WildCharge WildCharger Pad review

Wireless charging of gadgets must surely be high on most techies’ wish lists, but so far the dream hasn’t quite been realised. The problem is that some sort of physical connection is still required on most “wireless” chargers, which usually involves sticking your gadget in some sort of sleeve with the appropriate connections – hardly the elegant solution we all crave.

The WildCharger Pad is a good example of the current state of wireless charging. It’s intended to do away with your phones’ and gadgets’ individual power adapters by giving enough space to charge up to five at once from one mains-powered pad. It all worked well enough, charging our phones at a rate not perceptively slower than a standard charger.

But it still requires rubber cases for the phones to work. It comes on its own for £50 inc VAT or bundled with an iPhone or BlackBerry rubber skin for £10 more, but the bulk they add to your phone means we just can’t get excited about it. We’re not going to keep a fat rubber cover on our sleek phones just to save us the few seconds it takes to plug a charger in, and the alternative – fitting it on every time you need it – makes it a little pointless.

There is also a separate PowerDisc adapter available – which sits on the pad and connects via a cable to a variety of charging inputs – but unless you buy several that’s hardly different from just connecting your gadget to its charger. WildCharge intends to eventually eliminate the rubber skin and integrate the technology into a standard rear panel where possible – in the US you can buy a Motorola rear cover that makes for a vastly more attractive proposition – but it’s hard to see a viable solution for the one-piece rear of the iPhone.

Yes, technically it’s wireless charging – you don’t need the tangle of your multiple mains adapters any more. But it still requires you to put your newly rubberised phone on a pad tethered to a mains socket, so for £50 plus skins (at £30 per phone individually) it doesn’t exactly jump out at us as a life-changing purchase.