Decades ago, there was a man who had a dream of powering the entire world wirelessly. His vision was to use giant towers that would transmit electricity through the air, which would be harvested by receivers that would use them to power homes and electronics. Not that there were that many electronics back in the 30’s and 40’s, but Nikola Tesla had the vision. And he believed that electricity was more than just our future, it would soon be our whole way of life. He was a genius in its most absolute form, and his ideas of wireless electricity were seen as idiocy by some and, by most, as lunacy in its purest form.
Electricity is more than our future now; it’s everything we do throughout a day. Cars now run on electricity. Every gadget and appliance we have right down to our pencil sharpeners run on good old electricity. And God knows most of you couldn’t live without your PDAs, PSPs, and cell phones. Personally, I find our reliance on electricity more than a little disturbing, since it can be taken from us at any given moment by a mere wind. Still, I was and am a huge fan of Tesla, I wrote my final high school essay on him, and have since gone on to use his ideas and inventions in everyday life.
So when I got the opportunity to review the awesome new charging appliances put out by Powermat, I jumped on it. The idea of charging something wirelessly is right up my alley, being the child of Tesla’s thought that I am. So I told the guys over at Powermat to load me up, and I’ll give them a show in return. And they didn’t disappoint. So here’s a list of what I’ll be giving you in this epic review:
- Powermat 2X Charging Mat
- Powermat Portable Mat
- Powermat Home & Office Mat
- Powermat iPod Touch receiver
- Powermat iPod & iPhone receiver
- Powermat Universal Powercube
Obviously I can’t turn this into a Lord of the Rings-esque novel, the time and effort it would take to review all of these one by one and put it all up in a single review would be unrealistic. It would be nearly twenty pages long and quite possibly be a lot of me repeating myself. So what I plan on doing is grouping the charging mats in the first section of the review, the following up with a skinny on the receivers and how well they do they do their job as a whole. Now that we have a plan, let’s check out the Powermat.
First off is the Powermat 2X. This puppy is intended for charging no more than two devices at one time. It’s pretty small compared to the two larger units. It’s intended for those with less space, obviously. It comes in a nice little black and green box with several pictures and tons of information on the product. This is something I like, and have pointed it out in other reviews. No one wants to buy a product in a plain box. The box has to get you excited.
Opening the box, we find another box inside that slides out. The top is covered with a sheet of molded protective plastic. After removing this, we get down to the fun. The 2X itself is sitting
As I said before, the 2x is a smaller version of the Home & Office Mat, intended for smaller spaces and has the ability to charge only two devices. That’s only one less than the other two mats, which isn’t bad if you really need the space. The 2X features a matte black surface that looks like anything you put on it would slide off. Not so. The Powermat uses magnetic induction to send electricity from the base to the receiver; therefore those same magnets keep your electronics in place. It features a single blue LED to let you know its working and a plug in the back for the power cord. Other than that, its features are rather limited.
Okay, we’ve checked out the Miata, now let’s hop in the mid-size version of the Powermat. I could call it a compact car, as it folds up for transport, but that would be screwing up my whole analogy since a Miata is a compact car. So we’ll call this a Honda S200, with the convertible top. I’m referring to the Powermat Portable Mat. Opening the box, you get the same results as the 2X, only without the hard plastic molding. The Portable is sitting right there on top in its own molded plastic cradle. The cool thing about this one, and what makes it my favorite, is that it folds into thirds and fits nicely into the included carrying case. And this isn’t one of those cheap cases that are made of fabric; it’s a hard clamshell one with magnetic closure and an outer covering that feels like freaking Kevlar.
The power cord comes inside this case along with the instruction manual. The Portable also comes with its own Powercube and an assortment of power tips for your charging convenience. The mat itself is really the coolest of the three in my opinion. As I said, it does fold into thirds, sort of the way those plastic snakes did back when we were kids. You know what I’m talking about? Ah, never mind. Anyway, it has the same rough matte black surface as the 2X, only with a pretty neon green ring going around each section where the surface meets the end cap. Each section has a blue LED that comes one when it’s charging. There are buttons on the back to adjust the brightness of these LEDs as well as one to adjust the sound volume. Yes, it does make a futuristic sound when you put something on or take something off. It’s the future dammit; it’s supposed to sound like a friendly little robot. It actually kind of reminded me of Wall-E a little.
