Belkin Kakao Friends 10W wireless charging pad review

Belkin is one of the most popular wireless charger companies in the market. It recently teamed up with Kakao Friends for a special edition of the company’s 10W wireless charging pad. The Belkin Kakao Friends 10W wireless charging pad costs ₹3,499.

In case you’re unaware, Kakao Friends are animated characters based on Korea’s KakaoTalk emoticons. There are six characters in total - Ryan, Apeach, Muzi, Con, Frodo, Neo, Tube and Jay-G. Those who use the KakaoTalk messaging app will be familiar with these characters. The Belkin Kakao Friends wireless charger features two of these characters - Ryan and Apeach.

Ryan is a male lion who doesn’t have a mane, while Apeach is a mischievous peach that escaped from the peach tree. We got the Ryan edition for the Belkin wireless charging pad which comes in black colour. The Apeach one comes in white colour. The charging pad also has “Time To Fill” written on top. The Kakao Friends wireless charger looks really cute and it’s a nice addition to have on your office or study table along with other accessories.

The wireless charging pad is tiny and can fit only one device at a time. There’s a rubber ring surrounding the charging pad to act as a grip for the devices. Belkin ships the Kakao Friends wireless charger with a USB-A cable but there’s no adapter. This may disappoint some users who would prefer an adapter for the wireless charger. It can however be plugged in with any compatible charging brick, your laptop’s USB port and power banks as well. There’s a small LED indicator that turns on when a device is charging.

The maximum power output this wireless charger gives is 10W. For iPhones, it supports up to 7.5W and 9W for Samsung phones. Belkin says that for other Qi enabled devices the wireless charger uses up to 10W. Charging the iPhone 11 from 0-100% on the Belkin wireless charging pad took around four hours. I don’t have a Samsung phone that supports wireless charging so I couldn’t try that out.

You can charge large phones like the iPhone XS Max on this wireless charging pad as well but since it’s tiny there would be ample surrounding space required. The iPhone 11 fits pretty well, and it’s actually best for wearables like wireless earbuds. Speaking of which, I did charge a deeply discharged Samsung Galaxy Buds which went up to 10% in around 40 minutes.

Verdict

Based on my usage, the Belkin Kakao Friends 10W wireless charging pad does take a lot of time to charge up devices. There are quite a few 10W wireless chargers that are priced much lower than the Belkin one. The Kakao Friends branding is quite appealing but if budget is a concern then it’s best to try out more affordable alternatives.