Best Alternatives to Apple's Now-Canceled AirPower

[FairlyKors]

Not to mention the reviews on Amazon for just about every alternative I’ve seen mentioned them coming broken or failing in a couple of weeks. One even mentioned a high pitched buzzing while charging. NO THANK YOU!

About four months ago I bought a newly released, Anker PowerWave pad. It’s a circle about 4” in diameter and 1/4” tall. It was all of $10, and Anker has historically been pretty good about designing with safety in mind. With no-name companies you really have no-idea, so be careful. I put my phone on it when to go to sleep, and for that, it works great. If I had a pair of those sweet white ear hemorrhoids I see dangling out of ear holes everywhere, I suspect another $10 pad would suffice for them too. How has this become such an elaborate, expensive, and boofed-up situation?

Why the jungle gyms that look like a training ground for your electronic devices? Is that the joke, or are they trying to make things fancier than need be to charge way more than anyone need pay?

 

[IIGS User]

I don’t mind cables, at least they allow me to use my phone while it’s still charging. I’m hoping Apple won’t eventually get rid of the power port altogether, but it’s likely they will. Hopefully by then, wireless charging will be super fast.

Until they find a really really good way to connect your phone to things like in car navigation, and to “boot strap” bricked phones without physically connecting them to a computer, I suspect some sort of port will always be there. There’s a certain utilitarian factor to being able to use a physical cable for things like transferring my info to a new phone, connecting my phone to a friends car on a road trip without using Bluetooth, and charging anyplace you can get a USB Port/outlet.

I don’t think this is and option that would disappear for over a decade, if not more. But the fruit company has made a habit of changing things up to force us to change as well. I wonder if hey still have that sort of clout in the tech sector these days, give failures like this and the slowdown in iPhone sales. I suspect Apple will have to listen to their customers a bit more as opposed to forcing their hubris on us....

 

[chfilm]

Perhaps some people need pictures to help understand.

This is what the inside of the $50 Samsung convertible charger looks like. Respected brand name, big company; others have questioned how they can produce a charger, but Apple can't? And here's their combo phone/watch charging stand.

These are the $40-50 Anker stand and pad. Fan cooled. The most costly options from a known and trusted Amazon accessory brand.

Here's one of the cheaper Anker stands that often goes on sale for $20 or less.

It's also nice to contrast how Belkin's $160 combo stand is constructed. That extra cost does go somewhere other than slapping a coil and circuit board into an injection-molded plastic shell.


And although AirPower will never see the light of day, patent filings help illuminate what Apple was trying to accomplish, and how:

- Apple reveals more technical details about AirPower in a European Patent Filing

- Four more Patents Surface covering AirPower and the Inductive Module for iPhone X

- Apple's Second Patent Filing Relating to AirPower's ability to Identify Harmful 'Foreign Objects' Surfaces

- Apple invents a Foreign Object Detection System for AirPower that uses Machine-Learning

- Apple Invents a Specialized Surface for their Future AirPower Mat to Keep Devices in Place while Charging

And much more, for those who want to dig into it.


Even those who lack the ability to discern how it would function differently, or understand the concepts involved can just look at the pretty pictures and see that AirPower was not going to be like the others, and not the "same thing."

Apple didn't fail for lack of trying. It was a complex challenge that few others have attempted, at least publicly, and some of the theories floated out there about why the project was cancelled are patently ridiculous.

Thanks so much for this post. I have a feeling we just slowly arrive in the “post fact era” even here on MR. People just ignore the facts and shout out random opinions, like “lock her up”, sorry I mean “kick Tim Apple out” or “heads have to roll!”

It’s sad. And it’s sad that AirPower will never see the light of day, it would’ve been one of these truly magical Apple products that no one would’ve been able to copy. The problem with competition usually is that they are ok with “good enough” like this slice charge device.

 

[Kognito]

I’d love to buy the slice charge in the UK but it’s not on Amazon and Google Shopping only returns a list of toasters when I search for it.

 

[Khedron]

About four months ago I bought a newly released, Anker PowerWave pad. It’s a circle about 4” in diameter and 1/4” tall. It was all of $10, and Anker has historically been pretty good about designing with safety in mind. With no-name companies you really have no-idea, so be careful. I put my phone on it when to go to sleep, and for that, it works great. If I had a pair of those sweet white ear hemorrhoids I see dangling out of ear holes everywhere, I suspect another $10 pad would suffice for them too. How has this become such an elaborate, expensive, and boofed-up situation?

Why the jungle gyms that look like a training ground for your electronic devices? Is that the joke, or are they trying to make things fancier than need be to charge way more than anyone need pay?

Or just use the same pad but charge your AirPods at a different time.

 

[Whathappened]

Not to mention the reviews on Amazon for just about every alternative I’ve seen mentioned them coming broken or failing in a couple of weeks. One even mentioned a high pitched buzzing while charging. NO THANK YOU!

I am using my 10 bucks Yootechs now since the last iPhone release and none of the four (home + office) failed or made any sound or anything at all besides charging our iDevices.
YES THANK YOU!

 

[_Refurbished_]

A charging mat is just another dongle. I prefer keeping is simple and would rather have only the cable without the charging dongle.



View attachment 829469

Each night I put my phone on a mat and I’m done. The cable is the dongle here.

 

[MisterSavage]

Each night I put my phone on a mat and I’m done. The cable is the dongle here.

It makes things so much simpler having a few Qi chargers around the home. I set my phone down and my phone is always charging. Before I would only plug it in at night.

 

[Khedron]

It makes things so much simpler having a few Qi chargers around the home. I set my phone down and my phone is always charging. Before I would only plug it in at night.

AirPower would never have been able to compete with the same price spent on multiple mats in different locations anyway.

 

[vnrwka]

I'll bet it wasn't an engineering obstacle that axed the AirPower charger, but a business one.
There's too many wireless chargers available today that do virtually everything the AirPower promised at a fraction of the cost.
There's a $39 one on this list that'll charge all three devices. Who would want to buy a $149 charger from Apple that essentially does the same thing?

but that's what Apple does.....charging premium for normal things has been their strategy since day 1, no?

 

[sos47]

i hope they delete the code in iOS.

 

[Ihatefall]

I like Nomad, but its expensive AF.

I'd rather have a separate charger for iPhone and for Apple Watch.
[doublepost=1553992104][/doublepost]Just don't be one of those idiot people to buy an expensive charger JUST FOR AN AIRPOD. Unless you are rich and are able to throw money into the toilet.

They make one without the Apple Watch charger it’s $20 less and has a few USB ports in the back for charging.

I have the one they mentioned and I love it. I would buy it again

 

[spazzcat]

If Apple couldn’t make the thermals work safely, how could these other companies? I’m sure Apple engineers tore apart the competitors to see how it works.

For me, I’m staying away from the multi-chargers. Not worth the fire risk. As others have notes, not all of these are UL rated.

None of these products have overlapping coils.

 

[chr1s60]

I'll bet it wasn't an engineering obstacle that axed the AirPower charger, but a business one.
There's too many wireless chargers available today that do virtually everything the AirPower promised at a fraction of the cost.
There's a $39 one on this list that'll charge all three devices. Who would want to buy a $149 charger from Apple that essentially does the same thing?

This is exactly it. When Air Power was introduced, there was high interest, but the longer it delayed, the more potential customers that were lost. I know I was intrigued when announced, but most people aren't going to wait over a year to buy the wireless charger. At this point if they did release the AirPower, nearly half or more of the potential customers at announcement, would no longer be willing to buy it.

 

[dotzero123]

Just purchased a Belkin Boost Up 10W charger. Really tiny but does the trick and charges AirPods/phone pretty quickly. Might get companion phone standing charger and would be enough for me. My older iPad needs lightening and have an older dock I’ll keep w my cords till my”perfect” solution comes along.

 

[Khedron]

None of these products have overlapping coils.

And they don't play Half Life 3.

 

[bigjohn]

not surprised. apple never made an apple-branded car charger for iphone. best to let accessory makers do their thing.

 

[richman20]

I don't understand the hype with "wireless charging". You still need to bring multiple accessories with you, it charges far slower, doesn't work with my preferred metal backed case for my vent clip car magnetic mount, and it is more expensive. So to charge my AirPods case, it's an extra $50 and then over $100 for the charger all
so it can charge slower and be less portable. What am I missing?

 

[Crzyrio]

A charging mat is just another dongle. I prefer keeping is simple and would rather have only the cable without the charging dongle.



View attachment 829469

The mats are for people with multiple devices.

I’d much rather have a mat then 2-3 cables

 

[parkds]

Add me to the list that was surprised to see SliceCharge Pro absent from this list (and a few other site’s lists). I don’t work for the company and only found out about the product after the AirPower was canceled, but the SliceCharge Pro seems to deliver on the most appealing aspects of AirPower: overlapping coils allowing for freedom of placement. There are some early hands-on that make the product sound like it lives up to the promises, but we will see.

I agree with the idea that Apple should have just released a non watch version of AirPower if it is true that the watch coils were the biggest cause of heat.

 

[Khedron]

Add me to the list that was surprised to see SliceCharge Pro absent from this list (and a few other site’s lists). I don’t work for the company and only found out about the product after the AirPower was canceled, but the SliceCharge Pro seems to deliver on the most appealing aspects of AirPower: overlapping coils allowing for freedom of placement. There are some early hands-on that make the product sound like it lives up to the promises, but we will see.

I agree with the idea that Apple should have just released a non watch version of AirPower if it is true that the watch coils were the biggest cause of heat.

Maybe they considered that with the more recent photos of the AirPower. Apparently backtracking on the features but still charging about $200 was too embarrassing even for Tim, and he charges $150 for $15 of storage.

 

[Natzoo]

Do not purchase these, most are not even UL listed and the reviews are modified on the products website. Macrumours is sponsored by these companies and some are very unsafe. Just be wary. Ended up purchasing the mophie charge + pad, already have a Belkin watch stand from my series 1.

 

[MagicTorch]

My bedside setup is the ‘Pure Siesta Charge’ which is a DAB Bluetooth Clock Radio. The top of the unit acts as a charging mat & there is also a USB Power Port socket at the rear of the unit, which I plug the charger for my Apple Watch into. IMO, I have quite an elegant/minimalist set up & only need one mains socket to power my bedside alarm & charge both my phone & watch overnight.

 

[TehFalcon]

Ordered the SliceCharge 2. Same Design as the AirPower except it's covered in a fabric similar to the HomePods. It's really nice!

 

[rjtyork]

Helpful article, thanks.

After finally passing the frustration threshold charging my 8 with a lightning night stand, I decided to go wireless. Went with the MQOUNY because:
- Nightstand instead of flat mat, so I can see the phone
- Built-in watch charging puck (those that make you use yours are lame)
- Charges my AirPods too
- Fast (7.5 W) wireless
- Comes with a charging adapter & USB-C cable (beware, some don’t; also lame)
- Available in black
- Might be cheap Chinese, but it’s got overheat protection and is CE/FCC certified

I bought the same one. Decent little POS for $34 and I’m not super worried about overheating. And yes, I recognize it’s kind of a POS. But it’s so convenient and has everything I want in a nightstand charging station.