review

RapidX MyPort Wireless Powerbank Charging Stand

Monday, October 14, 2019

One of the best features a smartphone can offer is the convenience of being able to charge it wirelessly without plugging-in a cable. The basic design of most wireless chargers on the market, it's either the coaster-style or portrait-upright style.
Wireless charging technology is getting better and clever though, so it's now being also incorporated in power banks; hence wireless power banks such as the RapidX MyPort, which is a rather unique wireless power bank because it is a wireless charging dock stand and 10,000mAh power bank.
What makes MyPort different from other wireless power bank chargers, it's that the back stand can be detached from the base stand so, you can use MyPort on the go as a nifty, fast charging wireless powerbank. When it comes to charging the power bank, you can simply place it back onto the base stand to fast charge it. The base stand outputs the same fast input charge, which is 5V/3A and 9V/2A via a usb-c port on the back of the base stand.
To benefit from 18W fast charging, you will need to use an 18W wall charger, which is not included. You can still use a non-fast charging wall charger but charging time increases. A 2716 mAh phone battery takes 90 minutes to charge at 18W so, with a standard 10W (5V/2A) wall charger, it would take 2 hours approximately and with a 5W wall charger, it would take 4 hours approximately to charge a 2716 mAh phone battery
usb-c power delivery (pd) output/input: 5V/3A, 9V/2A and 12V/1.5A (max 18W)
wireless charging (qi) output 5W, 7.5W and 10W (max)
MyPort charging stand features four gold-plated metal prongs, a battery led indicator (on the front) and a non-slip silicone pad designed to securely rest a phone while laying upright against the power bank. The power bank surface doesn't have the same non-slip material as the charging stand but because it is rubberized, it is a still grippy so the phone won't slide off of it when placed horizontally on the power bank.

When laying upright on the charging stand, the phone feels very secured. Even heavier phones won't tip the charging stand backwards mainly because of the charging port on the back. Thanks to the location of the charging port, when the cable is plugged in, it acts as a "stopper" preventing the weight of the phone from over tipping the charging stand.
Something worth remembering is that the usb-c and usb-a ports won't be accessible while the powerbank is sitting on the charging stand. Also, the smartphone and powerbank do not charge at the same time so, the smartphone takes charging priority and when it's charged up the powerbank then charges.
Safety-wise, the RapidX MyPort does feature smart circuitry that can detect and regulate the powerbank should over-voltage, over-heating and over-current occur.
MyPort's usb-c power delivery port is capable of fast input charge and fast output charge of 5V/3A, 9V/2A and 12V/1.5A (a maximum input and output charge of 18W). This means, you can use the usb-c port to also charge the power bank if you don't want to use the charging stand.
Next to the usb-c port, there are four circular gold-plated contacts (for the charging stand) and a fast charging usb-a port that can output 5V/3A and 9V/2A (18W).
As a wireless charger, the RapidX MyPort offers the ability to let you wirelessly charge a phone vertically and horizontally like you would with a wireless charging stand and a charging pad. The advantage of MyPort over the circular design of a charging pad is that there is no fussing around trying to find the charging sweet spot because of MyPort's rectangular design is about the size of a regular phone.
RapidX MyPort has, essentially, the same rectangular size of a smartphone so, it's just a case of simply placing it down longways. Bear in mind also that the placement and surface area of the charging coil on your smartphone is a factor. MyPort's charging coil has a 4cm diameter and it is located off-centre towards the the top, which should be a sweetspot for most qi-enabled wireless phones.
However, because RapidX MyPort only has one wireless charging coil, instead of two (one on top and one on the bottom), you cannot charge the phone wirelessly in landscape on the charging stand. Being able to place the phone horizontally on an upright charging stand is super handy especially when you are watching a movie while the phone is wirelessly charging.
The button on the side of the power bank has dual functionality: to power on/off the wireless charging and to check how much battery there is left via the four small led lights located on the other side.
The fifth led light is the wireless charging indicator, which can light up green and blue and, it's designed to let you know if you have placed the phone properly on the charger. If the phone is wireless charging correctly, the led light turns solid blue and if it's not wireless charging correctly, the light blue will blink. The blue light does stay lit up during charging but because the led is very small and not overly bright it won't light up your room.
When removed from the charging stand, you cannot wireless charge and usb charge at the same time but you can use both usb-c and usb-a ports at the same time to charge two devices, which is convenient although charging speed is slower because the maximum 18W charging bandwidth that is available has to be shared between the two devices.
Whether on the charging dock or without the charging dock, wireless charging output is the same at 10W. Like most wireless phone chargers, RapidX MyPort uses radiative electromagnetic resonant charging (aka inductive charging) via the copper coil on the phone and the copper coil on the wireless charger. Some wireless chargers integrate as many as 4 or more copper coils to transmits wireless charging.
The distance of the wireless charging transmission for wireless chargers is no more than a couple of centimeters. In the case of the RapidX MyPort, the wireless charging transmission distance is less than 8mm, which is a factor that you have to take into consideration when using a protective case on a phone. Using a phone case increases the distance between the phone and wireless charger so, the thicker the case the greater the distance. RapidX MyPort does work with phone cases as long as they are not more than 5mm thick.
RapidX MyPort is very compact. The wireless power bank measures 15cm tall, 7.5cm wide and 2cm thick and weighs just 230 grams. The charging stand weighs 78 grams and measures 9cm wide, 9cm long and 3cm tall. Total weight is 308 grams. The construction is hard plastic with a rubberized matte black finish
MyPort also comes with a usb-a to usb-c cable over 3ft long (100cm) along with a detailed user guide and 2-year limited warranty,

Similar Gadget Explained Reviews

0 comments

Connect With Gadget Explained