5 Wireless Chargers You Can Add To Your Desk And Side Tables

At first glance, wireless smartphone charging may seem like a gimmick or something that has little utility outside of very specific use cases, but there's much more to it than that. The primary use for wireless charging is the way that — for someone who uses their phone a lot — having a charging pad on their desk or nightstand is something that can quickly become second nature, making sure that you're topping up your phone all the time without having to think much about it.

On top of that, there's a very good argument that it's worth getting a cheap wireless charger to keep handy for a proverbial rainy day. If your phone's USB port breaks or some moisture seeps into it that temporarily prevents you from using a wired charger, then wireless charging will be the only way to charge that phone until it's repaired or dried out, respectively.

This means that even if you've never given much thought to buying a wireless charger, there's a very good argument that it's worth it. With that in mind, let's take a look at five options for wireless chargers that would be great additions to the tabletop of any smartphone owner.

We might as well get this one out of the way first. Samsung is the biggest Android handset maker in the world. Samsung flagship phones from the last several years that support wireless charging allow up to 15-watt charging that way. In theory, you would expect this to mean that using any Qi-standard wireless charger rated for 15W or greater would entitle you to wireless 15W charging of your Galaxy S flagship. In practice, you would be very wrong. For some reason, at least from 2022's Galaxy S22 series forward, Samsung has made it so that 15W wireless charging will only work with its own branded wireless chargers. Generic Qi chargers are not capable of charging Galaxy phones at more than 10W.

This, strangely, isn't listed in any official Samsung documentation. Instead, you generally need to get this information out of threads on message boards like Samsung's support forum. A sponsored Android Police post from August 2023 notes this as well, albeit in the context of promoting a Samsung-certified wireless charger from Spigen that could also do 15W charging wirelessly. That $79.99 MSRP Spigen charging stand retails for more than Samsung's charging pad, though, with the Samsung version retailing for $59.99 at Best Buy and Amazon. At Amazon, CamelCamelCamel's historical pricing data shows that it averages a price of $47 depending on the current deal.

Presumably, because it's an official brand name accessory, you won't find any professional reviews of this, though Android Authority praised a since-discontinued fan-cooled charging stand version in 2022.

Belkin's branding has long carried a reputation for high-quality computing accessories, and its chargers are no different. In going through various professional reviewers' lists of the best wireless chargers, the Belkin BoostCharge line was represented on almost all of them, and individual reviews from the series are solid, as well.

At The Wirecutter, the BoostCharge line's 10W wireless charging stand was rated the best wireless charger. Retailing for $34.99 but usually available for several dollars less at Best Buy and Amazon, it performed the fastest of any wireless charger the site tested on both iPhones and Android phones, and it's certified safe by the Wireless Power Consortium. It was also noted that the stand-style charger keeps your phone better aligned with the charging coils than a charging pad is capable of.

Among other professional reviewers, CNN Underscored, for example, listed multiple BoostCharge models among the best wireless chargers, including a 15W stand that retails for $44.99 at Amazon and a MagSafe-capable stand for Apple devices that can charge three items at once that goes for $154 at Amazon as of this writing. ZDNet listed the aforementioned 15W stand as the best wireless charger for Samsung phones other than the Samsung-branded and Samsung-certified models. At the same time, Tom's Guide ranked Belkin's $150 three-in-one charging pad as the best wireless charger overall. In addition, individual reviews from Mac Rumours, CNN, Apple Insider, and Digital Trends about various BoostCharge products were very positive, with Digital Trends giving an "editors' choice"-style recommendation.

Whatever model you get, it seems like you can't go wrong with Belkin BoostCharge.

Another name that has joined Belkin among the ranks of reliable electronics accessories manufacturers in recent years is Anker, particularly in the charger space. Naturally, then, another name that shows up with regularity on best wireless charger lists is the Anker PowerWave line, including scoring The Wirecutter's picks for best budget charging pad (currently unavailable at Amazon) and best budget charging stand ($19.99 or less at Amazon). The lower price means that it doesn't come with a wall charger, and according to Wirecutter's tests, it was about 12% slower than their top pick from Belkin. Still, they get the job done and were dubbed "the most affordable WPC-certified chargers we've tried from a reputable company."

