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Save $36 on a Cool, Compact Hall Effect Keyboard
Product Reviews

Save $36 on a Cool, Compact Hall Effect Keyboard

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Looking for a compact keyboard with a unique twist? The Keychron Q1 HE (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is currently marked down over $35 on Amazon, and comes with Hall Effect switches, a rare offering that adds a ton of functionality to your keyboard.

Photograph: Henri Robbins

Think of a keyboard switch like light switches. They have a fixed point where they activate, and all they can report is whether they’re in one of two states. Hall effect switches are more like light dimmer knobs. They know exactly where they currently are and can report that information back to the computer, which has a number of advantages over traditional keyboard switches.

For starters, you don’t have to settle for a fixed actuation point like you do on most keyboards. You can use the software to set the keys to be super sensitive, or require them to be almost all the way down, or even set keys to send different button presses depending on how hard they’re pressed. If you like to play video games, you can set keys to act like an analog joystick or trigger, letting you easily steer in racing games or walk in RPGs without picking up a controller.

The software has a lot of options, but is well thought out and easy to use, although you do need to plug it in to make changes. It’s QMK-based, but Keychron provides their own web-based launcher to make things even easier, particularly if you’re not well versed in that customization software.

It’s a premium mechanical keyboard throughout. The switches themselves are made by Gateron, and our reviewer noted that they’re exceptionally smooth, thanks to the pre-lubed rails and magnetic sensor. The gasket mount design and full aluminum body work together to provide a soft, deep, typing experience. Unless you’re already using linear switches, you might miss some of the crispness and feedback you get from a tactile or clicky mechanical switch.

While the larger Keychron Q6 HE currently sits at the top of our list of favorite mechanical keyboards, if you don’t need the num pad, you might appreciate the extra desk space you can reclaim with the Q1 HE. They’re otherwise extremely similar boards, and you’ll save $50 in the process.



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Product Reviews

TikTok is tagging videos from Gaza with product recommendations

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TikTok has been tagging videos from war-ravaged Gaza with product recommendations, as reported by The Verge. The publication detailed a scenario in which footage of a Palestinian woman walking amidst rubble presented TikTok shop recommendations that matched what she wore in the video.

The algorithm suggested products with names like “Dubai Middle East Turkish Elegant Lace-Up Dress” and “Women’s Solid Color Knot Front Long Sleeve Dress.” The original footage showed the woman searching for lost family members.

This is thanks to a new addition to the TikTok app that uses AI to identify objects in posts. When a user pauses a video, the shop will automatically recommend products that resemble those objects. Today’s reporting indicates that the company didn’t give much forethought as to which types of videos this technology should be applied to.

The new tool isn’t available to everyone just yet, as it’s rolling out on a limited basis. To check if your app has been updated, simply pause a video and look for the “Find Similar” pop-up. We reached out to TikTok to ask about how this technology is being used and will update this post when we hear back.



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Screenshot from Aaron Christophel on YouTube showing off Doom on a vape
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You can technically play Doom on a $30 vape and it just needs ‘that last bit of RAM’ to run natively

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Playing DOOM on a Vape – YouTube

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Turns out, for just $30, you can get a sage green vape with a built-in 1100 mAh battery, USB Type-C charging, and a 1.47-inch TFT touchscreen. Throw away the E-Liquid, though, we won’t be needing it to slay imps, demons, and lost souls.

Hacker and creator Aaron Christophel recently took to their YouTube channel to show Doom on a Pixo Aspire, which is “a way overpowered vape, for whatever reason” (via VideoCardz). It has a 32-bit Arm Cortex M4 processor, 384 kB of flash memory and up to 64 kB of SRAM.

Christophel notes that it would need “that last bit of RAM” to run Doom natively, so this version is effectively sending game output to a bit of software, which flips the screen to run on the vape. In other words, a PC runs Doom but displays it on the vape’s touchscreen via a USB Type-C cable.


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Christophel says you can “use it as a second monitor”, which makes sense, should you have to show a mouse or some sort of small pet a duplicate of your screen. Hey, it’s nice to have the option. If you have such a mouse, you can grab custom firmware via GitHub, run it on the vape, then mirror your screen.

Impressively, this little vape has a Bluetooth LE chip and a microphone, too. I’m not too sure what kind of vape would need a microphone, or a wireless connection, but it seems likely this chip just happens to have that hardware, and it would be significantly more effort to remove it.

(Image credit: Aaron Christophel)

This does make me wonder the lengths that hackers could go with future technology, if we have something this futuristic in something as simple as a vape. For context, the Sinclair ZX80, which launched back in 1980, had just 1 kB of Memory (with a max of 16 kB). We even saw the Bendix G-15, which launched way back in 1956, running Doom just a few months ago (and it cost a mere $49,500 at launch).

