Some of you may have noticed this cute little thing on my nightstand. No, it's not a coaster - it's my new Qi wireless charging pad for my iPhone! (DISCOUNT CODE: REF-KarenLao for 20% off!)

If you're not familiar with Qi, it's a wireless charging standard that has been adopted by many companies such as Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry, Motorola, and Google - so a lot of new phones coming out have Qi wireless charging capabilities built in... But not Apple! I'll talk more about that below.

The charging pad comes with a USB cable but no wall charger. I used my iPhone cube, but it started getting super hot, so I switched to a bigger wall charger, and it's working fine now. 

As I mentioned before, a lot of newer Android phones have Qi wireless charging capabilities and can use this pad without any additional products... but for my iPhone, I had to also get the receiver to attach to my phone for this gadget to work. Make sure to get the bigger receiver for the 6 Plus!

The receiver plugs into your phone like this:

Then you can put your phone case over it. The website says that it works well with most cases "excluding case thicker than 7mm or with metal layer." I've been using it with my hard cover snap-on cases, and they work just fine! The only thing that bugs me is that it makes my case bend a little:

It also took a few tries to get the hang of what exact part of your phone you have to place down in order for the pad to detect the receiver. For the 6 Plus, the sweet spot is slightly below the center of the phone. I blame the size of the phone (also, it looks a little funny how big the phone is on this mini charging pad!). If your phone is slightly misplaced, the pad either stays red... or goes red-green-red-green until you correct it.

One distracting thing is that the indicator light is VERY bright! Almost like a nightlight next to me when I sleep. I have to put something in front of it at night. 

So all in all, there are pros and cons to this cute little charger. But I'm loving how convenient a charging pad is! I can just grab my phone and go instead of messing with a lightning cable! Now I can avoid scenarios like 1) forgetting my phone is plugged in and having the phone pulled out of my hand as I walk away, 2) pulling my phone way too hard when I'm trying to turn off my alarm in the morning, and 3) being too lazy to reach for the charger at night and waking up with my phone at 10%.

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