ADATA Elite CE700 Qi Wireless Charging Station

A Closer Look

Upon removing the CE700 from the packaging you will first notice the very attractive piano black finish of the plastic. At 12mm thick it’s very portable and easy to store.

A closer look reveals that the unit is actually comprised of two pieces; the backing which is made of a sturdy aluminum with nice rubber feet and the device platform itself. Sadly, the unit only comes with neon green rubber that not everyone will be a fan of.

Just to the left above the Qi logo  you will also notice the LED indicator that will flash when a device is charging as well as other indicators that you can see in the chart below. I will go over  a few of these later on in the review.

When fusing the two pieces together you get a very unique looking wireless charging platform and it’s actually quite sturdy to my surprise.

On the back is the standard spec list as well as a number of logos representing the devices various certifications.

There is only a single port that is required to operate this device and that is the micro USB port located towards the bottom. Simply connect any micro USB cable to this port and have the other end plugged into a USB AC adapter that you can find at almost every retailer that sells any sort of electronics. Unfortunately one is not provided with the unit.

I was only able to test with a small variety of phones. with the Nokia Lumia 920, Samsung Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 3, and the Google Nexus 5 as my test subjects. An important thing to mention to those on the cusp of moving towards wireless charging is that you must have a device that is Qi wireless charging capable or wireless charging ready. The Lumia and Nexus devices have Qi wireless charging already built in, but most of the newer entries to the Galaxy lineup require the user to purchase the device specific receiver that can be found through most online retailers. Now that I have that out of the way let’s talk about my usage with the phone that I use as my daily; The Galaxy Note 3.

Every other phone I tested worked without any issues but the main reason why I’m singling out the Note 3 is because of it’s size. As you can see from the image above and below, phablets (5.3″ and over) need to be adjusted a little differently compared to its smaller brethren. The wireless charging point (Tx) on the CE700 is the distinguishable Qi logo that the receiver (Rx) of your device would need to be aligned with. But larger phones force the alignment to be slightly off. Now granted, by WPC (Wireless Power Consortium) specifications the charging range can extend up to 40mm, but that range can vary depend on a number of factors. In my particular situation with the Note 3, I had to play with it in a number of different positions and angles before I could properly achieve wireless charging activity. Though I will add that the CE700 can be configured to lay flat for situations like mine.