This is the second story in the last week showing off how impressive the tech shoved into vapes really is. An entire website is being hosted on one right now, which is mighty impressive despite traffic consistently taking it down.

Given that this Doom vape hack is done via screen sharing, you can technically get anything you want on there, from a live feed of the news to animated gifs of Hatsune Miku. In my hands, it would be used for the movie club viewing of Tenet. Just as Christopher Nolan would want.

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SpaceX's Starship Lunar Lander Could Be ‘Years Late,’ NASA Safety Panel Warns
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SpaceX’s Starship Lunar Lander Could Be ‘Years Late,’ NASA Safety Panel Warns

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NASA aims to return astronauts to the Moon by mid-2027—a feat that would fulfill a decade of preparation. The agency may have to extend that timeline even further, however, as slow progress on SpaceX’s lunar lander threatens to delay the Artemis 3 mission.

During a public meeting on Friday, members of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel warned that the Human Landing System (HLS) version of Starship could be “years late,” SpaceNews reports. The panel reached that conclusion following a visit last month to SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas.

“The HLS schedule is significantly challenged and, in our estimation, could be years late for a 2027 Artemis 3 Moon landing,” said panelist Paul Hill, former director of Mission Operations at NASA.

Another Artemis delay—so what?

Putting American boots back on the Moon is a top priority for NASA. With a new space race underway, global powers including the U.S., China, and Russia are vying for a first-mover advantage.

Whoever reaches the lunar surface first will be able to set certain ground rules about who can do what and where. This would not only reinforce that country’s influence on the Moon and in space but also give it strategic leverage as military operations increasingly depend on space-based assets.

“This is a pivotal moment for our nation’s space program,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) during a hearing on legislative priorities for NASA earlier this month. He went on to emphasize that space has become a “strategic frontier with direct consequences for national security, economic growth, and technological leadership.”

How did we get here?

In 2021, NASA contracted Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build a version of Starship capable of landing astronauts on the Moon. At that time, the agency aimed to accomplish a landing by 2024, but that target date has been pushed back in recent years.

Development of Starship HLS has slowed significantly as SpaceX has struggled with repeated explosive failures this year. While Starship’s most recent test flight on August 26 was a success, unmet technical milestones have piled up.

One major issue is demonstrating the cryogenic propellant transfer needed to refuel Starship in low-Earth orbit before the rocket heads to the Moon, Hill said during the Friday meeting. Developmental delays for Starship 3—the first iteration capable of in-orbit fuel transfers—have slowed progress toward this goal.

Hill also pointed to potentially competing priorities for SpaceX between Starlink and Starship HLS, SpacePolicyOnline.com reports. Starship 3 will be integral in launching the third generation of Starlink satellites while simultaneously creating the on-orbit fuel depots and lunar lander for Artemis 3.

“The next six months of Starship launches will be telling about the likelihood of HLS flying crew in 2027 or by the end of the decade,” Hill said.

Despite these concerns, the panelists emphasized that SpaceX is still the only launch provider for the job. “There is no competitor, whether government or industry, that has this full combination of factors that yield this high a manufacturing and flight tempo, with their direct effects on reliability increases and cost reduction,” Hill said.

The downside to relying on SpaceX, however, is clear: Without a launch-ready Starship HLS by 2027, Artemis 3 won’t get off the ground on time.

Back in 2023, NASA selected Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin to provide a second lunar lander, dubbed Blue Ghost, to be used during the Artemis 5 mission later this decade. The contract is worth $3.4 billion and includes a development team consisting of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Draper, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics.



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$3,800 Flights and Aborted Takeoffs: How Trump’s H-1B Announcement Panicked Tech Workers
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$3,800 Flights and Aborted Takeoffs: How Trump’s H-1B Announcement Panicked Tech Workers

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After a six-week work trip Xiayun, an employee at a semiconductor company in Silicon Valley, had landed at her hometown in China for vacation when she saw the news about H-1B visas. On Friday afternoon, US president Donald Trump signed a proclamation saying that any H-1B visa holder’s entry into the US will be “restricted, except for those aliens whose petitions are accompanied or supplemented by a payment of $100,000.” The news left Xiayun and hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers scrambling to figure out how they’d be impacted and whether, if they were abroad, they should return before Sunday, when the new rule was set to take effect.

Xiayun, who asked to use her online alias and not mention her employer’s name in the story to avoid being identified, claims she started receiving communications from her manager asking her to consider returning as soon as possible to avoid being charged the fee. Before she even met her family at the airport, she says she already decided to fly back to the US as soon as possible. She only stayed in Urumqi for two hours before hopping on the next flight back to California.

