A month later, The PMA case & charger experience?

[psudotechzealot]

Hey, 1520 owners, I have a few questions regarding the PMA Case & wireless charger. How has the PMA wireless charging fair so compared to Qi? Does it charge faster than Qi? Will you fully convert to PMA or do you still prefer Qi wireless charging? Tell Us, your experience with the PMA case & wireless charger.

 

[wpn00b]

I hope someone that has this responds. I'm curious about this as well.

 

[superlawyer15]

the PMA charging case is the ugliest thing I have ever laid my eyes on
It does a horrible job protecting your device and adds an enormous amount of unnecessary bulk

At $50 for just the case (barring any available discounts/sales), it is a complete and total ripoff
That price doesn't even factor in a charging pad

For $35 you can get the nokia dt-900 AND a qi coil of your choice (internal or external)

honestly its a no brainer, Qi all the way ....and while these reasons are compelling enough, we haven't even factored in supporting Qi based solely on principal due to what ATT did

 

[fitchalcyone]

Apart from Lumias, what other phones have had wireless built-in or were intentionally wireless-ready? I'm not talking about those Duracell cases where you're plugging the case in. What I have in mind is more like the 925 and 1020. I know I've seen cases like these for the Galaxy S4, are there any others?

It seems like the true backers of wireless were using Qi each time, so why is it PMA is getting the preference? If AT&T was going to remove built-in wireless charging, at least make the accessories to set it up a little more available. I never see anything at the local stores here for it.

 

[dropofdreams]

One of the nexus had it as well as the note 2 having it optionally. The palm pre and or pixie as well.

 

[mattcheau]

HTC 8x too.

 

[TonyF64]

I have the PMA case and a charger that I got just for this phone. It works. It works well, in fact. I have no issues with the charging at all. That being said, the solution still suck. It is expensive. The case adds a ton of thickness to the phone. The case only comes in black. The only experience I have with Qi is with my wife's 1020. I have the Nokia charging shell and charger. I cannot get it to work consistently. I've tried two chargers and two back covers. Sometimes it will charge and sometimes it won't. A lot of time it will connect for a few minutes then disconnect over and over all night long. It sucks. I think two years from now when it is time for new phones that I will only buy phone with a built-in solution. No more charging cases for me.

 

[jmerrey]

the PMA charging case is the ugliest thing I have ever laid my eyes on
It does a horrible job protecting your device and adds an enormous amount of unnecessary bulk

At $50 for just the case (barring any available discounts/sales), it is a complete and total ripoff
That price doesn't even factor in a charging pad

For $35 you can get the nokia dt-900 AND a qi coil of your choice (internal or external)

honestly its a no brainer, Qi all the way ....and while these reasons are compelling enough, we haven't even factored in supporting Qi based solely on principal due to what ATT did

How does it compare to the Qi charging case for the 1520? Oh yeah...

 

[Dave Blake]

I had the Lumia 920 and 1020 I used iQ wireless on both. The iQ case I the 1020 added a comparable amount of bulk to the 1020 as the PMA case adds to the 1520. The PMA system is nicer than the iQ setup. The PMA base has a magnet attachment that keeps the phone in place when charging. It also has light and sound to alert when the phone is charging. The charger turns itself off to prevent overcharging. I like the PMA option better if I have the option I will stick with it. I hope other case options come out for the L1520 eventually. Its like iQ is the Toyota of wirless charging while PMA is the Lexus. They both get the job done but PMA is just a nice more advanced setup. M2C

 

[manicottiK]

The PMA base has a magnet attachment that keeps the phone in place when charging. It also has light and sound to alert when the phone is charging. The charger turns itself off to prevent overcharging.

I don't follow how the second and third things are unique to the PMA case. My 920 and 1520 both make a sound when placed on the Nokia Qi charging plate and an LED at the front of the plate lights when charging, then turns off when charging is complete.

The magnet is unique now, but it's not a requirement that Qi omit a magnet. The Qi charger for the Agent smartwatch will have a magnet for centering the watch on the charger.

--Ken

 

[Dave Blake]

I don't follow how the second and third things are unique to the PMA case. My 920 and 1520 both make a sound when placed on the Nokia Qi charging plate and an LED at the front of the plate lights when charging, then turns off when charging is complete.

The magnet is unique now, but it's not a requirement that Qi omit a magnet. The Qi charger for the Agent smartwatch will have a magnet for centering the watch on the charger.

--Ken

The instructions that comes with the Nokia branded iQ charger base tell you to take your phone off the charger when the battery us full to prevent overcharging. The PMA base has lights and sound. The iQ chargers do not provide light and sound in the base unit.

 

[Jcowley]

The instructions that comes with the Nokia branded iQ charger base tell you to take your phone off the charger when the battery us full to prevent overcharging. The PMA base has lights and sound. The iQ chargers do not provide light and sound in the base unit.

I think the issue most people have with PMA is that wireless charging is meant to be about convenience, not extra features. Whilst having better notification of charging etc is good, not being able to use a case of your choice + more expensive solutions puts more people off than it attracts.

