Review: Noah & Grey wood, steel, & leather wireless chargers

Almost all wireless chargers available today are the same in their construction. There are standard coils that get purchased and installed in various charging pad and stand designs.

There are aspects manufactures can tweak, such as the radius of the charging zone, but for the most part what you really have to judge a wireless charger on is the design of the housing.

A lot of the ones we've seen have done different versions of the same core ideas — plastic bodies, silicone or leather top surfaces, some as stands while others are flat pads.

Noah and Grey have produced a charger that welcomingly is something new and unique. Each charger is hand finished and assembled in the companies Hong Kong studio with precision.

Since we just picked up our new iPhone 11 Pro Max, we figured it would be good to find a luxury charger to go with it and selected the walnut and stainless steel charger from Noah and Grey.

Once the charger was assembled, it was shipped out and arrived quickly from the studio.

Integrated right into the charger is a nylon-braided USB-A cable, but no charging puck. You'll have to supply your own one of those.

The cable is adorned with a genuine leather cable organizer to keep things in line when not in use, or to take up slack.

For ours, the top is covered in American walnut, rubbed with natural Osmo oil for a simple, clean look. That sits atop a 2-millimeter tarnished stainless steel base.

Sandwiched in that stainless steel rim is an embossed leather pad that protects the surface the charger is on. A dozen screws hold the whole thing together.

The design, Noah and Grey say, was inspired by portholes on ships and is functional as well as stylish. By having so many screws around, it largely prevents any of the natural movement or warping wood traditionally is prone to making over time and with environmental changes.

There are many other styles of the Noah and Grey wireless charger available, including a gorgeous ebonised walnut and brass, or ash and stainless steel.

The charger can output up to 10 Watts, though iPhone isn't currently able to reach that high a wattage yet. This is still useful for other mobile devices with wireless charging capabilities that support that level of power transfer.

Something we noticed is our device tended to move around when it vibrated, when not held inside a case. Not by a large amount, but at least once it was enough to stop the charging when we received a barrage of Slack messages.

Keeping a case on the phone did stop that, but it's something to keep in mind if you prefer to rock your iPhone naked.

Our AirPods worked as well on the charger with nary an issue.

Pros

• Gorgeous, unique design
• Natural leather, steel, and wood
• Hand finished and assembled
• Fast 10W max output
• Non-slip leather bottom
• Long, nylon-braided charging cable

Cons

• Premium price tag
• USB-A instead of USB-C
• No included power brick
• Large footprint for a one-device charger

Rating: 4 out of 5

Where to buy

You can pick up the Noah and Grey hand-finished wireless chargers direct from the manufacturer starting a t $99 in a variety of finishes.