ESR Qi2 wireless car charger review: goodbye Mag$afe

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It’s not often that a truly useful new technology is released that both increases performance and undercuts the cost of the tech it replaces. But that’s exactly what the new Qi2 magnetic wireless charging standard has done for iPhone owners — and soon, Android — now that the first products have arrived.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been testing a new Qi2 charging mount for cars that matches the performance of Apple’s MagSafe-certified chargers and costs less. Hell, it’ll also work with Android devices once they start shipping with Qi2 support.

To be honest, I don’t know if it’s the $35.99 ESR charger that I’m so impressed by or the fact that Qi2 products have shipped that are immediately beneficial just one year after the standardization effort was first announced. USB-C didn’t do that, Wi-Fi 7 didn’t, and Matter… well, I’m not brave enough to even try.

But this inexpensive car mount holds my phone securely with a strong magnet, fast-charges it at 15W, and takes just seconds to set up in a car. It’s enough to make me forget about the potential of the Vision Pro because Qi2 is the future, now.