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The Best Wireless Chargers for Your Smartphone

Wireless charging pads have come a long way in the last few years. Get the one that best matches your iPhone and Android.

collage of three wireless chargersCourtesy

By Tucker Bowe

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If you’ve bought a new smartphone in the last few years, there’s a good chance that it supports wireless charging. Android smartphones have supported it for around a decade, while Apple, admittedly late to the party, introduced the first iPhone that could wirelessly charge in 2017 — it was it was the iPhone 8, in case you forgot— and every new iPhone has supported it since.

Products in the Guide

Wireless charging is convenient because it allows you to charge your smartphone without the need for a charging cable. You just place it on the charging pad or stand and — boom — it starts charging. (As Steve Jobs liked to say, it just works.)

There are a couple of tradeoffs that come with wireless charging, however. The main one is that it typically won’t charge your smartphone as fast as a wired connection can. In addition, wireless charging solutions are a little more expensive than the old-fashioned power cord.

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How We Tested

wireless chargersTucker Bowe

There are a lot of smartphones and a heck of a lot of wireless chargers out there. We’ve had hand-on testing with most of the wireless chargers in the below guide. We’ve also included a few wireless chargers made by trusted brands, and we intend to go hands-on with them in the near future for firsthand testing experience.

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The Best MagSafe Chargers for iPhone

Apple MagSafe Charger

  • Max power output: 15 watts
  • Does it come with a wall adapter? No

The MagSafe Charger is Apple’s most affordable wireless charger for its newest iPhones. It magnetically connects to any compatible iPhone and is capable of charging it at 15 watts (except for the 12 mini, which maxes out at 12 watts), which is twice the 7.5-watt speed that all other iPhones accept from a wireless charger. The only downside is that the recommended 20-watt USB-C charging brick is sold separately.

Apple MagSafe Duo

  • Max power output: 15 watts
  • Does it come with a wall adapter? No

The MagSafe Duo is Apple’s 2-in-1 wireless charger with a foldable design. It can charge any MagSafe-supported iPhone at its fastest charging speeds as well as an Apple Watch at up to five watts (Apple hasn’t made a MagSafe Duo that supports the faster charging speeds of the newest Apple Watch models). It’s really optimized as a travel charger, as it can fold up into a light and compact form factor that can be easily packed into a bag. However, it costs $129, which isn’t cheap — especially given that it doesn’t come with a wall adapter.

Belkin Boost Charge Pro

  • Max power output: 15 watts
  • Does it come with a wall adapter? Depends which package you buy

This is a neat wireless charger by Belkin. It fully supports MagSafe and thus supports 15-watt fast charging on any of the newest iPhones, but it also has a neatly integrated kickstand, so you can stand your iPhone up while you charge it. The Boost Charge Pro costs $60 without the necessary USB-C wall adapter, but you can purchase it with one for an extra $20 or so.

Nomad Base One Max

  • Max power output: 15 watts
  • Does it come with a wall adapter? No

The Nomad Base One Max is a 2-in-1 wireless charger for your iPhone and Apple Watch — if you don’t have an Apple Watch, you can get the Nomad Base One and save some dough. It fully supports MagSafe and thus is capable of charging the newest iPhones at their fastest possible charging speeds, but it’s a standout because of its design. It has a beautiful glass and metal body, which you can get in either black or silver. It also weighs almost two pounds, so it won’t lift off the desk every time you go to grab your iPhone. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with a wall adapter and you’ll need a 30-watt wall adapter (which Nomad sells separately) for it to charge at its fastest speeds.

Mophie Snap+ 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Stand

  • Max power output: 15 watts
  • Does it come with a wall adapter? No

Released in September 2022, Mophie’s Snap+ charger can wirelessly charge three Apple devices simultaneously: your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods. It has a new weighted steel base, adjustable stand and is fully MagSafe compatible. It also has a neat feature that actually makes it a good fit for Samsung Galaxy owners — it comes with two watch adapters, one for Apple Watch and one for Galaxy Watch, which you can easily switch between.

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The Best Wireless Chargers for Android

Belkin BoostCharge 15W Fast Wireless Charger Pad

  • Max power output: 15 watts
  • Does it come with a wall adapter? Yes

This is one of Belkin’s simplest and most affordable wireless chargers. It’s capable of fast charging at 15 watts, which is the max charging speed of a lot of the newest Androids, and it comes with a compatible wall adapter. It also has this nice anti-slip material on the surface to help keep your phone in place while it charges. Available in white or black models.

