Motorola Turbo Charger Review

Before we get too far, no, this isn’t something to boost the performance of the engine in your car but rather something to charge up the battery in your phone or tablet. You might be disappointed but this charger promises to quickly charge your device so long as it has a Qualcomm 810 CPU in it.

Unfortunately, none of my mobile devices have that CPU in it but I thought I would still give it a go on my Nokia Lumia 1520. Thanks to MobileZap for letting me indulge in this little experiment!

Long story short, this is a charger designed to work from mains power and not via a USB port. Until the advent of high powered USB Type C ports allowing 100W of juice to flow through them, mains charging was the sure fire way to get your device charged in the shortest amount of time.

So, how did this charger stack up on paper? Let’s do a quick comparison:

  • USB 1.0/2.0 charging:
    • 5 Volts
    • 0.5 Amp
    • 5V x 0.5A = 2.5 Watts
  • Qi wireless charging:
    • 5 Volts
    • 1 Amp
    • 5V x 1A = 5 Watts
  • Turbo charger (standard mode):
    • 5 Volts
    • 1.6 Amps
    • 5V x 1.6A = 8 Watts
  • Turbo charger (Turbo 1 mode):
    • 9 Volts
    • 1.6 Amps
    • 9V x 1.6A = 14.4 Watts
  • Turbo charger (Turbo 2 mode):
    • 12 Volts
    • 1.2 Amps
    • 12V x 1.2A = 14.4 Watts

The Motorola charger certainly has the ability to pump power up to nearly six times faster than legacy USB ports and up to nearly three times as fast as the Qi wireless chargers currently available.

In my tests over numerous weeks against the included Nokia mains charger there was an increase in the speed of charging by about twenty five minutes (3h 15m using the Nokia charger versus 2h 50m using the Motorola charger). However, this was nowhere near the speed at which a truly compatible Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 device could recharge. Still, any increase in speed is a good thing particularly you are on the road and don’t have any portable chargers.

So while my experience wasn’t as stellar as it could have been had I had a compatible device, I reckon the Motorola Turbo Charger would a major bonus if you have devices such as the Google Nexus 6, Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and the Sony Xperia Z4 tablet. However, if you’ve got older devices there are still gains, most likely minor, to be had until you upgrade.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.