“I had looked forward to the opportunity of traveling with my parents for a long time, but the reality is, I can’t leave behind my husband, my cat, my house, my friends, and my job in the US,” she tells WIRED.

H-1B is one of the most common work visas, issued to skilled workers seeking temporary residence in the US as long as three years, with the possibility of renewal providing continuing employment. In 2019, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) estimated that there were over 580,000 immigrants holding H-1B visas in the country. Silicon Valley companies are the program’s biggest users, according to data collected by USCIS on the employers who had the most H-1B visas approved every year. In Fiscal Year 2025, the top companies sponsoring for new H-1B visas included Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google.

By Friday evening, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon had sent urgent communications to foreign employees, according to emails reviewed by WIRED, advising them to return to the states before the Sunday deadline set in the proclamation.

Conflicting messages poured out of the White House, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, and other government social media accounts. “Things are changing every hour, every 30 minutes,” says Steven Brown, an immigration attorney at Reddy Neumann Brown PC. Lutnick claimed the $100,000 fee would be charged annually, others said it’s a one-time charge; the original proclamation did not exempt current visa holders, but the follow-up announcements did. The contradictions and new developments left legal immigrant workers, their families, and employers unsure what to believe over the past weekend.

WIRED talked to six H-1B visa holders who made last-minute decisions to return to the US from vacation or work trips before the new policy took hold. All of them requested to be identified with only their first or last names in this story, fearing that speaking out against the administration will cause retribution. While explanations posted by the administration on Saturday afternoon clarified that most H-1B visa holders who were outside of the country at the time did not actually need to rush back, by then they claim they had already lost thousands of dollars in changing their travel plans and spent two days in emotional stress.



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Product Reviews

The Roku Streaming Stick Plus drops to only $29

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The Roku Streaming Stick Plus is on sale for just $29. That’s a discount of 27 percent and the lowest we’ve ever seen it.

Roku has held the top spot in the TV OS market for years thanks to its user-friendly interface, an affordable range of streaming devices and its own lineup of TVs. We picked the Streaming Stick Plus as the best streaming device for free and live content, thanks in large part to The Roku Channel app that accompanies it. The Roku Channel features over 500 free TV channels with live news, sports coverage and a rotating lineup of TV shows and movies.

Roku

In our hands-on review of the Roku Streaming Stick Plus, we thought it was perfect for travel thanks to its small size and the fact that it can be powered by your TV’s USB port, nixing the need for a wall adapter. Menu navigation and opening or closing apps won’t happen at quite the same speeds as more expensive streamers, but it’s quick enough for what is ultimately a pretty low-cost option. The Wi-Fi range on this one is also weaker than Roku’s pricier devices, but unless you are placing it exceedingly far from your router, it shouldn’t be an issue.

The Roku Streaming Stick Plus supports both HD and 4K TVs, as well as HDR10+ content. It doesn’t support Dolby Vision, however; for that you’ll need to upgrade to Roku’s Streaming Stick 4K or Roku Ultra. It comes with Roku’s rechargeable voice remote with push-to-talk voice controls. Roku’s remote can also turn on your TV and adjust the volume while you’re watching.

If you’ve been thinking about getting a Roku device, or you already love the platform and want a compact and convenient way to take it with you when you travel, then this sale provides a great opportunity.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.





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A screenshot from James Channel's video turning an Xbox Original portable
Product Reviews

YouTuber makes a ‘portable monstrosity’ Xbox using a handsaw, hot glue, and eight disk drives: ‘It’s working. It’s actually working!’

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I Made an Original Xbox Portable – YouTube

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It’s not often I find myself chuckling at DIY projects, but YouTuber James Channel got a hearty one from me the second he announced the portable Xbox he created by sawing one in half, slapping controllers on the side and hot-glueing a screen on top is capable of a whopping 9 minutes and forty seconds of battery life.

As spotted by Hackaday, the half-hour-long video of the YouTuber making a ‘portable’ Xbox Original is sort of like the lovechild of a mad scientist, a teacher, and a stream of consciousness. After grabbing an Xbox that isn’t working, James figures out that the DVD drive is flagging a hard drive issue, and fixes the DVD drive by replacing a tiny failing resistor with four separate, much bigger resistors, then hot-glueing them down.

This is subsequently followed by smacking the top of the Xbox until the disk tray comes out. Then, after fixing the original Xbox, James takes it apart again and starts throwing the bits of plastic he doesn’t need on the floor.


