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This low-cost and reliable charger from ESR is great for your desk or bedside table. It doesn’t come with a wall plug, but pair the USB-C cable with a 10W charging brick and it can fast charge Quick Charge devices.

It also works with 7.5W and 5W chargers, so any Qi-compatible phone will work. A handy light on the base stays blue when a phone is charging, and flashes red if it’s not lined up properly.

Affordable, simple and effective. 

This is a cracking deal from Anker, one of the most reliable names in charging tech.

The PowerWave Pad is a simple disc-shaped pad, that has a soft-touch matte surface top and bottom to add grip, meaning there’s no chance of your phone slipping off the pad or the pad itself wiggling around on the table.

It’s compact, light and efficient, with a small LED on the top to show everything is working correctly. A flashing blue light alerts you to a metal obstruction, while flashing green confirms that an incompatible cable or adaptor is connected, but solid blue means all is well.

The PowerWave Pad supports up to 10W wireless charging with compatible devices, making it one of the faster models available.

Fast and relatively cheap, this Aukey Wireless Charger is a 10W model with a really nice design.

Ultra-compact and almost pebble-shaped, with a textured matte black finish and silver metal outer ring, the Aukey looks infinitely better than some wireless chargers we’ve seen. A small LED on top lets you know whether it’s working as it should. If it’s green you’re all good.

This thing is tiny, just 87x87x12mm and 58g.

Four little rubber feet on the bottom keep it steady on the desk, while a 1m USB-C cable plugs in unobtrusively at the rear.

With Apple’s AirPower failing to materialise, the Choetech Dual Fast Wireless Charger is an intriguing alternative.

Despite being able to charge two Qi-compatible devices at once, thanks to five coils tucked away inside, the Choetech charger is not overly big or cumbersome. It’s a sleek device with a black meshed top not unlike that of a speaker, but much slimmer – it’s really not that much bigger than many of today’s flagship phones.

Indeed, with two smartphones on top there isn’t much space to play around with how they are positioned, but with just one phone to charge you’ll find you can throw it down at any angle for the ultimate convenience.

The design is minimal but functional. A small LED at the front lets you know it’s operating without lighting up the room, and you’ll find vents at the bottom to help dissipate heat. Also here are rubber strips to help grip on a flat surface.

This 10W wireless charging stand from Belkin has the handy advantage of allowing you to continue using your phone as it charges.

The width of the cradle is fixed, but wide enough to house any smartphone. It’s also reasonably low, making it just as easy to lay your phone down horizontally as it is standing upright.

The dock itself is very sturdy, thanks to a generous footprint, though the device itself is not too large. It has a very simple but functional matte black plastic design. 

A small white LED lets you know the charger is functioning correctly, but pleasingly is hidden out of the way at the top of the dock.

Certified for Apple and Samsung Fast Charge, the Belkin might be a bit pricier than some, but you can be assured it will deliver optimum charging speeds, and there is a wired adaptor in the box.

Moshi’s Lounge Q is a stylish Qi-certified wireless charging stand that is adjustable in height and phone orientation. It is softer on the eye than most other plastic stands, with its Nordic-gray cloth “inspired by Danish furniture design”.

The ability to adjust the charging pad’s height means there should be less manoeuvring of the phone to pick the correct spot for charging, and it is easier to accommodate phones of different sizes.

It will also charge in both vertical and horizontal modes.

Other charging stands often have a fixed charging coil, and so are more rigid in where a phone must be placed.

Moshi uses a ferrite sheet that offers speedy and efficient charging. It can fast-charge any device up to an impressive 15W. It supports both Apple (7.5W) and Samsung (9W) fast-charging (WPC Qi-EPP spec).

An LED indicator shows the phone’s charging status. It features a 1.2m (4ft) USB-C cable, so you will need a USB-C charger to connect this to.

Twelve South’s HiRise Wireless is a premium 10W Qi wireless charging stand that can also be a wireless charging pad.

It’s simple. You can just pop out the charging back of the upright pedestal stand, and use it flat as a portable pad, which is handy if you want to take it out with you to the coffee shop or another office without taking the whole stand with you. It comes with a 1.5m USB-A-to-USB-C cable.

As a pad, you can also use it to charge a wireless earbud case, such as the one with Apple’s AirPods.

Build quality is high, with the stand made from gunmetal chrome and leather.

This Aukey Wireless Fast Charging Stand is arguably one of the more stylish examples, with its nicely sloping design and polished metal rear. The USB cable that attaches near the top of the charger does detract from this a little, however.

It’s very sturdy on the desk, but takes up just a little too much space for our taste (187mm), and we’d like to be able to adjust the angle of the stand.

Regardless, you can’t argue with its functionality, with the Aukey able to wirelessly charge any Qi-compatible phone at up to 10W. As is pretty standard, it will work with cases up to 5mm thick.

This fast wireless charger from RavPower is able to deliver up to 10W to phones that support it (7.5W for iPhones). Unlike other models here, it is supplied with a Quick Charge 3 mains adaptor, giving you everything you need to start charging out of the box.

We had no problems with it overheating during our testing. A rubber ring helps keep your phone in place, too.

A flashing green light on the base indicates charging is taking place, but it’s not too bright or distracting. The pad is supplied with a 1.2m braided Micro-USB cable.

Aimed primarily at those heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem, the STM ChargeTree looks to be your one-stop-shop for wirelessly topping up your devices.

It offers the ability to wirelessly charge not only your iPhone, but your second-gen AirPods/AirPods Pro and your Apple Watch, too.

The simplistic, compact design of the ChargeTree means it doesn’t take up a lot of space on your desk or bedside table, although the bright LED indicator lights may disturb those who have it next to their bed.

A large grippy rubber square on the bottom of the charger should keep it securely in place, no matter where it’s sat.

It’s powered by USB-C and comes with a USB-C to USB-A cable in the box, but there’s no power supply.

For the full experience, you’ll need to use an 18W charging brick – anything less and your devices will take a while to charge up.

Another wireless charger with a secondary purpose is the PowerPic from Twelve South.

While most are fairly inconspicuous, few chargers – wireless or not – are that nice to look at, so we tend to hide them away as much as we can.

PowerPic is different because it’s a quality-looking wooden photo frame (holding 5-7in photos) that’s also a Qi-certified wireless fast charger that delivers up to 10W power.

Add your favourite photo, and plug in the cable to any basic phone charger, and you can simply rest your phone against the glass to see it begin charging straight away.

It will charge through most phone cases up to 3mm thick.

There are charging status lights at the back of the frame, and it’s available in either black or white New Zealand pine.

This neat wireless charger adds back-up functionality thanks to built-in flash memory.

Choose between 128- or 256GB memory that will allow you to back up your photos and videos at the same time as charging your phone wirelessly.

You can share the iXpand with others, but in order to keep your backups separate, you’ll need to create free accounts within the iXpand Charger app.

128GB might not be enough to back up an entire family’s camera rolls, but it’s a decent capacity for individuals. There’s a micro USB port on the back so you can transfer the backed-up photos and videos to your PC or laptop should the iXpand fill up completely.

The app is necessary for connecting the device to your Wi-Fi network, but it also shows the status of backup and charging, and will also offer to free up space on your phone by deleting everything that has been backed up.

The Moshi Symbus Q is a 15W wireless charger that is also a USB-C dock, with two USB-A 3.1 ports, 4K HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, and USB-C 60W passthrough charging for a laptop.

The Moshi has a premium design, with a slick aluminium casing, and fabric and rubber finish to the charging base.

It’s not cheap, but it looks great and fits right in with most of Moshi’s stuff: premium products at premium prices.