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TYLT Vu wireless charging base review

The TYLT Vu is a Qi wireless charging base that’s angled to ensure your device remains in place while it can still be used and viewed for other things (such as watching movies).

Tylt Vu box

I’ll preface this review with If I seem to be a bit negative in this review, I’m not. The device works fine, the angle is neat, there’s very little bad to say about the thing. These are notes I have made of what I’d like to see and what the potential problems are of it. It charges, it works, as a wireless charger it’s the best we’ve reviewed I think.

1amp charging, but on a 750mA receiver coilThe TYLT Vu comes with a 12-volt charger at .75a, which I believe means it’s a 750mA charger (or 1800mA if the Qi spec is 5 volts.) I’m a bit unsure on this and after a couple of days of looking, I’ll just say it can reach the max of what my receiver coil is capable of receiving (750mA,) and update this when their support department gets back to me, or some helpful Pocketables reader can tell me what the Qi spec for voltage is.

The claim is that it’s as fast as a wall charger, however I have wall chargers capable of 3 amps, and I have wall chargers barely capable of pushing 125mA so that’s like saying that it’s that meat that tastes like chicken. It doesn’t help very much.

Update: according to my rep, the thing is 5V @ 1 amp, or 1000mA. Battery Monitor Widget is claiming higher, but I don’t quite trust it at the moment as that’s higher than the receiver coil should take.

The idea behind the TYLT Vu is that you can wirelessly charge and use your device at a comfortable angle. If you’ve got a tablet, chances are you will be using less space to charge on a desk than you would if you had to lay the tablet flat.

The angle is nice, but unfortunately the space savings of an angle are generally negated by them choosing to go for  a 90 degree angle (the L shape) as opposed to a 45 (think high heel.) The 90 degree angle also makes it a bit less sturdy from an above to down force, but I doubt they were planning on people walking on it. I’m only mentioning it because I have extremely limited desk space and these things become a concern.

Tylt Vu Wasted Space

The next concern with the charger is that it’s not a USB spec charger. This means if the wall outlet charger that’s included with it dies, you’re not rigging the device up to run off of a USB. It uses some something that looks like a Nokia flip-phone connector circa 2002. I’m not disparaging it, just mentioning this. All the other wireless bases I have use USB, so if their power supply died I could grab another one in a Tiger Mart (gas station convenience store,) if I needed to. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, chances are you’re not going to be in hot water if the wireless charger fails for a couple of days while the company sends you a new adapter, it’s just something I thought of.

The provided charger also limits you to the charger’s range of reach. If I need to have the power source 15 feet away on a USB charging device, I grab a 15 foot USB cable. With this I require an extension cord.

So, you’ll need some extra desk space due to the angle (~2″x 3.5″,) and an electrical outlet, but after that you’ve got a charger that can charge most wireless charging tablets in portrait or landscape without any third party intervention, and my modded M8 in either if I lift it up slightly (I could move my receiver coil also).

Tylt Vu and my modded M*Tylt Vu and my modded M*
Above: TYLT Vu and the HTC One M8 with a wireless receiver coil in the case. Pictures are pink because they’re taken on an M7 that suffered the low light pinkout problem.

It works fine, doesn’t heat up excessively for me, however I’ve read some people with other devices are finding that a charger capable of pushing wall-outlet levels is heating their devices up to scary levels. I’m pretty sure this issue is with their devices and not the TYLT Vu, but without those devices in hand to test with other wireless charging bases I couldn’t really tell you for certain.

Overall, it’s a nice wireless charger, but coming in at between $55 and $63 I wish that it had just a little more to it like a viewing angle adjustment or a USB power supply.

The TYLT Vu is available through Amazon for between $49.99 and $62.12.

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Paul E King

Paul King started with GoodAndEVO in 2011, which merged with Pocketables, and as of 2018 he's evidently the owner. He lives in Nashville, works at a film production company, is married with two kids. Facebook | Twitter | Donate | More posts by Paul | Subscribe to Paul's posts

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