Choetech is a name you might be familiar with if you’ve ever purchased any smartphone accessories on Amazon. The company has been making accessories like chargers, cables, cases and more for years now, and has developed quite a pedigree for making quality equipment. We’ve reviewed a number of their products, and now with a 2017 refresh of familiar devices, along with some new ones, it’s time to take a look at what the company is offering this summer for the latest and greatest in smartphone tech. While many of these accessories are labeled as Galaxy S8 accessories, you’ll find that most of them work with other smartphones as well. We’ll let you know which are also compatible, but know that everything here is 100% compatible with Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ without a doubt.
Fast Wireless Charger (Model T520)
Samsung has been one of the bigger players in the wireless charging game, and like last year the Galaxy S8 features support for 10W fast wireless charging. While this is isn’t quite as fast as the 15W charger that ships with the Galaxy S8 (and subsequently many other phones nowadays), it’s still a fast rate of charging that’s far more convenient than regular plug chargers, if for no other reason than the fact that it’s a simple drop on dock. In the box you’ll only find the wireless charger itself, as well as a USB Type-A to microUSB cable within, no wall charger at all. You’ll either need to rely on the existing charger that came with your phone, or an additional wall charger, either from your phone’s manufacturer or Choetech themselves. This omission is a little irritating, but the likelihood is that Choetech expects you to replace the charging cable that came with your phone rather than using this as an additional charger.
The design here is excellent; unlike a lot of other wireless chargers that require the phone to be placed flat on the charger with the screen pointing straight up, Choetech has redesigned its charger to act more like a desktop dock instead. Resting at about a 70-degree angle, the phone is positioned so that it’s easily viewable either in portrait or landscape mode, meaning you can easily watch movies and charge the phone at the same time, or just leave it in portrait orientation and browse the web or chat like normal hand use would allow. The lip that the phone rests on is made of a rubber material, ensuring slip resistance; something particularly important for modern phones that are made entirely of metal and glass. There are also four rubber feet that keep it attached to a desk, and the whole thing is nice and bottom-heavy, meaning it won’t easily tip over, even with a phone sitting in portrait mode on the dock.
A long LED light strip sits at the bottom, lighting up blue when the charger has power and is ready to do its job, and changing to green while it’s actually charging the phone. This little tidbit is great for knowing whether or not the charger itself actually works, helping to avoid that irritating realization that you dropped the phone on the charger, only to come back and hour later and find it didn’t charge at all. Charging performance was exactly what’s expected at this wattage. A 30 minute charge will net about 25-30% depending on the battery level you’re at. As usual, the higher percentage your battery is sitting at, the slower it’s going to charge, so 0%-30% will charge quicker than 70%-100% will.
As a bonus though the phone doesn’t get hot at all, even when charging from 0-100%, and a full charge will take somewhere north of 2 hours if the phone’s battery is completely empty. This charger will work with any device that supports the widely adopted Qi wireless charging standard, although Choetech states that the fast wireless charging method is only supported by the Galaxy Note 5, S6 Edge+, S7 and S7 Edge, S8 and S8 Plus. Other phones will likely charge at the slower 5W charging, which will take at least double the time to charge the phone wirelessly. Even at this slower rate it’s still nice to have the convenience of a dock that also doubles as a charger. The dock normally retails for $19.99, but we’ve got a deal if you use the link and coupon code below to save $6, making it $13.99 for the Fast Wireless Charger. This coupon is good until July 10th, 2017.
USB Type-C to USB Type-A/3.0 Nylon Braided Cables (3-pack)
There’s no doubt that USB cables are an annoyance to most folks. Aside from never having one that seems to be long enough, having the right connection on one end or the other always seems to be a struggle too. Last year we saw a big jump to USB Type-C on smartphones, and this year it’s likely you won’t see any new big-name phones shipping with the older microUSB standard. Now is the time to start switching out those old microUSB cables, and Choetech’s 3-pack of USB Type-C to USB Type-A/3.0 cables certainly helps boost those supplies. At $14.99 these cables are an absolute steal, bringing compatibility with existing USB accessories to the new USB Type-C phones.
