“The Huawei Wireless Charger comes with support for up to 15W quick wireless charging support”

The smartphone industry is currently undergoing a transitionary phase, where brands are in a hustle to offer sleek and hole-less phones. If you want to know what I am talking about, go take a look at the MEIZU Zero and the Vivo Apex 2019. The way forward appears to be getting rid of ports. We already know that the 3.5mm audio socket is breathing its last and now it seems that the brands will do away with charging ports as well. Just like we have swiftly adapted to wireless earphones, wireless chargers also seems to be the way forward in the future. Huawei recently launched its 15W wireless charger along with the Mate 20 Pro (review) in India. The new wireless charger from the brand aims to bridge the gap between wired and wireless charging with 15W quick charging support. So how does it fare? Stay with me to find out in this review.

The lowdown

Huawei Wireless Charger Review 91mobiles 03

Before delving into the good, the bad and the ugly of the Huawei Wireless Charger, let’s get the spec sheet out of the way. The Huawei 15W wireless charger is a puck-shaped charger, which stands 14mm above the surface and is 54mm in diameter. The bottom of the charger has a rubberised ring, which prevents it from slipping on the surface. On the top, the Huawei Wireless Charger features a soft silicon layer, which also has enough friction to hold the smartphone in place. 

Huawei claims that the wireless charger can output upto 15W, which makes it the fastest wireless charger in the industry at the moment. However, there is one caveat, which will discuss further in the review. Apart from this, the charger is pretty straight forward, you connect it to a wall charger (not included) and plug it in. After that all you need to do is place a compatible smartphone on it.

The good

Huawei Wireless Charger Review 91mobiles 05

If I have to list all good things about the Huawei 15W Wireless Charger, the aesthetics will be one of the first thing to get a mention. The Huawei Wireless charger is one of the most compact wireless chargers in the business, and is barely visible when the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is placed on it. Further, the accessory looks premium, thanks to the silicon surface, which also prevents the smartphone from getting scratched. Another advantage of choosing the silicone material is that while the white finish of the charger gets dirty, it’s pretty easy to clean up. This is a blessing since the charger attracts smudges and lint with the slightest of touches. However, it’s advised to use a damp cloth to clean it since it doesn’t carry an IP rating.

Huawei has also loaded the charger with tons of features like safety measures, foreign object detection, universal compatibility courtesy the Qi standard (10W, 7.5W and 5W), and USB Type-C interface. Further, if you use your smartphone with a case, you have nothing to worry about. Huawei claims that the charger can charge through non-metallic cases that are thinner than 5mm. I did put the claim to the test and while the charger was able to do its job, the charging speeds were considerably slower.

Huawei Wireless Charger Review 91mobiles 04

Let’s separate the wheat from the chaff. Huawei’s claim to fame is the 15W output, which makes it the fastest wireless charger in the business. I put the charger through its paces to assert if the claims hold any water. During my review, I used the accessory with the 40W adapter that came bundled with the Mate 20 Pro, since the charger performs best with it. In my testing, the Mate 20 Pro touched only 24 percent mark in 30 minutes, which is slightly less than the assured 31 percent in that time. However, the 4,200mAh battery of the flagship device took around 2 hours and 40 minutes to charge fully, which is pretty impressive. To put things into perspective, I also conducted the same test on an Apple iPhone 8 (review), which features an 1,821mAh battery and has 7.5W wireless charging standard. The iPhone 8 took almost 3 hours to charge wirelessly from zero to 100 percent.

The bad

Huawei Wireless Charger Review 91mobiles 02

One of the biggest drawbacks, which irked me the most personally as soon as I unboxed the Huawei Wireless Charger was a missing basic component. I spent a good 10 minutes looking for the wall adapter in the box and the deconstructed packaging of the charger stands witness to the act. For some reason, Huawei has deemed it fit to exclude the most important component from the packaging, which is strange considering that it’s included in the bundle offshores. Huawei hasn’t mentioned any specific adapter for this, but any good QC 3.0 certified fast charging wall adapter should work. However, that still doesn’t negate the fact that you have to spend extra for a basic component on top of the price of charger, which is priced at Rs 3,999.

The second peeve I had with the wireless charger is the position of the LED Indicator. The indicator is placed on the underside of the lip on front and is hard to spot. Huawei claims that the LED indicator blinks when there is a connectivity error which happened to me once. I came back after 2 hours to find the battery of the phone depleted further, because the phone was placed at a slightly slanted angle, and I couldn’t see the blinking LED. 

And the ugly

Huawei Wireless Charger Review 91mobiles 01

The charger works the best with Huawei’s own Mate 20 Pro at the moment. The first and foremost reason behind this is that it works optimally with the 40W wall charger that comes with the flagship phone. Moreover, the charger makes use of the proprietary Huawei Wireless Quick Charging Technology. And as of now and for a few months to come, the device that can get the best out of the premium wireless charger is the Mate 20 Pro. 

Also, while the brand has managed to narrow the gap between wired and wireless charging, it still hasn’t bridged it completely. The wireless charger still took close to 2.5 hours to charge the phone fully, whereas, the bundled wired charger did so in under an hour. So that’s there as well.

So should you buy the Huawei Wireless Charger?

If you are already carrying around a Huawei Mate 20 Pro, then of course you should, as you have already got the desired 40W adapter and technology to utilise the charger to its best. However, if you are rocking any other phone that supports wireless charging, then, frankly speaking, this is not the best choice. It’s like buying a Lamborghini in India, which has the horsepower and the style but can barely be driven on the pothole-ridden roads of our country. For any other Qi-capable smartphone, you will be better off with more affordable options like Belkin’s Boost Up, Noise Slim QI Fast Wireless Charger and Noise QI Wireless Charging Stand (all in the range of Rs 2,000).