Nokia DT-910 Wireless Desktop Charging Stand reviewed

Nokia DT-910 Wireless Desktop Charging Stand reviewed

AAWP have reviewed the Nokia DT-910 desktop wireless charging stand for Nokia’s Lumia range and were left somewhat unsatisfied.

While they had no complaints about the fit and finish of the accessory, they criticized the very large AC Adaptor, which outputted 12v, and found the 1.8 m cord unwieldy.

Charging rate at about 15% less than from the wired charger was acceptable, but was much less when used with non-Nokia hardware, which should be a warning for those buying it intending to use it with other Qi phones.

By far their biggest criticism centred around the implementation of the NFC tag in the device.  On the good side the NFC tag and the included application built into Nokia Lumias with wireless charging meant an app can be associated with the stand, with the default app being the weather app above, and because each tag is unique one could have a different app for the home and office for example.

The tag was however in the base rather than top of the stand, meaning one had to touch the NFC reading part of the phone (usually on the top back) to the base first to activate the tag, and further had to tap on Confirm or Ignore to actually launch the app, before finally placing the phone into the cradle, a 3 step process which does not seem to offer much beyond simply launching a pinned app via the start screen. Given this implementation AAWP does not feel the feature is a very good selling point, making the £70 cost of the cradle poor value for money.

They conclude:

Having any sort of stand for a smartphone helps turn it into a desktop assistant, effectively giving you a second screen to check email or calendar, etc. Combine that with the convenience of being able to place the phone on a stand that will begin charging without having to fiddle about connecting a charging cable is an absolute win.

That desktop stand, though, has a significant design chink in that you have to perform a separate action to launch an app when you place the phone to charge. This unique selling point of NFC launched apps should be a seamless operation that doesn’t require any thought by the user – it should just happen. Having to touch the phone to the base and respond to a prompt BEFORE placing the phone on to charge makes the whole thing pointless – why not just manually launch an app as normal before placing to charge?

Perhaps I’m being a tad harsh on the DT-910, but the other thing to seriously consider is that it costs 70 UKP. That is a lot of money, and if I were to invest that much money into an accessory I would want it to be perfect.

Considering the price, also bear in mind that, going by the current reports of compatibility with the Nexus 4 and other Android phones, it may not work properly with other Qi enabled devices. Therefore, it should almost be considered proprietary to the Lumia line.

If you absolutely want to have your phone propped up while it wirelessly charges, then the DT-910 is the Qi charger for you. However, the above two issues raise serious questions against the considerable price tag.

Qualified recommendation.