I've never seen a product with more mixed reviews than this one. I don't know if it's a batch issue but it seems it either works like a charm or is totally useless. I've been using it for nearly a month now, and so far I'm in the former camp. To give it a durability test, I keep it at work and plugged in 24/7 connected to my Toshiba PC. It's constantly charging, gets a little warm but not hot, no whining noise. From time to time I charge my iPhone and/or iPad at the same time, and it charges pretty quickly. I've taken it on the road and it worked in Germany, the Netherlands, Russia and Japan with no problem. It helped reduce the electronic accessories I have to carry when travelling and if you want to lighten your load, now is a good time to try as it's sold at $72 right now. I can only hope I won't come back in a month and report it died on me...
I've heard some negative reviews on this little charger, but I decided to give it a shot. Happy I did.
I travel relatively frequently so I'm always looking for good ways to optimize space management in my luggage & carry on bags. This little Zolt does the trick. I've ditched the chargers for my HP laptop, iPad, & iPhone. This little device will simultaneously charge all three just fine. I think that it is a little faster to charge all these devices separately w/ their manufacturer-supplied chargers, but not to a noticeable extent. When you factor in how compact the Zolt is, it is well worth it.
One tip: Be sure the wall outlet you plug the Zolt into can carry the full load of all the devices plugged into it. Sometimes those cheesy desk plugs @ even the nicest hotels are crap.
I go on frequent trips, and wanted a single charger for all my devices. This certainly fits the bill.
I'm using this on a Dell 7540 Ultrabook. This is not listed as a supported model, but it's predecessor is listed as a supported model so I bought the charger as a calculated gamble and it paid off. The Dell motherboard tends to reject most third-party chargers as non-compatible but this charger seems to be fine.
I don't see any differences between the Dell Charger and this charger. I've charged an iphone 6 plus and an ipad air 2 simultaneously with the other two ports, and that has not been an issue. It's able to charge i-devices about as quickly as the Apple chargers.
It looks much cooler than any other charger on the market. Many of my colleagues now have charger envy.
Great piece of technology. I had one for about half a year and I had it charge my MacBook Air 11" night and day as my principal charger. At night it also charged my Xperia Z5 and, recently, Nixon's The Mission. It does all it is supposed to do, so I got another one about a month ago. However, I had only one MagSafe cable between the both of them since I figured that, if something was to give, it would probably be the charger, since the one that I ordered for my first Zolt was a far cry from the sorry, fraying mess that the cables on Apple's original AC adapter are. Just yesterday, however, the lights on the cable went out. Had happened before, so I disconnected them, also the charger, plugged them back in - nothing. However, exactly the same happened on the other charger. So, unless two chargers, one 6 months old, the other 1, decided at the very same moment, to kick the bucket simultaneously, we have a cable problem here. Both chargers keep charging my other gadgets, the charger LED is on. I will try them out on a different brand laptop with the other adapters, but my money is on the cable having checked out. Now, it seems that Zolt has bitten the dust, as their website does not exist anymore, and the parent company avogy also only links to the gozolt page. Seems I'm in for an interesting ride to get one, better two, replacement cables... So, that's why there is one star missing.
I originally received this item and it contained everything... Except the actual Zolt itself. I'm honestly surprised how this left the warehouse in this condition, but regardless I did receive a new one and got a full refund. After receiving the actual Zolt, the charger looks great, works great, and I really have no complaints. I've been told sometimes the end that plugs into the laptop can eventually reach a point where it is not as tight of a fit, but obviously that hasn't happened yet since I have only been using this for about 3 weeks. One remedy to that, assuming you are using only one laptop to charge with the Zolt, is to add some glue to the connector end so the tip doesn't come off. Not sure that I'll do this, but it was a tip I was given, so maybe it would work for someone!
Feature Product
- Ultra Light and Super Compact - 4X smaller and 3X lighter than standard PC laptop chargers
- 70 watts total charging power: enough to charge a PC laptop or Ultrabook up to 65W plus two mobile devices simultaneously (be sure to check your laptop's power requirements)
- Universal Compatibility: 6 ft. PC power cable and 8 interchangeable PC laptop power tips that work with over 90% of today's PC laptops and Ultrabook's, including HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus, Acer, Toshiba and more - check compatibility on the Zolt website
- Power Protection: built-in over current, over voltage, over temperature and over power protection
- Smart Features: folding prongs for convenient storage, rotates 90 degree to free up adjacent outlets, scratch resistant finish
Description
Can a laptop charger actually be cool? We think so. When we designed the Zolt Laptop Charger Plus we wanted to create a product that was both highly functional and aesthetically beautiful. From it's sleek, durable exterior to its ground breaking power electronics circuitry, Zolt is anything but ordinary.
Re-posting my blog review:
http://www.jasondunn.com/zolt-universal-laptop-charger-review/#more-4578
Hope it helps people make an informed decision!
At AT&T I don’t travel for work as much as I used to for HTC, but when I do I usually bring my personal laptop with me – and that means two different power supplies. I use a Rocketfish universal charger for my HP work laptop (a rather chunky and heavy machine) and the Dell charger for my XPS 13. The Dell charger is small, but the Rocketfish charger is your typical brick. It has a USB port for charging though, which is a big improvement over your typical charger. Together, carrying the two chargers is a hassle, especially since I fly carry-on 95% of the time. I usually put both chargers in a carrying case inside my carry-on luggage.
