should automatically start once the LED charging indicator at the corner turns green. In case there are other objects on the pad other than the phone when charging, the LED will turn red as a warning sign.

The Belkin Boost Up 15-Watt Qi Compatible Wireless Charging Pad & Charger conveniently allows the phone to be charged through a phone case as thick as 3 mm.

For those who own phones that support Qi wireless charging, the Belkin Boost Up 15-Watt Qi Compatible Wireless Charging Pad & Charger can be an alternative to traditional wired USB based chargers which with USB Type-C are now generally getting at least 15W of charging. However, the latest phones that support Qi charging like the Apple iPhone 8, iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S8, and Note 8 only support up to 7.5W of charging which is the same power you get from the USB Battery Charging 1.2 spec. Although none has yet been announced, hopefully future phones will take advantage of the 15W Qi power so that users can take full advantage of the Belkin Boost Up 15-Watt Qi Compatible Wireless Charging Pad & Charger.