Wireless charging is pretty cool, and having it for a device you own, is even cooler. Â Unfortunately some devices don’t come with it built-in as standard. Â That’s where kits like the Bitmore Airpulse Wireless Charger come in. Â This is a Qi (pronounced “chee” after the Chinese word for air) compatible charging kit for the Samsung Galaxy S3, consisting of the charging plate and a replacement battery cover.
Aesthetically, the plate is pretty good-looking. Â Glossy black with the Qi logo, and a large cool blue light to show you when the device is charging. Â The replacement battery cover fits nice and securely, though only seems to come in white with the kits, which for the owner of a pebble blue S3, is a little annoying that I would have to purchase another battery cover separately. Â Also, this kit is only compatible with the standard 2100 mAh battery, not the Official Extended Battery.
Setting this baby up is simple; just plug-in the plate and change your battery cover (ensuring you match up the pins)! Â Easy as Pi!
Given that the Airpulse wireless charger supplies 650 mA at 5 watts, it will take a little longer than usual to charge your phone, but this seems to be an acceptable trade-off for the convenience of just dropping your phone on a pad instead of faffing around with cables or a dock!
After testing this out for a few days, I found out a few interesting things. Firstly, the placement of the phone on the pad has to be pretty specific.  You need to roughly line up the Qi logo on the plate with the centre of the back of the phone.  You’ll know when you get it right as you will feel a slight magnetic tug drawing your phone on to the charger.
Secondly, sometimes you can get the placement wrong, but the confirmation/status light will still come on. Â I managed this on the first night, and woke up to my Galaxy S3 at 20%! Â I did get used to putting the phone down on the pad properly by the end of day 2, but this does take away some of the convenience, and who ever heard of a charger with a learning curve?
Thirdly, the confirmation/status light itself is quite bright. Â If using the Airpulse wireless charger to charge your device overnight, you need to put it in a cupboard, or somewhere out-of-the-way.
Overall, it’s not bad, especially for my first foray into the world of wireless charging. Wasn’t there meant to be an Official Samsung Wireless charger for the S3 anyway? Available for $63.99 in the USA, and £49.95 in the UK from all good Accessory shops.
