Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad Review: Power on the go

The Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad does a fair job of charging your gadgets, but it’s absolutely best suited for Apple iPhone users.

Pros	Cons
Folds up into a compact square (mostly)	Even smaller multi-device chargers are available
Qi2 Compatible	Very Apple specific
Folds upwards to support StandBy mode	Kind of expensive

Score: 3/5

 

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In this review

Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad Design
Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad Performance
Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad Conclusion

I do love to travel when I can, but one of the aspects of travel I’m not a big fan of is sorting out all the chargers I need to take with me. This is something that has improved in recent years with the near-standardisation on USB-C as a charging port, but it can still be challenging getting everything to fit nicely into a bag.

The Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad is designed to make your travel packing a little easier, presenting a fold-down dual Qi2 charging pad and fold up Apple Watch charger.

Conceptually it’s rather similar to the Twelve South Butterfly Charger I reviewed a few months back, only a little bigger, technically faster and a little less pricey – though it still isn’t what you could reasonably call “cheap”.

Also read:
Twelve South Butterfly Charger Review

 

Design

Out of the box, the Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad looks like a rather thick drinks coaster with an obvious Belkin logo over its primary Qi2 charging port on one side, and an embedded Apple Watch charger on the other. It forms a very roughly 8cm square slab, not including its charger, which plugs in via USB-C.

The included charger is rated at 30W, though in its intended use case you’ll only see 15W maximum out of it – more on that shortly.

It’s a fixed cable plug at the socket end, but not at the actual charger end, which I do prefer. When and if the charging plug dies – or if it’s simply lost – there should be no problem using other 30W capable USB-C chargers with the charging plate.

Performance

Folded up as it is, the Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad would be rather hard to use, but then it’s built on a central hinge that allows for it to be fully folded out flat, or placed in a “tent” style orientation to work with Apple’s iPhone StandBy mode.

If you’re not using a recent model iPhone or and HMD Skyline – at the time of writing the only Android phone to offer Qi2 compatibility – you’d need to have it in its lay-flat configuration to make the most of it.

Mind you, given that the other charging point  is specifically for Apple Watch (or technically AirPods charging), it’s hard to see the appeal here for the Android crowd; this is basically an Apple product that you could use in a more limited way with other Qi-compliant devices.

One nice touch here for Apple Watch users is that compared to the Twelve South Butterfly, pushing the Apple Watch charger out to make it easier to use is a lot simpler, because it’s fully open at the back; no need to try to catch it with a fingernail or (as I’ve done more than once) the tip of a pen.

Where the Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad makes the most sense, given that its maximum Qi2 charging rate is only 15W, is as an overnight side table charger for your iPhone and Apple Watch.

I’ve tested with this configuration for a couple of weeks now, and it certainly works, albeit only really as well as other wireless chargers. Wireless charging is necessarily a little bit on the lossy and inefficient side, which means that unless the phone’s hit top charge in the wee early hours of the night, you can expect it to be a touch warm when taking it off the charger.

Technically you could get a more efficient and rapid charge straight from the 30W USB-C charger if you’ve got a newer model iPhone with USB-C ports… but then there’d be no point in spending the extra on the actual charging plate in the first place!

Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad: Alex’s Verdict

The portability aspect of the Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad is rather the point of this specific gadget, and while it works and does fold up nicely, I’d still say the Twelve South Butterfly is the better general device, simply because it’s that much smaller.

You don’t get proper Qi2 certification with the Twelve South model, but it does advertise the same 15W rate, which for iPhone users would almost certainly equate to the same routine of putting your phone onto the charger overnight and picking it up fully charged in the morning.

It is a little cheaper than the Twelve South Butterfly, but not by such a significant amount as to make up for that size difference. The price point here is likely to be the biggest sticking point for most buyers, but then this is a rather travel-specific charger in the first place. If you’re not constantly hopping between planes, trains and automobiles on a very regular basis, it wouldn’t make much sense anyway.

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Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad: Pricing and availability

The Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad retails in Australia for $199.95

	Buy The Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Magnetic Charging Travel Pad!	Buy On Amazon