Today the inconspicuous brown paper wrapped box I had been expecting turned up at my office, the contents; a Transformers Dark of the Moon Power Mat.
I first heard about Power Mat about 2 years ago when there “Its F@#king Charging” ad was going viral. I always thought it was pretty cool, and I like the technology, but I always thought it was too expensive for just another way to charge my phone etc.
While the box had a few creases in it, over all it was in good condition, while a nice Autobot logo with Transformers Dark of the Moon written underneath it. The back had the usual FCC stuff as well as the Hasbro and Paramount logos. There is also a warning saying that “This is not a toy” which I find amusing, but I guess I’m giving some people more credit then they deserve.
Upon opening the box I’m greeted by the protective foam… boring! Now that that’s gone I can see the very detailed instruction manual (sarcasm included), a charging case for an iPhone 4, wait!, iPhone 4? Damn time for an upgrade. Last but not least we come to the Power Mat itself all shiny and new with its Autobot logo looking at me longingly just waiting for me to remove it from its protective plastic covering. Err…. moving on…
This is the iPhone 4 charging case. Basically you use this as your cover for your phone and just drop it on the Power Mat when your ready to charge your iPhone. I’m guessing the wife will be getting this as she has an iPhone 4 and I don’t.
This is the power supply (or a non-transforming transformer if you will) which plugs into the Power Mat to provide, well, power. Not much to say about this, looks like a Nokia charger really. Down side its not an Australian adaptor so that means we need…
…a universal adaptor! This one works the same as all others, but is extra chunky as you can see in the pics. What’s the reason for this extra bulk? Because you can configure it for whatever country your in, which is kinda cool if you think about it, but the thing is so big that it hits the power switch on the wall socket when plugging it in.
Wrapped and unwrapped, the Power Mat looks cool. It hasn’t even transformed into its full size yet! This is the part the surprised me the most though, that fact that its so light. It feels like cheap plastic to me, which is unfortunate as for the price it should be good quality.
I’m sure that there is nothing wrong with the quality of the product (and I should point out that it is the portable version of the Power Mat) but I just cant get over that feeling. In the middle of all the squares there is a circle, which I’m guessing is what the magnet is behind to centre the devices your charging. This would be fine with a normal Power Mat, but when you have these logos on them, it kinds takes away from them. Maybe I’m just being too picky about it, have a look for yourself and let me know what you think.
Finally we get down to the charging part. One could argue that this is the most important part of this review as this is what the Power Mat is designed to do! First off you get a whole stack of attachments to connect, these include iPod/iPhone/iPad, Nokia, LG, micro USB, Samsung, ZTE and Sony Ericsson. You attach these to a hockey puck type device which you then place on the Power Mat to charge.
All in all I’m pretty impressed with the Power Mat overall, once I have tested it out for a few more days I’ll add in any other thoughts I have about it.
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