Belkin Boost Up Wireless Charging Stand

  • Max power output: 10 watts
  • Does it come with a wall adapter? Yes

The Belkin Boost Up Wireless Charging Stand is one of the best wireless chargers for a number of reasons. Its 10 watts of power means that it’s capable of fast charging every non-MagSafe capable phone as fast as it can be wirelessly charged. It can charge a smartphone either vertically and horizontally, which is great for streamers who need to watch videos while they charge. It’s also very affordable and comes with the necessary wall adapter, which frustratingly is becoming less and less common.

Anker 313 Wireless Charging Stand

  • Max power output: 10-watts
  • Does it come with a wall adapter? No

Anker’s wireless charging stand is a great budget option. It allows you to charge your smartphone vertically (traditionally) or horizontally, in case you want to watch a video on your smartphone as it charges. It also supports up to 10 watts of charging, so it’ll charge your iPhone or Android pretty fast. It doesn’t come with a wall adapter, however, so you’ll have to buy your own.

Google Pixel Stand (2nd Gen)

  • Max power output: 23 watts (for newest Pixels)
  • Does it come with a wall adapter? No

If you have a Pixel smartphone, there is a legit advantage to buying the Pixel Stand. While charging, it can effectively turn your Pixel smartphone into a smart display with Google Assistant that can display albums from Google Photos or show you the weather. Additionally, this second-generation Pixel Stand is capable of fast charging the older Pixels at up to 10 watts or the Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro at up to 23 watts. It can also charge new Androids at up to 15 watts.

OnePlus Warp Charge

  • Max power output: 50 watts (for OnePlus 10 Pro)
  • Does it come with a wall adapter? No

The Warp Charge is a wireless charging stand that’s really optimized for the elite fast charging speeds of the OnePlus 10 Pro — it can charge at up to 50 watts, which is a heck of a lot faster than most other Androids accept. You’ll need to purchase its special 65-wall adapter ($35) separately, however, because the Warp Charge doesn’t come with one. Also, unfortunately, the Warp Charge is very rarely in stock.

(Note: The OnePlus 11, the company’s most recent smartphone, doesn’t support wireless charging. There is no “Pro” model for the OnePlus 11.)

Samsung Charger Duo

  • Max power output: 15 watts
  • Does it come with a wall adapter? Yes (Depends which package you buy)

This is one of the most convenient wireless charging pads for anybody in Samsung’s gadget ecosystem. It’s designed to simultaneously charge the latest Galaxy smartphones and Galaxy Watch smartwatches, with the latter magnetically snapping into the perfect charging spot. It has a built-in cooling fan so that it can charge the newest Galaxy smartphones at their max 15 watts.

Wireless Charging Is Different for Android and iPhone

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The latest iPhones are integrated with a special magnetic wireless charging feature, called MagSafe, that allows them to wireless charge at up to 15-watts when paired with a compatible MagSafe charger.
Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

The latest iPhone and Android devices both support a wireless charging standard called “Qi” (pronounced “chee“), so all chargers that use that standard (which is virtually all modern ones) can charge both phones. However, in the last few years Android devices and iPhones have developed different ways of fast charging.

In the past, most Android smartphones have been able to wirelessly accept up to 10 watts of power, while iPhones typically maxed out at 7.5-watts of power. Yes, this meant that Android devices could charge faster. However, thanks to technological advancements, both devices are able to wirelessly charge a little bit faster.

Apple introduced its MagSafe charging system with the iPhone 12, which allows the newest iPhones to wirelessly accept up to 15 watts of power, but it only worked if you were using a MagSafe-certified charger. If not, the max those iPhones could charge (via Qi) is still 7.5-watts. This MagSafe technology has been integrated into the latest iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 lines as well.

As far as Android, it’s a bit more like the wild west. Pretty every smartphone manufacturer — be it Google, Samsung or OnePlus — has integrated their latest smartphones with faster charging capabilities. Most of Samsung’s latest Galaxy smartphones, including the Galaxy S23, can wirelessly charge at up to 15 watts. Most of the newest Pixels can do the same, although the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro can wirelessly charge at 21 watts and 23 watts, respectively, when paired with Google’s special wireless charger. And OnePlus has a wireless charger specifically designed to fast charge its OnePlus 10 Pro at 50 watts (which is crazy).

There are a few other things to consider before buying a wireless charger for your iPhone or Android. You need to factor in if you want a wireless charger for one or multiple devices; if so, you can get a 2-in-1, 3-in-1 or even 4-in-1 wireless charger. These days, many wireless earbuds, headphones and smartwatches support wireless charging, and you can buy a wireless charger that can charge several devices at once — but those are also more expensive.

Maybe most importantly, you need to find out the deal with a wireless charger’s wall adapter. Most do not ship with a compatible wall adapter (it’s part of a lot of these company’s new environmental initiatives) and thus you are going to need to buy one separately. You’re likely going to want one with 20 watts (at least) that also supports Power Deliver (PD), a fast charging technology that allows a charger to output higher currents and higher voltages.

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