In my quest for a new, lightweight universal charger I backed the FinSix Dart on Kickstarter back in April of 2014. After waiting 19 months (!?!), I gave up waiting and requested a refund. Props to FinSix for giving out refunds – many Kickstarter campaigns do not.
I then ordered a Zolt: it seemed better in every way. Getting it was a bit of a fiasco – they didn’t indicate there would be a wait on getting it, so I was expecting to receive it shortly after the November 19th launch date. The neglected to communicate that’s when pre-orders would start shipping. It was almost five weeks later, a day after I left to spend two weeks in Calgary that they informed me they were shipping the Zolt. I think it’s pretty foolish to surprise ship a product right at the holidays when so many people travel, but I give credit to their customer service team: they were able to re-direct the shipment and ship it out the day I got back. There was a bit of a delay, but I finally received it. I’ve had a couple of days now and here are my thoughts so far.
*** The Good ***
- It’s lightweight. My Dell + Rocketfish charger combo weighed in at 20 ounces (1 lbs. 6 oz) For comparison’s sake, the iPad Pro is 25 ounces (1 lb. 9 oz). The Zolt? A mere 6 ounces, and that includes the charger, the two tips I need, and the power cable. The Zolt is 333% lighter to carry than my previous combo, and at least 300% smaller in overall volume when you factor in the carrying case. I fly carry-on nearly all the time, so every bit of weight and space saved is welcomed.
- It has two USB ports for mobile device charging. I tested my iPad Air 2, and the USB port kicks out 2.05 Amps (as measured by my Legion USB Power Meter). With my HTC One connected, it draws 1.10 Amps.
- It can charge it all at once. I connected my Dell XPS 13 (in sleep mode) to it and measured the power draw with a Kill-A-Watt power meter. It was drawing 31 watts. I added my iPad Air 2 into the mix, and the total use rose to 42 watts. When I added my HTC One phone, it rose to 50 watts total.
- Power to the mobile device USB ports remains nearly constant if the laptop gets hungry. With the Dell XPS 13 plugged in and charging, the screen brightness at maximum, and the CPU usage at 100% (Handbrake encoding) all devices together were pulling 59 watts. When I had my iPad Air 2 connected, it was pulling 2 amps. The HTC One dropped to 0.95 amps. A slight decline, but not much.
- It comes with a variety of tips that will fit most PCs. If you need a Macbook charger you can get that for $19.99.
*** The Bad ***
- It sometimes makes noise. I’ve only had this for a couple of days, so I’m not sure if this is a solid pattern, but twice now I’ve had instances where it sounds vaguely like whining water (it sort of…gurgles and whines). It’s not loud by any means, but in a quiet room it’s clearly audible – and you’d hear it in a hotel room if you were trying to sleep. I don’t usually leave my devices plugged in overnight, so this shouldn’t be an issue for me.
- The USB ports for mobile devices don’t put out as much power as a stand-alone charger. If you look at my numbers for the ChargeTech charger, you’ll see it gave my iPad Air 2.35 amps and my HTC One phone 1.48 amps. That’s ~25-34% less power coming from the Zolt. So for the convenience of an all-in-one unit, you’re losing a bit of speed on charging your devices.
- It’s a bit pricey. At $99, it’s at least 5x more expensive than your average universal charger found on Amazon.com (price start at around $15).
- Who picked the colours? I opted for boring grey because Ultra Violet and Electric Orange aren’t my thing. I’d have enjoyed a red or a blue. At least they offered gray instead of boring old black!
*** The Verdict ***
As long as that whining sound doesn’t get more frequent, this thing is a winner. It’s small, lightweight, and let’s me charge a laptop and two mobile devices at once. I’ve read comments elsewhere that says you can even connect a mobile device to the top “laptop” USB port, so you can charge three mobile devices in a pinch. Apparently there’s a USB-C version on the way as well. For me, this is well worth $99 and I look forward to use it on my next trip.
For me, an excellent product. Carried it to Asia on several trips and when not traveling it is plugged in at home 24/7 for 6 months with no problems. Powers my Dell XPS 13 while charging two phones or a phone and Bluetooth headphones. Unfortunately it does appear they are out of business.
Arrived at a reasonable speed for my distance and works as advertised. I love functional and solid design like this. I wanted a single device for all my charging needs and I'm glad that this fit the bill like I hoped. If I had to find downsides I'd say it's a bit on the heavier side for something of this size, and the other thing is that they don't have alternate versions of the product for different kind of electric sockets. I have to use an adapter for using the zolt with the sockets in my country. Other than that, solid product so far. I like the idea that I've hopefully purchased a charging solution that will be my main and portable driver for power input for a while. Hope it doesn't disappoint in the coming years.
Got this as a gift for someone. They don't care for it so now I use it and I think it's great. I haven't used the laptop charger but I use one of the adapters to charge a large Bluetooth speaker that I haven't had a charger for it works great. The packaging is nice and the product is made of high-quality materials.
Excellent product. I think it is a "must-have" for travelers and other people on the move, especially people with lots of mobile devices and tablets; One suggestion is to probably have a "international" package as an option that may help travelers in non-US Destinations
Pros : Lots of connectors and adapters.
Cons: Charge extra for Mac Book adaptor
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