One other addition to the Portable is a USB port for charging your USB devices. I assume this is for those few electronics that Powermat doesn’t make a power tip for. So no matter what, the Portable has you covered.
Last but not least in the Powermat Charger series is the Home & Office Mat. This one is as long as the Portable, but doesn’t have the folding capability, so therefore this one is the Cadillac of Powermats. It looks like a flat skateboard and features a smooth black surface rather than the rougher one the other two mats had, with a silver ring that goes around the outer edge. It also features the three LEDs on the front for each of the charging sections, and has the buttons on back for the brightness and volume control. There is a USB port as well. So the only big difference between this and the Portable that I’m seeing so far is the ability to fold it. Underneath the H&O is the power cord, the power tip kit, and the instruction manual.
On the next page we look at the iPhone and iPod Touch receivers…
Alrighty, now you have the details on the mats themselves. Now we get to the receivers. This is where the ability to go wireless really comes into play. Most notably the iPod Touch receiver. This handy dandy little thing is in two parts, and slides onto your Touch from the top and the bottom. All your ports and buttons are still accessible, with the exception of the Apple port on the bottom. This is replaced by a mini-USB on the receiver. But once it is on, you can simply walk up and put it on the mat and then walk away. I consider this receiver the biggest convenience as you don’t have to plug anything in, just set it down whenever it needs a charge. The receiver comes with a Micro USB cable for data transfers and a headphone extension cable, along with an instruction manual. It’s matte black, but smooth and has a rubbery feel to it. Which is good, because it provides grip
On the next page we look at the Powermat PowerCube…
Next is the PowerCube. It’s a neat little box with a cord wrapped around its outside, about three inches long. You can extend this cord and attach a power plug to power almost anything that is chargeable. It comes with a variety of plugs. All you do is attach the power plug of your choice, depending on what you want to charge, and plug it in. Then just drop the cube itself on your PowerMat. Not rocket science. It’s easy to use, and can charge hundreds of different gadgets at the change of a plug.
Now, the big questions… Does it work, and is it worth it? I drained my PSP of all life, along with my cell phone and my GPS. I then tested them to see how long it would take to charge them with their OEM chargers compared to the PowerMat. I would like to post something amazing on here, like that the PowerMat charged them up instantly and then put them back in their cases for me, but that’s not the case. Still, it did charge everything at the same rate as their original chargers did. The GPS took three hours from dead to full battery, the same with my cell phone. The PSP took a little longer since I have a battery extender, but it still was relatively the same charge time on both OEM and the PowerMat.
Also, I didn’t find any differences in the charge times of each version of the PowerMat. The Portable obviously has its advantages since it can fold up and be taken on the road much easier than the Home & Office Mat, but the 2X can be put in a backpack or briefcase just as easy. It’s also much thinner than the Portable is folded up. However, when it comes to charging, they all did the same job in the same amount of time.
So what is so damned awesome about the PowerMat? Why not just use your original charger? Because this is a taste of what we will be using in the future. The technology of wireless energy transfer is no longer considered fantasy, it has become reality. Soon, we won’t even have to set things on a mat, we would only have to walk in our homes and use a signal much like
So is it worth the $99 price tag for each mat? It depends on how many electronics you carry around with you and whether you want to carry a separate power supply for each one. It depends on whether you are satisfied with the way things work now or are on the edge of your seat jumping up and down waiting for the next big thing that could lead us to flying cars and batteries that never go dead because the same signal that allows us to access Facebook is also powering our iPads and Cellphones.
I would say that if you are broke and are living on macaroni and cheese (an excellent source of riboflavin by the way), then you should consider sticking to your multitude of cords. If you have the money to spare, then by all means, try it out. Consider this the beta of bigger things to come, and the money you spend on one of these will probably pay for research into a world with no wires at all. The choice is yours, my friends. The future is now.