 

[manicottiK]

The iQ chargers do not provide light and sound in the base unit.

The Nokia charging plates that I bought in December 2012 certainly do have a light, as shown in the area circled below. (That Lumia 920 automatically powered up upon detecting the charge from the plate.) I believe that the light goes out when the charge is complete.

While the plate itself doesn't make a sound, the phone does upon beginning a charge, whether that charge is received by wire or the Qi plate. (If the user has sounds set to vibrate, the phone does that. If the phone is set to silent, my guess is that the phone doesn't make any sound.) In all cases, the phone's screen lights up when charging begins.

As agreed to earlier, there is no alignment magnet in either the charging plate or any of the Lumias. (Magnets are in the PMA plate and the PMA jacket.)

(Also note that it's Qi, not iQ.)

 

[Dave Blake]

Yah I completely forgot about the little light. I stand corrected.

What happens with my PMA charging base that I like is this. I wake in the middle of the night sometimes. When I do I check my phone for a few minutes sometimes it helps me get back to sleep. At night I always have my phone on silent. Now a days I use an app for that... I can then set my phone on the charging base it makes a nice low volume chirp sound and four led lights stationed on the corners of the charging base show with a very soft light. That lets me know for sure that my 1520 is sitting correctly on the base from any angle. I don't have to wait for the phone screen to light up which as we all know can take a few seconds.

 

[manicottiK]

Got it. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[JaiMento]

Never used Qi, so I can't compare, but my experience with PMA has been good so far. It works well for me. The case does add some bulk, but it isn't unbearable and while it doesn't provide the best protection, it is sufficient. I would definitely recommend it as a simple solution for anyone who wants wireless charging on their AT&T L1520 and isn't already invested in Qi.

 

[mmcpher]

I have the Incipio PMA Charging Case for the 1520, and a Duracell Powermat (3 devices), and it works very well, once you get the feel for where to place it. It made connection and charged quickly in both horizontal and vertical positions. Once I got the hang of it, it became as easy as just putting it down on the plate. The case, of course, added bulk. But I was not entirely comfortable with the naked 1520. It had a certain slickness to it, and in some respects, I actually prefer the charging case. I should say that this is my first foray into wireless charging, so I have no emotional attachment to either PMA or Qi. So long as those electrical thingies get to where they need to go, I leave religion and politics out of it.

My principle issue with the PMA Case is that the added bulk put it outside the scope of my car mount, so I tried a universal mount that uses a very strong magnet to keep the phone in place, while allowing you to swivel the phone around. It required me to affix a metal about the size of a quarter to the back of the case, and the weight of the 1520 (with case) exceeded the adhesive strength of the metal ring. So I used Crazy Glue and it worked a treat. But I also wanted to attach the ring and the phone to as near to the 'center of gravity' or middle of the 1520 as possible. But the charging element on the PMA case occupies that spot. So I glued the metal ring right below the charging element and it has made the charging connection a little more dicey. My sense is that there's a sweet spot for this workaround, with the metal ring a little lower than right below the charging element. The magnetic strength of the car mount is sufficient that it would work as well there, and there would be less or no interference with the PMA charging element.

As a stand alone, the PMA charging setting was and is fine by my lights. I would prefer wireless charging on board, of course.

 

[xerox13ster]

I had the Lumia 820 Qi charging shell out of necessity (I bought the Lumia 820 over the 920 for the SD card support and the option to change the shell, as well as the high sensitivity screen, which I was convinced was 820 only. About 6 mos into ownership, it fell off my desk with the charger connected and snapped the USB connector in the device, and I did not have warranty (used). I was glad that the Lumia 820 had the option of a Qi wireless shell, I just thought that I'd never have a reason to justify the purchase.) and have loved the freedom of it. I have a Qi charger for both home and the office, and could just drop my phone on the charger whenever I needed to. My screen on my 820 cracked, so I replaced it, but it had a ghost in the screen, and I cracked it again 2 months later (just in my pocket, idk). I got my taxes back at the beginning of Feb, and decided I needed a new phone, and started looking at the 1520, but found out that it was PMA w/accessory and charger purchase, incompatible with Qi and was crushed, I was not going to buy 2 new chargers just to have wireless charging, but wanted a 1520, so I searched for a 1520 with Qi on ATT's website, and found that they didn't have a 32 GB in red...So I searched for one on ebay and found out that there is an international version of the phone (Yes, I'm a sheltered little American kiddie. I want nothing more than to be out of this corporately controlled nightmare, we suck ) I did some searching and found that the phone had 32 GB in red, and YES! it has Qi wireless charging! I bought it and got it set up, and first thing I did was stick it on top of my Qi charging base and wait for the chime. The screen came on and it chimed. I wanted to throw my hat in and say why settle for PMA, or pick up PMA just for the 1520? As long as there is a Lumia that will have Qi charging in it, that is what I will buy.