Let’s face it, I’m sure at some point or another you’ve needed counter space only to find it cluttered with electronics that are charging. Our Scosche MagicMount Wall Charger review takes a look at a wall charger that allows you to charge your smartphone while keeping it out of your way.
Specifications
The Scosche MagicMount Wall Charger has the following features and specifications:
- Conveniently charge your mobile device while neatly docked to your wall outlet
- 12 Watts of power to charge all the latest mobile devices at the fastest rate possible
- The high-powered neodymium magnets are 100% safe and will not damage your device
- Large and small plate with 3M adhesive included for GPS, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Smartphones, Tablets and more
- Input: 100V-240V ~50/60Hz; 500mA (max)
- Output: 5v; Single 12 Watt (2.4A)
What’s in the box
- Scosche MagicMount Wall Charger
- 2x MagicPlates
Design
We’ve looked at a trio of MagicMount docks in the past, and the Scosche MagicMount Wall Charger fits right in nicely with that system. The wall charger is roughly 2 3/4″ in height by 1 1/2″ wide and 7/8″ deep. The charger is white in colour and the face of it is covered with a light grey rubbery pad — which contains the magnet — with the Scosche logo and MagicMount wordmark on the bottom.
On the bottom of the wall charger you’ll find a single USB Type-A port and on the back your North American standard three prong AC plug. It’s understandable that there is only one USB port considering you can only mount one phone at a time, but a second port would be a nice addition to allow charging of a second device and being able to leave it on the counter.
It’s pretty simple in design but my one complaint about the design is definitely power socket placement specific. In my house, and in a few other houses of similar style, the counter plugs are located a couple inches above the counter lip. This puts the bottom plug roughly 4″ above the lip. When the MagicMount Wall Charger is placed on the bottom outlet, there is barely an inch of free room for the USB cable, and a few cables I tried made for a tight fit and the cable was bent almost 90° at the point where the cable meets the USB adapter. I even had a couple cables that wouldn’t allow me to plug the wall charger into the bottom outlet when they were plugged into it. While there is more room if you move the wall charger up to the top plug, you are then blocking off the bottom and losing an outlet in the process.
Depending on your outlet setup, the MagicMount Wall Charger also makes a nice hands-free mounting point for looking at recipes and the like while you’re cooking.
Ease of Use
The Scosche MagicMount Wall Charger includes a small adhesive metal plate and a slightly larger adhesive metal plate. The metal plate can be attached to the back of your mobile device, under the battery cover, or to your smartphone case. Personally, I’m not a fan of attaching anything directly to my device and chose to place the metal plate on the inside of my smartphone cover. On my Nexus 5, I attached the small metal plate directly to the inside of the single layer case, while on the Nexus 6P I attached the larger metal plate to the outside of the inner layer of my smartphone case. As with the warning regarding devices with hard drives, Scosche also indicates that you should use this with wallet style smartphone cases as the magnets will most likely damage any debit or credit cards you carry in it.
Once you’ve got the metal plate inside your case or attached to your phone, the MagicMount Wall Charger is as simple as plugging your phone in to charge as you normally would then holding your phone near the charger. The magnet is quite strong and you’ll definitely feel it “grab” the metal plate and pull your phone and/or case towards it. Like the MagicMount car docks, you don’t have to worry about your smartphone falling off the wall charger. Removing it is just as easy, simply grab the edges of your phone and pull away from the wall charger.
Performance
As far as performance goes, the Scosche MagicMount Wall Charger charged my devices as well as other wall chargers that I have used in the past. All the phones I tested charged at expected speeds.
Price/Value
At $29.99USD, the Scosche MagicMount Wall Charger isn’t the cheapest wall charger on the market. If you do have a cluttered counter and need the space, the Scosche MagicMount Wall Charger does the trick, although a second USB port would be a nice addition. If you have a MagicMount dash mount as well, there’s definitely a bit of extra value added by being able to extend that system into your home or office.
Wrap-up
The Scosche MagicMount Wall Charger charges your phone at expected speeds while moving it up off the counter and out of the way.
[rwp-review id=”0″]