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Taking apart this plastic is important to get the central motherboard and necessary components as small as possible, and he replaces the big unwieldy hard drive with a CompactFlash drive, saving a little more space. James tears apart an old iPod portable video dock to slap the speakers and screen onto his new handheld Xbox, and saws Xbox controllers in half to attach them to the side.

That’s the kind of video this is: one that demonstrates a depth of highly technical knowledge about engineering, thrown together with a handsaw, new transistors, and a glue gun. It’s all very chaotic in a way that sort of makes me want to try it myself.

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: James Channel on YouTube)(Image credit: James Channel on YouTube)(Image credit: James Channel on YouTube)

After a three-week hiatus in the middle of the video, “because it was very mean to me and wouldn’t work properly”, James takes one last swing at finishing off the portable, and discovers that seven of the eight Xbox drives he bought to fix the device weren’t working, and that the IDE connector he had fitted didn’t work. “Other than the disk drive, it was almost all my fault.”

The final product is a “portable monstrosity” (according to the video’s description), with an open disk drive, sawed-off controllers glued to a motherboard, and it’s all held down with duct tape. The Xbox logo snapped off in the build, but it’s happily glued onto the final product with no downsides except perhaps a deep sigh from Phil Spencer.

So, if you want to play just under 10 minutes of Halo on the train while strangers stare at you (presumably admiring the glorious handheld you’re rocking), all you need is a hot glue gun, a handsaw, an old Xbox, an iPod video player, electronic tools, and seven or eight Xbox disk drives. Or you could just boot up the Steam Deck.

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A Spacecraft That Hunts Down Space Junk
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A Spacecraft That Hunts Down Space Junk

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Astroscale is a 2025 Gizmodo Science Fair winner for developing a satellite designed to rendezvous with space junk, with the goal of capturing it and guiding it toward a fiery grave in Earth’s atmosphere.

The question

Can the space industry develop new technologies that help tackle the growing problem of debris and create a more sustainable orbital environment?

The results

On February 18, 2024, Astroscale launched its ADRAS-J (Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan) mission on board Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket. The goal of the mission was to demonstrate its ability to approach, observe, and characterize a defunct spacecraft.

Launch of ADRAS-J. © Astroscale

The mission target was Japan’s H-2A rocket’s upper stage. This chunk of space junk has been in orbit for nearly 15 years, measuring approximately 36 feet long (11 meters) and weighing 6,613 pounds (3 tons). “Early in the program, we had a whole list of candidates,” Hisashi Inoue, chief engineer at Astroscale Japan, told Gizmodo. “We picked the target that wasn’t farthest away, and we also had some ground observations and information on the target and how it’s behaving.”

Around three months after its launch, the ADRAS-J mission came within nearly 50 feet (15 meters) of the defunct rocket stage. With its unprecedented close approach, Astroscale became the first company to approach a large piece of space debris. It was a challenging feat, Inoue explained, as the debris is flying in space at a speed of 4 miles per second (7 kilometers per second), or faster than the speed of a bullet.

As opposed to other rendezvous missions, the company could not communicate with the defunct rocket part. “This is junk, it’s not telling us where it is or how it’s moving,” he said. “So that makes it more complicated than just talking with a cooperative client.”

Since its target is not equipped with GPS, the ADRAS-J spacecraft had to rely on limited ground-based observations to locate and rendezvous with the spent second stage. Despite the challenges, the satellite was successful in creeping up on its target and performing a fly-around to capture images and data of the upper stage.

ADRAS-J served as a demonstration mission, paving the way for a follow-up that will attempt to remove the debris for real. For Astroscale’s second mission, the satellite will attempt to match the tumble rate of the wayward rocket, align itself, and dock with it. Once it’s docked, the satellite will grab the rocket with a robotic arm and lower its orbit using its thrusters before releasing it on a trajectory toward Earth’s atmosphere. The decommissioned vehicle will then burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, putting an end to its stint in orbit.

Why they did it

Millions of pieces of space debris are currently flying in Earth orbit, with roughly 1.2 million of them larger than 0.4 inches (1 centimeter), according to a recent report by the European Space Agency. That’s large enough to cause catastrophic damage to other spacecraft if it collides with them.

“If you think about the terrestrial auto industry, there are all these different services performed after the car is used by the first person. It’s reused, refurbished, or recycled, and goes to second-hand use,” Inoue said. “But in space, you use [a spacecraft] once and you throw it away, but that’s not good for sustainability.”

Nobu Okada founded Astroscale in 2013, focusing on orbital debris removal and in-orbit satellite servicing. The Tokyo-based company aims to reduce the growing amount of space junk not only by physically removing defunct spacecraft but also by extending the lifespan of satellites in space.

