Do you have questions and/or an unheeded obsession with wireless charging? Well then god-bless-ya, Nikola Tesla. We've got answers.

 

Will the PD Everyday Case work with 3rd party wireless chargers?

Our cases work with a majority of popular 3rd wireless charging products, but we simply cannot guarantee compatibility with every single wireless charger out there.

One thing that's good to know is that our cases are fully compatible with Apple-brand MagSafe chargers. A lot of folks have them. If you do, you'll be good to go.

Some 3rd party chargers may charge a bit more slowly with a Peak Design case than with other cases or your naked phone. In most cases, that difference in charging speed will be negligible and imperceptible to you. More details on that in our article about magnetic interference.

2-coil vertical chargers are more likely to have performance issues with Peak Design cases. Here is an example of a popular 2-coil vertical charger. These chargers have multiple coils in order to fit a wider variety of phones in a wider variety of cases. But the downside is that, unlike Peak Design and MagSafe chargers, it's likely that the coils will not be perfectly aligned to the coil in your phone. This will create less-than-optimal charging, and in some cases may prevent charging altogether. To find out if your 3rd party charger has 2 coils, consult the manufacturer or retailer where you bought it.

 

A Note on Built-in Wireless Car Chargers

Most built-in wireless chargers in cars use a multi-coil design to allow for flexible placement of a wide range of phone shapes and sizes. This design architecture is inherently less efficient than a standard single coil charger but has some flexibility benefits with traditional Qi phones.

With the launch of MagSafe and magnetic alignment, many of these multi-coil chargers have experienced issues because of interference from the magnet array that is primarily designed to be used with a complimentary magnetic charging mount. The Peak phone case suffers from these same incompatibility issues that may be magnified by the additional magnet strength provided by our case.

If you experience problems charging in your car, we suggest you take care to place your phone directly centered on the part of the pad that results in charging and pay careful attention to the angle of the phone on the pad

 

Will the PD Universal Adapter work with the PD wireless chargers?

In short: maybe, but don't count on it.

It will depend on a huge variety of factors, including what model phone you have, what the thickness of your phone case is, and the position of the Universal Adapter on the phone case. For all of these reasons, we cannot guarantee you'll be able to wirelessly charge your phone while using a PD Universal Adapter.

Many customers find that they're able to wirelessly charge their phone with a Universal Adapter, but often times charging will not happen as quickly as it would with a Peak Design phone case. This is because the added thickness of the 3rd party case plus the Universal Adapter, as well as the possibility that the Universal Adapter is not perfectly aligned with your phone's charging coil.

Correct Universal Adapter installation will increase your chances of decent charging performance by ensuring that the Adapter is perfectly centered on the phone, directly over the phone's charging coil.

Note that the Universal Adapter is not meant to be stuck directly to the back of your naked phone. Though extensive testing we've found that most phones have a hydrophobic exterior that does not bond well with our Universal Adapter.

 

Will the PD Universal Adapter work with 3rd party wireless chargers?

Same answer as the previous question.

 

Will the Peak Design Everyday Case work with the Apple MagSafe 15W wireless charger?

You betcha! Peak Design cases are designed to be compatible with all Apple MagSafe chargers.

 

Are Peak Design wireless charging products Qi-Certified?

No, but they meet Qi standards in almost every way.

Like Apple's MagSafe chargers (or any MagSafe compatible charger), our wireless charging products contain magnets. The magnets are a critical part of our mounting system, and they also help align your phone to the charging coil. The Qi wireless charging standard currently specifies that magnets cannot be in close proximity to the charging coil.

But in practice, our wireless charging products are widely compatible with Qi-Certified phones, and can charge your phone as quickly and efficiently as a Qi-Certified charging device.

 

How fast will my phone charge on a Peak Design wireless charger?

Peak Design wireless chargers deliver fast, industry-competitive charging performance, and we've lab tested this thoroughly. Technically, there are chargers capable of charging at nominally faster speeds, but the difference is minimal and will be largely imperceptible to most users.

Some phone manufacturers have proprietary charging protocols (Apple 15W, Samsung 15W) that are not obtainable by 3rd party manufacturers. This however does not greatly impact the relative time to charge your phone because most phones cannot sustain these high charge powers for more than a short period of the long total charging time. In other words, just because a charger is 15W doesn't mean it always charges your phone at 15W. Most of the time, it will charge your phone at a much lower wattage.

Below is a chart showing charging speed results for different phone models using a different combination of cases and chargers:

• PD case + PD wireless charger
• Apple case + PD wireless charger
• Apple case + Apple wireless charger

As you can see, the Apple case + charger does on average produce nominally faster results than a PD case + PD charger. But these differences are pretty negligible. Most users will not perceive a 5% increase in charging speed.

In practice, the time it takes to fully charge your phone depends on a huge range of factors. Your phone model, battery age, power source, case-charger alignment, and—most importantly,—ambient temperature all affect charging speed. Wireless charging is not as fast as corded charging no matter what charger or phone model you may have. If you want the best performance possible you should try and keep your charger as cool as possible. 

For detailed charging performance specs of PD cases, read this article.