Nanfu Wireless Power Bank: First Thoughts

They say the Huawei Mate 20 Pro can reverse-charge an iPhone, but honestly, if you’re reverse-charging from a phone, you might as well just use a battery.

In fact, “wireless power banks” like this already exist. I bought a Nanfu one — old brand, trustworthy.

Looks like an ordinary power bank from any angle, except it has this wireless charging section.

To charge, you just set the phone on top and it starts charging.

I tested the phones I had on hand, and plenty of them only support 5W slow charging — the Pixel 3 XL even less. A big old “Charging Slowly.”

But in practice it’s not that slow: about 30% in half an hour. Leave the phone sitting there and it’ll top you up.

Sometimes I wonder, though — the use case here is pretty narrow. With wireless charging the phone has to sit on top of it, and power banks are mostly for when you’re out. If I’m indoors and willing to leave my phone sitting on something…

why wouldn’t I just use a wireless charging pad?

Maybe it’s useful when you’re at a café, can’t find an outlet, and don’t want to leech power from your laptop over USB?

Oh right, one more use: the battery itself can double as a wireless charging pad. Put it that way and it kind of clicks. Take it with you when you travel — use it as a regular power bank with a cable day to day, and as a charging pad when you rest, charging the battery and the phone at the same time. Two birds, one stone.

As for wirelessly charging a phone straight from the battery, that’s probably just a gimmick.