The Charging Pad

The pad is a flat rectangular device that has several strips of metal running across it. On the left side there is a raised "hump" that contains all of the active circuitry and also the port for the plug.

Each of the 12 metal strips is a linear contact point. Individually they are inert and have no current running through them, but if you bridge two of them then you create a circuit that provides power. The size pad that we have in the lab is capable of charging up to five devices (cell phones and other small items).

But WildCharge has not just allowed for a simple conductive pad. They have designed the Wildcharger pad to only work with a proper adapter. This means that if you drop a regular piece of conductive metal on the pad it will not create a circuit and the device will remain inert.

The Adapter

The adapter for the iPhone that we received looks a little cheap at first glance. In reality it is little more than a rubber shell with some components stuck in some of the molded cavities. As you can see in the image below, the hardware is only covered by stickers placed in the interior of the case.

Thankfully these stickers are on very good; I was not able to pick them out of the interior even after several minutes of trying. I am not saying they will never come out, but they should not come out during normal usage.

On the back we see four small spherical contact points. These are placed in a "Y" array to ensure good contact with the Wildcharger pad no matter what angle you drop the device at.

At the bottom is a small extension a lot like a chin. This houses the 30-pin connector for the iPhone. This is (as you have probably guessed) connected to the four conductors in the back of the case. But there is a down side to this case. As you have probably noticed, there is no way to connect the iPhone inside the case to a computer for syncing. This is a huge short coming of this adapter.

WildCharge should have allowed some method to sync the iPhone with iTunes without the need to remove the case. As they did not, this case is not very attractive to the average iPhone user. It even takes away from the fact that it is one of the very few cases that allows for use on older iPhones like the 1st gen ones.

The appearance is also a little dull; when I showed it around to different people they asked if it came in other colors and styles. When I told them this was it, the majority said they would not want to use it all the time, but might use it to charge overnight.