The WildCharger Bundle is a product unlike anything I’d ever seen. In a nutshell it offers wire-free charging for the iPhone and iPod touch.
The bundle consists of two parts — the WildCharger Pad and a WildCharge Skin for your iPhone or iPod touch.
The WildCharger Pad, shown below, is a thin 6 x 8-inch device that plugs into the wall and delivers up to 15 watts of power — enough to charge a bunch of devices simultaneously.
Then, in addition to the WildCharger Pad, you’ll also need a WildCharge Skin or a WildCharge PowerDisc with Power Links. The Bundle includes a WildCharger Pad and a WildCharge Skin; the WildCharge PowerDisc with Power Links (more on this shortly) is not included and costs an additional $19.99.
The WildCharge Skin is a soft gel case with a set of WildCharge contact module on its backside. Here’s what mine looks like:
With the pad plugged into an AC outlet and a skin encasing your iPhone or iPod touch you charge your device by merely placing it on the WildCharger Pad as shown here:
It works as advertised. To charge my iPhone I just drop it onto the pad. A blue LED on the pad lights up as soon as contact is made and in a couple of hours my iPhone is fully charged. It takes roughly the same amount of time to charge a device with WildCharge as it would to charge it the usual way (via dock connector and/or USB). And a single WildCharger Pad can recharge several devices — as many as will fit on the pad at once — simultaneously.
I feel obliged to mention that the WildCharge products are not limited to Apple devices. There are currently WildCharge Skins available for the BlackBerry Pearl and BlackBerry Curve, a WildCharge Adapter for the Motorola RAZR V3, and the aforementioned WireCharge PowerDisc which comes with 7 different PowerLink Adapters that let you recharge hundreds of other devices including Bluetooth headsets, the Kindle 2, numerous GPS systems, and many more including add-on batteries for your iPhone.
Here’s what the PowerDisc looks like:
And here are the 7 included adapters:
So there you have it. The WildCharge system lets you recharge many types of battery-powered device by merely setting them down on the WildCharger Pad. It works and it is pretty cool.
But I do have two reservations about the system:
1. At $80 for the Pad and Skin it’s a bit expensive for what it does.
2. The Skin blocks the dock connector so you have to remove it to sync or use dock connector based peripherals such as speakers and car cradles.
The Bottom Line
If you don’t mind having to remove the Skin to sync or connect your iPhone to your peripherals, and the price doesn’t bother you, the WildCharge system is a unique and handy way to charge your iPhone and/or other devices without the hassle of connecting them to a wire or a dock.