Directed & Produced by Young Jeohn

VIDEO - TABLE OF CONTENTS

00:23 Unboxing
01:10 Overview
01:37 All about the Light
02:47 It almost does yoga

03:58 A Nightlight for us sleepy cave dwellers
05:10 It's a Universal Smartphone Charger
05:37 Qi Wireless Charging
06:33 Built in Charging "Cables"

07:04 "Bi-directional" MicroUSB!
07:30 Feed your SmartWatch
08:28 It Won't Charge your Non-Qi Metal Knife
09:00 How2 - Set up your Clock / Alarm / Temp

14:58 Conclusion

The Lumicharge II is everything you need for your desk in one compact design. It can charge any modern smartphone, both Android and Apple (without any cables) and includes wireless Qi charging too. In addition, it's an LED smartlamp with 10 brightness levels and 3 color temperatures - and it's still got more bells and whistles under the hood. Read on for the details!

STYLING / DESIGN

Visually it's a modern, attractive looking lamp with a minimalistic design and no sharp edges. The round base is smooth to the touch with touch controls in the rear and charging element near the front.

Attached to that is a long, hinged midsection. It can bend forward and backward, and has a rotator underneath for nearly 360 degrees of movement. Smack in the middle of this section is an LCD panel that tells time, date and even temperature. Finally, the LED light attached on the top is also hinged and can swivel towards or away.

The Lumicharge II is the most flexible thing I've seen since yoga people touching their toes, with the only move it can't do being a 360 degree backwards flip (180 degrees forwards only).

The lamp comes in 3 color variations for you to choose from: white, black and gray. A large palette to satisfy anyone... as long as you live in New York (they're known for having black and white everything).

LAMP USABILITY / FUNCTION

Underneath the clean design lies a load of technology. First it's a lamp - but without switches. It's controlled by a touchpad on the base with basics like on/off, brighten/dim and color hue change.

As far as the lights go, it's nice to have 10 levels of brightness instead of just on or off. If you're using it next to your bedside, you can also change the color temperature from bright white (daylight blue) to orange (tungsten) and one more color in-between. But while it's high-tech, it's also a double-edged sword.

Since there isn't a physical "on" switch, you're going to have trouble turning it on because you need to find the area you need to tap. To find it, you need to see it - and to see it, you need light. But you don't have light until you turn it on. See the problem?

The funny thing is, I think they noticed this issue and found a way around it. If you look at the mid-section, there's a curious half-globe bulb sticking out of it. You can turn it on by flipping a switch behind it... and tada! It turns out to be a nightlight! It senses movement and lights up (it's really bright) so now you can see what you're doing. Great for seeing the touch console, also great for use at night when you need to take a wee.

CHARGER USABILITY / FUNCTION

The Lumicharge II can charge up to three devices at once; 2 phones & 1 smartwatch, or 3 phones. Any modern phone can charge on it, so it doesn't matter that you're an Android guy with a girlfriend devoted to iPhones. This thing is sure to satisfy her needs... as well as yours.

First, there's a touch control to enable the Qi wireless charging platform. You turn it on (a red standby light will be visible) and place any Qi capable phone on the large lightning symbol. If you see a blue light replace the red one and hear a high pitched hum, your phone is charging. All that's left to do is wait.

For the techies amongst the readers, it's worth noting that maximum charge is at 10W, with 5W and 7.5W also possible depending on the phone's circuits. There's foreign matter detection for safety as well; any metal object placed on the platform (that's not a phone) will bounce warning lights of red and blue.

The second way to charge is what I consider to be the magic of the Lumicharge II. There's a rotating wheel near the front edge of the base. Turn it to select the plug of your choice (USB-C, microUSB or lightning) and stick your phone into it. This is genius because it does away with unsightly cables and let's you charge any modern smartphone that doesn't have Qi. There's even a lid to hide the plug when there's no phone being charged!

In addition, there's a nice added touch when it comes to the microUSB plug. This plug normally has one side shaped longer than the other, which means some phones have to be charged with the screen facing away from you. But the Lumicharge II uses "bi-directional" microUSB so you can plug in your phone whichever way you please, letting you use your phone as it charges in the cradle. Kudos!

A third device can be charged via a cable of your choice (cable not included). Plug the cable into the the base; and should the device be a smartwatch, it'd be a good time to put the watch-holding accessory to use. Still using a tablet with mini-USB? You can charge that here too.

CLOCK/ALARM FUNCTIONS

The cherry on top of all this is the peripheral time/date and temperature gauge. Programming this is more complex than turning on the light, but once you set it, you can forget it. Using four clicky buttons under the display (which I like a lot), you can set AM/PM or the 24hr clock, date (with year) and see the room temperature. There are four levels of brightness for this display.

There's also an alarm for the morning - or a 7 day alarm for which you can even select the days you want it to chime and those you don't. While the time settings are easy enough to figure out, I'll be the first to admit that I was NOT able to figure heads or tails on the alarm without reading the instructions - so please, read and follow the instructions. It'll save you a lot of time and headache.

You can watch the video review if you want to see how it's done.

BEST USES

The workdesk is probably the number 1 place where every one of Lumicharge II's functions will be used. Having a bright daylight color for reading, keeping your phone charged, and keeping track of time is all accomplished here.

The home living room is another good place where the charging function can be enjoyed by visiting guest/s no matter which phone they use (and everyone eventually needs juice for their phones). Plus, if you're on the couch after a romantic dinner, the lights can be dimmed in orange to get in the mood with whoever it is you're with.

The bedside is also a good place; read a book in medium, mixed colored light until your eyes start to droop. Then you can turn on the nightlight and leave your phone to charge overnight next to your head. Be careful though if you shift around a lot while you sleep - the nightlight is really bright.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

The hinges can be tightened and loosened with flathead screwdriver. Don't use coins, they won't fit (though they look like they might).

A button coin battery saves the clock settings even if you unplug the lamp. You can replace or remove this battery via a small panel above the nightlight switch using a #0 or #1 mini screwdriver.

The alarm has one set volume with no way to make it louder. But you do have 8 tunes to choose from.

The nightlight on my Lumicharge does wonky things. It may be an isolated case, it may not. But I sleep with it turned off.

CONCLUSION

The Lumicharge II is a compact, all-in-one lamp/charger/clock that both looks good and removes unsightly cable clutter. It doesn't discriminate between Android and iPhone users -it'll charge them all- and gives you a good amount of lighting options as well as directional movement.

The interesting thing is, it started as a successful Kickstarter/Indiegogo project that saw the light of day and is now being sold directly as a product. While it's not quite 100% polished, the idea is good, the implementation is sound and it's a sign of good things to come in future products. I like it.

FINAL RATING : 4.5 of 5 stars

4 - Styling/Design/Build Quality
4 - Usability/Function Lamp
5 - Usability/Function Charger
4 - Clock/Alarm
5 - Performance

What the stars mean:
5 - Excellent (up there with the best, no flaws/issues)
4 - Very Good (better than expected, may have minor flaws)
3 - Good w/caveats (works, but has some issues)
2 - SMH (serious issues, needs major improvement)
1 - 0_0;; (just... why?)

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More info: TheLumicharge.com
(Test unit provided by LumiCharge for this review.)

Check prices: https://amzn.to/38qRXV4 --- Amazon affiliate link

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