“By combining all those things, I don’t think we, as Astroscale itself, can change the world’s sustainability, but we’re hoping this will kind of jump-start some of the servicing-type missions, and customers will endorse this way of thinking,” Inoue said. “Hopefully in the future, this will connect to sustainable use of space.”

Why they’re a winner

At a time when space startups are focused on launching more satellites, spacecraft, and rockets into orbit to cash in on the commercial use of space, Astroscale is one of the few companies promoting a sustainable practice that will allow others to coexist in the orbital environment.

Members Of Astroscale Japan © Astroscale

The company is not only aiming to remove orbital debris but also to enable satellite inspection, relocation, refueling, and other life-extension services. Astroscale is pioneering sustainable use of Earth orbit in hopes that other companies follow suit and that governments worldwide set requirements for the use of space.

What’s next

Astroscale’s upcoming satellite is set for launch sometime in 2027, taking all the data and lessons learned from ADRAS-J and applying them to the follow-up mission.

ADRAS-J2 is designed to actively remove the defunct Japanese rocket from orbit using Astroscale’s in-house robotic arm technology to capture it and lower its orbit. “We’re currently in the design phase,” Inoue said. “Eventually we’ll start getting more hardware in the lab and start testing it, and then start building the spacecraft next year.”

The team

Key members of the Astroscale team include Nobu Okada, founder and CEO; Chris Blackerby, chief operating officer; Mike Lindsay, chief technology officer; Nobuhiro Matsuyama, chief financial officer; Melissa Pane, mission and system engineer; Arielle Cohen, flight software engineer; and Gene Fujii, chief engineer.

Click here to see all of the winners of the 2025 Gizmodo Science Fair.



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Elon Musk Is Out to Rule Space. Can Anyone Stop Him?
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Elon Musk Is Out to Rule Space. Can Anyone Stop Him?

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When the suit didn’t produce instant results, Musk went jingoistic. A few months earlier, in February 2014, Russia had invaded Ukraine, illegally annexing the Crimean Peninsula and triggering a global wave of condemnation against Moscow. Musk rode that wave in his successful push to get Congress and the Obama administration to wind down use of the United Launch Alliance’s signature rocket, the Atlas V, because it relied on Russian RD-180 engines. (The suit was eventually settled out of court.) The combination helped break ULA’s grip on government space launches.

Another big leap came in 2017. SpaceX started reusing its rocket cores, which dramatically brought down the price of getting to orbit. (Eight years later, its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are still the only rockets in their weight classes with reusable cores.) But nothing was more important than Mueller’s continued development of SpaceX’s Merlin engine. It became one of the most durable in aerospace history, even though, as a former employee told me, “performance-wise, it’s terrible.” Its power and efficiency are nothing special. “We didn’t have the resources to do a lot of design and analysis,” he adds. “And so we just tested the ever-loving shit out of the engine. We hot-fired it thousands of times. Now they have an engine that’s super robust.”

Today, thanks in part to its nine reusable Merlin engines, a Falcon 9 can take a kilogram to low Earth orbit for one-third the previous cost; the Falcon Heavy, which uses 27 Merlins, drops the cost nearly in half again. Some 85 percent of Falcon 9 missions go to space with previously used first stages. In 2022, SpaceX jumped from doing around 30 launches per year to more than 60, and last year it hit 138. NASA’s space launch and human exploration efforts are now almost entirely controlled by Musk. A whole new space economy has grown up around him, one that relies on his cheap space access to get networks of small spacecraft into low Earth orbit. Take Planet Labs, the satellite imaging company. Hundreds of its spacecraft were carried by Falcon 9.

Really, no one is even trying to catch up; they’re just trying to find niches in a Musk-dominated ecosystem. ULA is building rockets optimized to reach geostationary orbits, which are farther out, even as many of its customers follow Musk’s lead and keep their satellite constellations closer to Earth. Upstarts like Rocket Lab and Firefly are admired for their ingenuity. But their current operational rockets are tiny by comparison—capable of carrying, at most, a couple thousand pounds, versus 140,000 for the Falcon Heavy.

“SpaceX is a cornerstone in the space industry. And then there’s other cornerstones, like Firefly. We’re very complementary to SpaceX,” says Jason Kim, the CEO of Firefly Aerospace. “It’s kind of like air, land, and sea. There’s no one-size-fits-all kind of transportation method.” (Kim’s not alone in this thinking; Firefly just went public at a valuation of $8.5 billion; Rocket Lab’s market cap is about $21 billion.)