Choetech has covered the cable in a braided nylon instead of the usual smooth texture, which not only lends a feeling of higher quality cables in general, but also makes them more resilient to the elements over time. Traditional plastic cabling doesn’t last terribly long if constantly stuffed in a bag or coiled up, as the material ends up wearing out over time and breaking open. These braided cables feel more like shoelaces than cables, and are significantly more resilient as a result. Choetech has outfitted them with USB 3.0 speeds too, meaning around 100MB/s transfer rate for files when connected to a compatible computer or other device.
These also support quick charge for phones, and it worked on both Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 phones like the Samsung Galaxy S8, as well as other USB Type-C phones like the Google Pixel’s quick charging mode when paired with the Quick Charge charger below. Choetech states that these won’t work at all on the OnePlus 2 because of the deviation from official USB Type-C standard pins in that phone, so be aware of that before purchasing. As a bonus these will also work on the Nintendo Switch and a number of other non-Android devices that support the USB Type-C standard, although it’s stated that it won’t quickly charge these devices as the original manufacturer’s cable will because of some standards deviation on those products. We’ve got the same deal on these cables too, taking $6 off the regular price and making the 3-pack of these cables only $8.99 when you use the link and coupon code below. This coupon is also good until July 10th, 2017.
Quick Charge 3.0 Wall Charger (Model Q3001)
Choetech has made this particular wall charger for some time now, but it upgrades the components based on new standards every once in a while. This latest version supports 15W or 18W charging in a number of configurations: 5v/3A, 9v/2A, 12V/1.5A. These three configurations pretty much cover the gamut of what you’re going to find on smartphone tech, bar a few special circumstances of course. We tested this on every phone we had with USB Type-C connection, and even the ones that usually are have very specific needs for fast charging, like the Google Pixel, went into the “charging rapidly” state. This isn’t always an easy thing to find, as there are many phones with a USB Type-C port that simply don’t work right with many fast chargers due to specific voltage requirements.
What’s even nicer is the inclusion of Choetech’s excellent reversible USB Type-A slot on the charger itself. This guarantees that you can plug in any existing USB Type-A (large USB plug) cable without needing to orient it the right way. It seems inevitable that standard USB Type-A cables need to be flipped over 4 or 5 times before they magically fit, and this takes out all the silliness of what has almost become a tradition over the years, and still has zero compatibility problems for things like quick charging. This charger retails for $14.99.
Buy the QuickCharge 3.0 Wall ChargerUSB Type-C to DisplayPort Cable and USB Type-C to HDMI Cable
These cables are designed to output video via that handy universal USB Type-C port found on the phone. While you’re definitely familiar with charging through the port, you may not know that this port can also carry video and audio through it with compatible accessories. USB Type-C was designed to be a total solution for power and audio/video needs, so it makes sense that outputting the phone’s screen via this port would be possible. While casting still remains the most desirable way to share the screen or specific contents of what’s on a phone, the fact that there’s no universal casting standard makes it difficult to do so without the right equipment.
Choetech’s cables support either the DisplayPort or HDMI standard, and both are rated at USB 3.1 speeds for display up to 4K resolution at 60Hz refresh rate. Be aware that your phone’s resolution may be slightly different from your TV’s, especially on phones like the Galaxy S8 or LG G6, which use a much wider 18:9 or 18.5:9 aspect ratio than your TV’s 16:9 aspect ratio. This means there will be black bars either above and below, or to the left and right of the screen, depending on TV and phone models. The auto-rotate feature works exactly as expected, and will rotate the image on the TV to display exactly how you’re holding the phone. This USB Type-C standard is also known as Thunderbolt 3 on some devices, and should work the same for any laptops or other computing devices that feature this port. These cables retail anywhere from 19.99 to 26.99 depending on type and length, but we’ve got a number of deals below for you that are good until July 10th, 2017!
$9 off the USB Type-C to DisplayPort 6ft/1.8m cable, bringing it to $12.99 by using this link and coupon code:
$11 off the USB Type-C to HDMI 10ft/3m cable, bringing it to $15.99 by using this link and coupon code:
