Nexus 4 Wireless Charging Orb Delivered

[BeverageNinja]

I was under the impression that the Wireless Charger held the Nexus 4 in place with a magnet? Did anyone else think magnets were used? Now that I have one I can see that it uses a tacky rubber pad to achieve this. The manual even states "Too much dust/dirt on your Nexus 4 Wireless Charger's surface could cause your Nexus 4 to slip off." This isn't a big deal, but I was kinda hoping for the magnet thing...don't know why really?

 

[sholmes1019]

I posted this in another forum so thought I'd add it here to add to the pictures:

It looks like it could bounce around in the packaging pretty easily during shipment. Not really secured tightly.

Note the dust all over the orb. It came like that from the factory (shipped from Kentucky).

Nico and Noko trying to figure out how the phone charges without being plugged in:

Magnets hold it very well. No concern whatsoever.

 

[minnemike]

I was under the impression that the Wireless Charger held the Nexus 4 in place with a magnet? Did anyone else think magnets were used? Now that I have one I can see that it uses a tacky rubber pad to achieve this. The manual even states "Too much dust/dirt on your Nexus 4 Wireless Charger's surface could cause your Nexus 4 to slip off." This isn't a big deal, but I was kinda hoping for the magnet thing...don't know why really?

I heard magnet too. It's really almost like a suction cup, being a tight ring and all. I think it is a material that you can clean off and make sticky again if needed.

Edit - looks like without a case, it might actually have some magnetism.

 

[sholmes1019]

I heard magnet too. It's really almost like a suction cup, being a tight ring and all. I think it is a material that you can clean off and make sticky again if needed.

Edit - looks like without a case, it might actually have some magnetism.

Actually, I stand corrected. After closer inspection, it doesn't appear to have magnets. The tackiness just holds really, really well.

 

[omgzam]

So the phone is held in place through suction?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[sholmes1019]

I'm not really sure. If it is a form of suction, it's not suction like I'm used to (i.e. suction cups). You don't have to press or secure it. It just kind of sticks.

Here's two more photos of the face of the charger:

The material is a bit raised in a few areas (just looks like manufacturing flaws). Two spots pointed out here:

One random note: the face of the orb smells like paint.

 

[minnemike]

It's like some sort of alien device. I can't figure it out.

So far I've tested it with the Nillikin, Poetic bumper and atmosphere, and a dual layer otterbox knock off type case - works with them all!

 

[BeverageNinja]

So the phone is held in place through suction?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

No, the rubber on the front of the Wireless Charger is very tacky/sticky, combine that with the glass back of the Nexus 4, and it has a strong hold on the phone. But it is not held in place by suction. I would not recommend holding your charger upside down while the phone is attached, like in the image above. You might not have the same results.

 

[legec117]

My poetic bumper case does not work well with charging orb. Kind of just slides off. The glass back cant make contact with the orb, bumper doing its job! Disappointing, but oh well.

 

[nbell978]

Well that fixed that....thanks...I assumed that this would be the only dock for this phone . Hmmm i wonder if there is another one in the works...

You have to remember that the Galaxy Nexus also runs 4.2... and has a pogo pin dock. Those are just generic options. No dock is in the works for the 4 that anyone seems to know about.

 

[minnemike]

My poetic bumper case does not work well with charging orb. Kind of just slides off. The glass back cant make contact with the orb, bumper doing its job! Disappointing, but oh well.

mine works with it but it does take careful placement. try pressing it down on to it a tad. i do have a back side screen protector on mine which might make it more sticky.

 

[Paulbronte1]

There deff is some magnetism going on. When i hold the phone close by i can actually feel the orb kind of pull the phone towards it. Not a strong pull but a pull non the less.

 

[sholmes1019]

Uh-oh. I woke up this morning to a 100% charge from the wireless charger and have been using the phone since. But when I just returned the phone to the charger, it's giving me the dreaded cycling where it bounces constantly between charging and not charging. I've read about this in with other Qi chargers. I tried putting it in different spots on the charger and resetting the phone, but no luck. The battery percentage is going down during this process. Thoughts?

UPDATE: Resolved. Low power USB power adapter was the cause.

 

[imnidiot2]

There deff is some magnetism going on. When i hold the phone close by i can actually feel the orb kind of pull the phone towards it. Not a strong pull but a pull non the less.

