Full FeedGadgetell Review: Powermat Home & Office Mat
What is it?
The Powermat Home & Office Mat wirelessly charges up to 3 devices simultaneously by placing a device with a Powermat receiver onto the mat. There is an additional USB port to charge a fourth device via USB cable. The mat retails for $99.99. Cases and receivers are available at two price points: $29.99 and $39.99.
| MODEL | SUGGESTED RETAIL |
| Mats | |
| Home & Office | $99.99 |
| Portable | $99.99 |
| Receivers | |
| Case for iPhone 3G | $39.99 |
| Case for iPod Touch (2nd gen) | $39.99 |
| Battery Door for Blackberry Bold 9000 | $29.99 |
| Battery Door for Blackberry Curve 8900 | $29.99 |
| Battery Door for Blackberry Curve 8300 Series | $29.99 |
| Battery Door for Blackberry Pearl 8110+ Series | $29.99 |
| Dock for iPod & iPhone | $39.99 |
| Back for Nintendo DSi | $29.99 |
| Back for Nintendo DS Lite | $29.99 |
| Powercube | $29.99 |
What’s in the box?
- Home & Office Mat
- Power supply
- Powercube universal receiver (with tips for micro USB, DS Lite, DSi, Sony, Samsung, LG, and Apple iPods)
- Tip storage container
The Good
The Powermat Mat is pretty easy to use. Take it out of the box, place the skate-board like mat on a surface, and plug it in. Then you take a receiver and attach it to your rechargeable device. Then place the receiver on the mat.
There are three charging spots located on the mat. When you place the receiver on charging spot, you feel a magnetic pull to the right position, a light turns on below the charging point, and a sound effect is played. You get three points of feedback to make sure your device is charging. The light and sound effect can be turned off.
The Powercube is a small plastic device with a mini USB cable. Tips fit over the mini USB cable. Place the Powercube on the mat and you can charge devices. The Tip Storage container is a nice touch so you can keep your tips together.
The mat is pretty stylish with a gray and black color scheme. While it is always advisable to keep your electronics neat and clean, the charging still works through dust and even business cards. Keeping three devices charged with one device is nice and just reduces clutter.
The Bad
The mat only has three defined points that charge receivers. You cannot simply place your device just anywhere for a quick charge.
The Crux
If you just carry one device something like the Powermat probably wouldn’t appeal to you. However, If you a person who carries multiple electronics or live in a house with more than one cell phone, the Powermat is pretty much a no-brainer.
Company Site: [Powermat]
Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - 
Subscribe to our feed
Macworld 2010
"Apple may not be at Macworld 2010, but Appletell is, bringing you news, photos and videos directly from the show floor and special events. Join us February 10-14 to see what new products 2010 has in store for Macintosh, iPhone, iPod and iPad (yes, iPad) owners."
Palm Pre Information & Updates
Palm just introduced their next-gen smartphone, the Palm Pre, and next-gen operating system, Palm webOS. Gadgetell's got the latest Pre and webOS information and news for you right here.
But does the equipment you put on your device affect the quality of your device? Does it make the iPhone bulky? Does it block the iPhone’s speakers on the bottom? Does it prevent you from using the traditional charger for the iPhone, so you can only use this device unless you remove the iPhone casing?
on October 6, 2009 at 06:10 PM - LINKI love the convince of wireless charging. However, after using the product with my Blackberry Curve and blackberry curve powermat receiver for two months I have experienced some cons to the product. I have found that my cell phone isn’t charged up as much as it was when I was using the manufacturer’s power cord. Prior to the Powermat I could charge my phone ever other night and for normal use I had no power issues. With using the powermat, every day the cell phone battery is out of power before or at the end of the night. It doesn’t seem to get enough power using the Powermat.
on December 1, 2009 at 11:03 AM - LINKAnother issue that I have experienced is that if I charge the phone in the late afternoon (because I have no cell phone batter left) and I place the phone on the charger with full battery, powermat will not charge the phone for the entire night. This might seem like a good idea, however, in the morning I see that my battery is 1/2 full but it has been on the powermat all night… grrr. The last issue I experienced was that after charging the phone all night I picked up my phone and the voice command was frozen. I had to restart my phone. I eventually just hid the voice command icon from the application menu and the problem went away… no big deal because I don’t use the voice command feature.
Bottom line… wait for version 2 or save your $130 and plug your free cord into your phone.
I can’t help but see how fundamentally flawed this is.
Do you know what I can do with my wired charger for my DS? Actually play it whilst it is charging.
It’s not truly wireless if you have to plant your device atop of the powermat.
Do you REALLY need to buy a £100 charging dock, and additional £30 charge devices, when you could simply buy a cheap multi-plug adapter and use your existing charge plugs?
on December 9, 2009 at 10:31 AM - LINKEven a dedicated docking station for individual devices won’t set you back with a $100 installation fee.
I almost bought this product, but the man at the store i was going to buy it at told me that it was a bad idea to buy it, and a waste of money. He said it is expensive enough for the mat, but then you also have to spend a bunch of money on the individual adaptors. He also said it doesnt charge it well. He told me to wait for a better device then to waste my money on this device. Why would i buy this if i could just use a cord. When using a cord you can use the device. I recommend not buying this product.
on December 12, 2009 at 11:23 PM - LINKCompletely Misleading… NOT Wireless..
First You find/buy your adapters for your phone,
then plug the adapter into a “RECIEVER” ,
then the reciever is placed on top of powermat for a weak charging session
At store I asked why i need adapters and recievers
if this is a wireless charging system ?... the man replied they are for “data transfer”
completelty false.
If u want to charge up more than one item u must spend additional 30 or so dollars
to buy Another “reciever” (adapter)
Waste of time waste of money.
on December 26, 2009 at 11:31 AM - LINKI’ve had the portable version of this since late November, and I like it. As said; if you don’t have a lot of devices to be charged, it’s probably not really worth it. But if you do…it definitely reduces clutter and the # of power adapters I need to bring with me when traveling. With the back on my Blackberry Curve, and the Powercube that came with the mat, I need nothing else - the cube can handle a multitude of devices with its interchangeable tips. And in fact, you don’t even need the receiver units at all (BB, iPhone/iPod, etc), because the included cube can handle all of them - the receiver units are just an added convenience (plop the device down on the mat, vs. plug it in to the Powercube).
From a previous minimum of 4 power cords/chargers/cables, I’m down to one cord and one foldable mat (in a carrying case about the size of a small CD wallet), and a small cube with all the tips I need (mini-USB, micro-USB, Apple) stored in the top. If it could charge my laptop battery as well, I wouldn’t need any other power cables for traveling ever again.
Re: the Curve charging - I have not noticed any difference in mine (8900) between the power cord it came with, and the Powermat. I have however noticed that it can be a bit fiddly with positioning on the mat - I have put it on there thinking it had hit the right spot (because I heard the sound), but apparently it moved off of it just enough (when I took my hand away) that it wasn’t charging. So now I have a quick look at the phone’s battery indicator to make sure it is actually charging. Since then I have not experienced any problems with either time to charge, or how long a given charge lasts me.
on December 29, 2009 at 12:46 PM - LINK