Jeff Bezos has the cash to compete with SpaceX. And he’s certainly been at it long enough—his rocket company, Blue Origin, started a quarter-century ago. But it has had, shall we say, competing priorities. It’s been hard at work on engines; its BE-4 engine is actually powering the first stage of ULA’s new rocket, confusingly enough. You may have seen that Blue Origin has a rocket for near-space tourism, the one that recently carried Bezos’ wife, Lauren Sánchez, and Katy Perry aloft. But the company’s big rocket, the one that’s supposed to compete with SpaceX, has flown exactly once. And when I ask Blue Origin’s rep what makes their rockets any better—or, at least, any different—from Musk’s, he tells me: “I don’t have a solid answer for you on that one.”

China, which once seemed poised to dominate global launch, has had trouble keeping up with Musk’s rising totals, successfully launching between 64 and 68 rockets annually over the past three years. SpaceX is not only launching twice as often, it’s carrying more than 10 times the reported mass to orbit. Stoke Space, founded by Blue Origin engineers, has aerospace geeks in a frenzy, but it has yet to put a rocket on the pad. United Launch Alliance, SpaceX’s OG competitor, has a powerful new rocket—more on that in a bit—but once again, Musk is ahead. He’s working on a truly massive launcher, arguably the biggest ever constructed. Both stages are supposed to be fully reusable (which means, of course, immense cost savings), while neither stage of ULA’s Vulcan will be fully reusable. And that, according to a new report from SpaceNews Intelligence, could relegate the one-time monopolist “to niche roles in government or regional and backup contracts, assuming they survive at all.”

II. SATELLITES

At the end of May, at his factory in Starbase, Texas, Musk was in full Mars evangelist mode. “This is where we’re going to develop the technology necessary to take humanity,” he told his employees, “to another planet for the first time in the four-and-a-half-billion-year history of Earth.”

But as he sketched out his soaring vision of this place cranking out 1,000 enormous Starships per year, Musk repeated a more mundane truth. No, not the part about the Starship’s uneven test record. The one about funding. “Starlink internet is what’s being used to pay for humanity getting to Mars.”



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Product Reviews

The best multi-device wireless charging pads for 2025

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We all have so many gadgets now that we use and take with us regularly, and there’s a good chance that at least a few of yours support wireless charging. Whether its your phone, wireless earbuds, smartwatch or all three of those things, you can power them up cord-free using a good wireless charger. And if you do plan to rely on wireless power-ups for your most-used devices, a multi-device wireless charger is a good investment. These accessories neatly charge up more than one device simultaneously, without using a bunch of cables that can mess up your space. We’ve tested a bunch of the latest multi-device wireless chargers; you’ll find out top picks below for the best wireless charging pads, plus some advice on how to choose the right one for your needs.

Table of contents

Best wireless charging pads

UGREEN

UGreen’s MagFlow Qi2 3-in-1 charger station offers a ton of value for $100. The company managed to build a trio charger that works well as a permanent fixture on your bedside table or desk, as well as a compact portable charging station. As the former, it takes up very little space when fully setup, and the magnetic phone charger can be tilt-adjusted up to 70 degrees so you can get the right viewing angle if you’re watching videos on your iPhone while charging. The Apple Watch charging pad is similarly adjustable, and the space that wirelessly powers up AirPods or other earbuds sits right in front of that.

Since this is a Qi2 charger, it can power up an iPhone 16 from zero to 40 percent in roughly 30 minutes, so you won’t have to wait long before you can grab your phone and get going. The magnets are strong and allow you to use the phone in either portrait or landscape mode while it’s powering up, and when you’re done, you can fold the entire charging station flat and easily toss it in a bag to take with you. UGreen includes a USB-C to C cable and a 30W adapter in the box, so you’re given everything the station needs to power up all your devices as quickly as possible.

The design is clever and feels premium without being too heavy, and I appreciate the soft-touch accents throughout. There are also four rubberized feet on the bottom so the device is less likely to move around or fall over when perched on a table. Overall, this 3-in-1 charger station essentially gives you a unit you can easily take with you as much as you want, using it at work, at home and everywhere in between.

Pros

  • Compact, travel-friendly design
  • Qi2 15W charging
  • Includes USB-C cable and 30W adapter in the box

Cons

  • Included USB-C cable is a tad short

$100 at Amazon

Anker

Anker’s Qi2 15W 3-in-1 charging station is quite similar to our top pick, but it’s slightly smaller overall and its MSRP is a bit more expensive. It also comes with a 40W adapter in the box in addition to its USB-C cable. Minor differences aside, either this or our top pick are excellent options for anyone who wants to streamline their charging setup with a station that’s just as convenient to park on a nightstand or throw in a carry-on ahead of a trip.

