It was fairly nice; instead of having to fiddle around with plugging a cable into my phone at night I could simply place it on the charging pad, then retrieve it in the morning without needing to worry about an attached cable snagging on anything. However, it still required a degree of fiddling around to make sure it got aligned properly to start charging. (I usually read on my phone in bed a bit before sleeping, so when I finally put my phone on to charge it's dark and I'm sleepy.) Wireless charging by itself is nice and convenient, but it felt like the precision required to initiate charging holds it back somewhat from its full potential.
Enter the company Xvida, which I discovered last year. They've come up with a solution for the fiddly part of getting your phone to charge via making wireless chargers with a set of magnets built in. They also make phone attachments with matching magnets, which will stick your phone to the charger in a way that lines it up for optimal charging. They make full cases for a couple of the most popular phone lines (mostly ones from Samsung and Apple), but also a simple, thin magnetic card which can be attached to the back of most phones and is thin enough to live under most cases.
Out of interest, I picked up a matching charger and magnetic card back in November, and I can say that they're quite good. The manufacturing is solid, and the magnetic connection is plenty strong enough. (Xvida also makes car chargers, and I have no problem believing they'd be capable of holding a phone through all but the worst potholes.) Now charging my phone in the evening is as simple as holding it near the charger and letting the magnets align it in place. In the morning I just pull it off, and I'm good to go. After a month or so I picked up a second charger for use at my desk in Swinburne—this one's a much more elegant-looking stand, and I actually use it unplugged as a stand for my phone more than I actually do a charger. I also just tonight ordered their latest product, a wireless battery pack with the same magnetic connection technology. (I've been thinking about having a back-up battery for a while.)
Now, I don't usually write reviews like this for many products as I'm always worried something I've promoted might not turn out to be good or useful later on, but I feel pretty confident in Xvida's products and can recommend them. They're a pretty small, new company who got started from a successful Kickstarter project; I've asked questions by email and always gotten a very polite personal reply back quickly. Anyway, what prompted me to write this post tonight is that they're having a site-wide 15% off sale at the moment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I wanted to let people know about it. I've no idea how long it'll last as it doesn't say, so you might want to check it out soon if you're interested. Having tried wireless charging I wouldn't want to go back to cables, and I think Xvida's created a really nice product that solves one of the few remaining niggles with the concept. Hopefully some of you find this useful, dear readers! A hui hou!
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