Wirecutter also touted the PowerWave II stand ($35.99 at Amazon), which does include a wall charger,  as a good alternative to the Belkin chargers if they're out of stock. Elsewhere, ZDNet touted the PowerWave line as the best-designed wireless charges, while Wired called them the best cheap wireless chargers. CNET gave Anker high marks, as well, calling the PowerWave II the best affordable fast-charging wireless charging stand, while PC Mag ranked the PowerWave II pad the "most affordable charging pad."

Among single-product review articles, Android Authority gave the original PowerWave stand high marks, and New York Magazine's David Pogue even wrote that it won him over as to the utility of wireless chargers. Overall, it looks like you can't go wrong with anything in the Anker PowerWave line.

Another veteran mobile accessory company that has a strong track record of consensus positive reviews for its wireless chargers is mophie. Founded by Ben Kaufman of Melville, New York, when he was a college student and named after his golden retrievers, Molly and Sophie, mophie has been a major player in this space since its mid-2000s launch. In particular, various chargers from across its product line appear on major "best wireless chargers" lists. 

The Wirecutter and ZDNet, for example, both singled out mophie as making the best multi-device chargers, especially for Apple products, with Wired also offering up similar praise. CNN praised mophie's basic 15W charging pad ($49.99 MSRP but usually available for much less) for having an indicator light that didn't stay on the whole time it was active, while Popular Mechanics also threw in a recommendation for the same charger on its own best wireless charger list. CNET, meanwhile, singled out mophie's Snap+ Powerstation ($69.99 MSRP) as the best MagSafe-compatible wireless charger with a kickstand.

As for traditional individual product reviews, PC World gave high marks to the basic charging pad, with the only negative singled out being that it's marketed towards Apple users despite being a standard Qi charger. Mac Rumors and Apple Insider also both recommended the three-in-one charging pad. All told, it looks like mophie can be relied on as a company making high-quality wireless chargers, whether fully standardized Qi chargers or MagSafe compatible chargers aimed specifically at Apple users.

The least-recognizable brand on this list, but one that nonetheless appears on multiple "best wireless charger" lists and tends to get positive reviews in general, is Yootech. Its product listings, photos, and website carry hallmarks of being a Chinese company rebadging generic products with an arguable alphabet soup brand name. The positive reviews for Yootech chargers are prominent and plentiful enough to earn a spot on this list easily.

ZDNet, for example, named Yootech's basic 10W charging pad as the best budget wireless charger for Samsung phones, while Popular Mechanics similarly dubbed it their "best value universal charger," and TechGearLab called it the best value for a wireless charging pad. CNN included the X2 wireless charging stand on its list, with TechGearLab also giving high marks to the same charger. USA Today's Reviewed also recommended both of those chargers on its own list.

Among individual reviews, PC World, TechPP, and Android Authority all gave the basic charging pad positive reviews as a good budget option. "It's about as cheap as a wireless charging pad gets," reads the conclusion of the Android Authority review. "In other words, don't buy just one, buy several." So, even though you've probably never heard of Yootech, it seems like as good a choice as any among the many brands you've never heard of.

Our first step in narrowing this list down was to comb through "best wireless charger" lists on websites that review tech products professionally while keeping an eye on which brands, lines, and models showed up across multiple lists. The same brand showing up across multiple lists was good, the same product line appearing on multiple lists was even better, and the same SKU still made it onto multiple lists. From there, we also sought out individual professional reviews independent of the "best" lists to supplement the consensus praise we could collate.

We also made the call that, for the most part, we would try to avoid the generic, Chinese-made chargers common on Amazon and eBay with all sorts of brand names that often feel like a completely random array of letters. The exception was Yootech: Though it looks like it may be a company that rebadges generic chargers, it was singled out in enough "best wireless charger" lists and the subject of enough positive professional reviews that it seemed more than worthy enough to be included. 

None of this should mean that we think that the "alphabet soup" brands are all bad, but they're harder to pin down a consensus opinion on for a list like this. If you find chargers like that with plenty of positive user reviews that seem entirely legitimate, then you should still feel free to buy them.