You can charge an iPhone at top speeds with Anker’s device, plus an Apple Watch and a pair of AirPods. The magnets are quite strong (there were a few instances where it too me some strength to remove my phone when it was done charging), and the whole thing folds down to roughly the size of a deck of cards when you’re all done with it. It’s listed at $110, but you can often find it on sale for less than $85 — that’s the best time to pick it up.

Pros

  • Compact, travel-friendly design
  • Qi2 15W charging
  • Includes USB-C cable and 40W adapter in the box

Cons

  • A bit more expensive than our top pick

$110 at Amazon

Satechi

Satechi’s accessories always impress with build quality and performance, and this Qi2 Trio wireless charging pad is no exception. It’s a sleek aluminum pad with space for a phone, smartwatch and pair of earbuds, with the first two items having pop-up magnetic charging spaces that fold back down into the pad when not in use. The phone’s silicone charging puck has a soft-touch finish and can be adjusted to position your phone at the right angle for media consumption or viewing in Standby Mode.

Strong magnets keep your phone in place either in portrait or landscape mode, and you’ll get up to 15W of power delivery with newer iPhones. The whole thing measures 8.2 x 3.8 x 0.81 inches, so you will need a bit of horizontal space on your nightstand or desk to accommodate it, but it’s otherwise streamlined. I appreciate the fold design for the phone and watch chargers because it allows you to travel more easily with the charging pad, and since you get a USB-C cable, a 45W power brick and US, EU, and UK travel adapters included in the box, you’ll probably want to do so.

Pros

  • Premium build
  • Qi2 15W charging
  • Includes travel adapters along with USB-C cable and 45W adapter in the box

Cons

  • Takes up more horizontal space on a desk or nightstand

$94 at Amazon

Belkin

Belkin is known for make quality accessories, and the 3-in-1 UltraCharge Pro charging station really exemplifies this. It feels luxe with its chrome accents and soft-touch finish, and it’s nicely weighted so it won’t be easily pushed to the side on your desk or nightstand. It wirelessly powers up an iPhone, Apple Watch and pair of AirPods simultaneously, and it supports Qi2 25W technology, so the latest iPhone will recharge as quickly as possible. It even has a built-in fan (that runs supremely quiet) that you can switch on and off to use the active cooling technology while you’re powering up all your devices at once. And since it comes with a power cable and a 45W adapter, you don’t need to get anything extra to set it up properly.

Pros

  • Premium design
  • Qi2 25W charging
  • Includes a 45W adapter in the box
  • Active cooling technology for heat management

$130 at Amazon

Belkin

This 2-in-1 UltraCharge station from Belkin ticks all the right boxes if you’re looking for duo charger. It supports Qi2 25W power technology, it’s MagSafe compatible, its design is slim yet sturdy and could even be used during travel and it comes with a cable and 45W adapter in the box. All of that for well under $100 makes it a great value if you have one of the latest iPhones, or an older model that supports MagSafe. You’ll be able to charge one of those iPhones and a pair of AirPods simultaneously, and when you have the juice you need, the charging station flips closed so you can toss it in your bag. And for folks with Apple Watch as well, there’s a 3-in-1 version you can pick up instead.

Pros

  • Compact, travel-friendly design
  • Qi2 25W charging
  • Includes a 45W adapter in the box

Cons

  • Only available in three colors

$60 at Amazon

UGREEN

The UGreen Uno 2-in-1 wireless charger isn’t only one of the most compact and effective chargers I tested, it’s also probably the cutest. As is the case with most of the Uno lineup, which includes devices with precious little digital faces on screens that can indicate different charging statuses. With this model in particular, the digital facial expression changes when your phone or wireless earbuds go from actively charging to powered and in standby mode.

Another clever feature of this 2-in-1 station is the flat phone pad that flips up from the top edge and can be adjusted to position your smartphone accordingly while powering up. Underneath that is the pad for your earbuds, which is only as big as it needs to be to hold a pair of AirPods Pro 2, with or without a case. Although the cube-like station is chunky enough that I probably wouldn’t travel with it, there’s a good case to be made for tossing this into your backpack or carry-on when you’re going on a trip. The only major drawback here, as is the case for many 2-in-1 charging stations, is that it only comes with a USB-C cable — you’ll have to provide the right power adapter (we suggest 30W or higher) to plug it in.