I'm 99.9% sure there is no magnet and I'm glad there isn't. A magnet would interfere with the compass in the N4, even after you remove it. You would be constantly calibrating the compass after charging.

 

[sholmes1019]

Uh-oh. I woke up this morning to a 100% charge from the wireless charger and have been using the phone since. But when I just returned the phone to the charger, it's giving me the dreaded cycling where it bounces constantly between charging and not charging. I've read about this in with other Qi chargers. I tried putting it in different spots on the charger and resetting the phone, but no luck. The battery percentage is going down during this process. Thoughts?

Figured out (sort of) my issue with charging/not charging. It was plugged into a Griffin dual USB travel charger, one of the older ones that is fine for phones but doesn't provide enough current for tablets. Switching it to the USB adapter from my iPhone 4 fixed the problem and it wirelessly charges fine now.

That said, there are two things that are surprising about this:

1) the Nexus 4 charged perfectly fine using that Griffin charger for 10 days. So, it looks like the orb requires more current than the phone.

2) this doesn't explain why the phone charged overnight to 100%. As I said in my first post, when I woke up this morning I had a fully charged Nexus 4. It was only after that when it stopped charging.

No big deal either way with these. They're non-issues going forward.

 

[rrspikes]

I'm 99.9% sure there is no magnet and I'm glad there isn't. A magnet would interfere with the compass in the N4, even after you remove it. You would be constantly calibrating the compass after charging.

If there wasn't a magnet in the charging orb, a normal magnet wouldn't stick to the inside of the rubbery ring. You can feel a magnet being attracted to the orb from a good half inch away.

Another test I did was to take my T-mobile S3 with the Verizon branded inductive changing battery cover installed on it. I put it on the charging orb with a piece of wax paper between them to rule out that it was the rubbery ring holding my phone. My S3 stays firmly in place.

There is without a doubt, a magnet/magnets inside the charging orb.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[xstinkyx]

My orb was delivered on Friday but since it was shipped to work I only got to set it up today.

So far I have to say it's pretty cool.

Seems to charge fine.
Seems to stay on the orb quite fine.
The angle is pretty great - with my left hand I can stop typing on my normal PC keyboard and extend my hand a little and tap out (or swipe out) a message in the N4 world.

 

[minnemike]

My orb was delivered on Friday but since it was shipped to work I only got to set it up today.

So far I have to say it's pretty cool.

Seems to charge fine.
Seems to stay on the orb quite fine.
The angle is pretty great - with my left hand I can stop typing on my normal PC keyboard and extend my hand a little and tap out (or swipe out) a message in the N4 world.

Yeah - the grip is perfect to do pretty much everything on the phone without knocking it over - compared to most Qi chargers.

 

[imnidiot2]

If there wasn't a magnet in the charging orb, a normal magnet wouldn't stick to the inside of the rubbery ring. You can feel a magnet being attracted to the orb from a good half inch away.

Another test I did was to take my T-mobile S3 with the Verizon branded inductive changing battery cover installed on it. I put it on the charging orb with a piece of wax paper between them to rule out that it was the rubbery ring holding my phone. My S3 stays firmly in place.

There is without a doubt, a magnet/magnets inside the charging orb.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

The magnet is attracted to the metal that is inside the rubber ring. Install a Compass app onto the phone and bring the phone next to the charger while the compass is running. There is no effect. Remove the phone from the charger and bring a magnet next to the phone and the compass will respond.

 

[KathyJN]

I got my Orb last Wednesday (7 days ago). I was aware from the literature and from other postings that dust accumulation could be a problem and cause the phone to slip. Up until last night, I had no problem charging the phone (naked) in landscape position. When not using the charger, I would lay the original plastic protector back on that came with the orb. I thought that would help reduce the lint/dust accumulation, but apparently not. About 4am this morning, my phone woke me with the low battery warning and I realized it had slipped off. It took me several minutes to get it back to charging on the orb and it jumped back and forth from "charging" to "low battery." I had to turn off the alarm display to finally get it to charging only.

I thought I was being careful about dust, but it looks like the orb already needs a cleaning. I was too tired to investigate further this morning. I've read that having a screen protector on the phone's back is better than bare glass - for "sticking" purposes. I've also read to clean the orb using a plain water, or clear tape, and various other methods. What has worked for you?