Pros

  • Compact, adorable design
  • Qi2 15W charging
  • Includes USB-C cable in the box

Cons

  • No included power adapter

$44 at Amazon

Satechi

This Satechi Duo wireless charger stand pulls double duty as a 10,000mAh power bank, making it a great option for frequent travelers. It looks similar to most charging bricks, but it has a flip-up stand that can be used to charge your phone and prop it up while doing so, either in portrait or landscape mode. Underneath that stand is a spot for a pair of wireless earbuds to sit and power up, and both charging sections can be used either while the station is plugged in or not. That means you can wirelessly charge on the go, or connect your phone, earbuds or other USB-C device via a USB-C cable to the power brick and juice up that way.

As is typical of Satechi devices, this power station is well designed with convenient touches like a rubberized strip where your phone sits on the stand so it doesn’t slide side to side, and small feet on the underside to prevent the charger from moving when it’s propped on a table or nightstand. While you do get a USB-C to C cable that you can use to connect devices to the brick and power the charger itself, you do not get an adapter in the box.

Pros

  • Wireless charger and 10K power bank in one
  • Can wirelessly charge when not connected to power (provided the power bank has juice)
  • Qi 10W charging

Cons

  • No included power adapter

$50 at Amazon

Do wireless charging pads work with any phone or device?

The short answer is no, but the long and more detailed answer starts with it depends. Regular old wireless charging pucks should work with any device that’s compatible with the same wireless charging standard that the charger supports. Smartphones and other mobile devices that support wireless charging nowadays are likely to support the Qi standard, so double check that your phone or gadget fits that bill and it should work with any Qi wireless charging pad (all of our top picks fall into this category).

When it comes to multi-device chargers, things can get a little tricky. Rather than starting your search looking for the most universally adaptable accessory, consider the devices you have and aspire to own in the future. If you’re an iPhone user with an Apple Watch, you may want to look for a wireless charger that has a Watch pad built in. Ditto if you’re a Samsung phone owner and use a Galaxy Watch. Some earbuds support wireless charging, but you’ll only need an open pad or space on your multi-device charger where you can sit the earbuds in their case down for a power-up.

Those with iPhone 12s and newer Apple smartphones can take advantage of MagSafe chargers, which magnetically attach to their handsets. Android devices don’t support Apple’s proprietary MagSafe technology, but you can buy a magnetic adapter for pretty cheap that will allow your Samsung or Pixel phone to work with MagSafe multi-device chargers. You’ll also need that to get full Qi2 goodness with newer Android phones like the Galaxy S25 series, which are “Qi2 ready,” but since they do not have magnets built in, aren’t precisely Qi2 compliant.

How to pick the best wireless charging pad for your needs

Even without a charging cable to worry about, you’re probably buying a multi-device wireless charger with one location in mind. It might sit on your nightstand or on your desk. Not everyone buys a charger just for themselves, though; you might want to use one as a shared station for you and a partner.

If the charger will sit on your nightstand, you’ll likely want a compact, stable unit that won’t swallow all your free space or tumble to the floor (and if it does fall, one with enough durability to survive). Some may prefer a lay-flat design if your phone screen has a tendency to keep you awake at night. Others might use their phone as their alarm clock, in which case you may want a stand that keeps the screen within reach and eyeshot. This is also the preferred design if you use Standby Mode on iPhones.

A vertical orientation may be best for a charger that lives on your desk so you can more easily check notifications throughout the day. Will the charger sit on a low table? Horizontal charger pads may make it easier to grab your devices in a hurry. Travel chargers should fold up or otherwise protect the pads while they’re in your bag. And, yes, aesthetics count. You may want something pretty if it’s likely to sit in a posh room where guests will see it.

For vehicles, consider a wireless car charger if you frequently need to top off your device on the go. These chargers combine convenience with functionality, ensuring your phone stays powered while you’re navigating and taking calls at the same time. We also heavily recommend a magnetic charger so there’s less of a chance your phone will go flying into the passenger’s seat the next time you hit a pothole.

Wireless charging speed and performance

It’s no secret that wireless charging is slower than wired, and powering multiple devices adds a new wrinkle. As these chargers often have to support a wide range of hardware, you’ll have to forget about the fastest, device-specific options from brands like Google, OnePlus and Samsung.

Today, most wireless chargers come in at 15W for phones. The latest Qi2 standard can get you up to 25W of power with a compatible smartphone. These speeds are improving bit by bit, but they’re still not quite as fast as wired charging. It’s rare that you’ll find a truly slow-as-molasses example, mind you. Even some of the most affordable options we’ve seen will recharge your phone at a reasonable 7.5W or 10W, and the 5W for other devices like wireless earbuds is more than enough.

If you’re only docking overnight or while you work, speed won’t make a huge difference. Just be sure that whatever you buy is powerful enough for a phone in a case. Some chargers may also include an AC adapter in the box. If not, make sure you’re using one with the right power level to get the fastest charge.



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