Joyroom JR-ZS240 15W Magnetic Wireless Car Charger

Phone charged, in sight, off your lap.

Long run out to site, phone on the passenger seat running maps the whole way. You hit a cattle grid, it slides into the footwell, and now you are driving a road you do not know with no navigation and a phone you cannot reach. By the time you stop for fuel it is on nine per cent.

A cradle fixes where the phone sits. It does not fix the battery, and the fiddly ones need two hands and a good look away from the road to get the phone in and out. That is the bit that actually bites — a mount you have to concentrate on is a mount you stop using.

This one is a magnet and a charging coil in the same disc. The phone goes on one-handed without looking, snaps square to the coil, and charges while it sits there. Take it off with one hand when you get out. There is no clamp, no arms and no spring to line up.

Two things to know before you buy, both covered properly under Limits: an iPhone will draw 7.5 W on this pad rather than the headline 15 W, and the USB car adapter that powers it is not in the box.

What It Does

• Holds by magnet: a ring of magnets in the head grips the phone, so there is nothing to clamp, adjust or line up.
• Charges while it holds: the same disc is a wireless charging coil, rated 5 W, 7.5 W, 10 W and 15 W depending on what the handset negotiates.
• Works with any phone: handsets without magnets in the back use the supplied steel sheet, stuck to the phone or hidden inside the case.
• Turns to suit you: the head spins a full turn on a ball joint, so portrait for maps and landscape for a video call both work.
• One-handed on and off: no arms to prise open, so your eyes stay on the road.

Key Features

• Joyroom JR-ZS240: the brand and model are printed on the retail box and the supplier's spec panel, so you can check it against the maker's own figures.
• Output tiers: 5 W, 7.5 W, 10 W and 15 W maximum — the pad steps to whatever the phone asks for.
• USB-C input: 5 V / 2 A, 9 V / 2 A or 12 V / 1.5 A, taken through the supplied 1 m USB-C cable.
• Charges through a case: the maker rates the charging gap at up to 8 mm, which covers most slim and moderate cases.
• Knob-tightened vent clip: the vent hook is screwed down by hand on a thumb knob and faced with silicone, rather than sprung.
• Fits 4.7 to 6.7 inch phones: the maker's stated handset range, from a small phone up to a large one.
• 60 x 82 mm, 86 g: small enough that it does not block a vent or sit in your sightline.
• ABS and PC body: the maker lists the shell as ABS with polycarbonate.
• Steel sheet included: a 60 mm self-adhesive disc, around 5 g, for phones with no magnets of their own.
• Two colourways: gunmetal grey and sea blue.

Watch Me

Limits

An iPhone will not get 15 W from this pad. Apple limits any magnetic charger that is not MagSafe-certified or Qi2-certified to 7.5 W. Joyroom does not claim either certification for this model, and neither mark is printed on the box or listed on the maker's own spec panel. So an iPhone charges at 7.5 W here. The 15 W tier is there for Android handsets that negotiate it. If you specifically want 15 W into an iPhone, a MagSafe or Qi2 certified charger is the one to pick.

No car adapter in the box. The supplier's package panel lists the holder, the mount, a 1 m USB-C cable, the steel sheet and a manual. The maker's own specification states a QC 3.0 car adapter is required. You will need a QC 3.0 or USB-PD car socket adapter to see the higher tiers — plugged into an ordinary 5 V USB socket the pad will run, but slowly.

Round vents are a no. The supplier's own fitment chart ticks eight styles of flat, horizontal-bladed vent and crosses four: circular turbine-style vents and the round ball-type outlets. If your vents are round, this clip will not grip them.

Thick cases stop it charging. The charging gap is rated to 8 mm total. A heavy-duty armoured case, a wallet case, or a case with a metal plate, card or a folding stand in the back will either stop the charge or cook the phone. Metal between the coil and the phone is the thing to avoid.

It is not a 24 V system fitting. The pad never touches vehicle voltage. It takes 5 V, 9 V or 12 V over USB-C, so in a 24 V truck it comes down to whether your USB adapter is rated for 24 V input. Check the adapter, not the pad.

Magnets and cards do not mix. Keep credit cards, hotel keys and anything with a magnetic stripe out from between the phone and the pad.

No certificate sighted. No CE, FCC, RoHS or Qi certificate was supplied with this product and none is published on the maker's spec panel. We are not going to call it certified on the strength of a logo.

Q & A

Will it hold my phone in a thick case?

Holding and charging are two different questions. The magnets will usually still hold through a thick case, but the charge will not get through more than about 8 mm. If your case is chunky, the steel sheet goes on the outside of the case, and even then a very thick or metal-backed case will stop the charging.

Does my phone need to be a MagSafe iPhone?

No. Phones with magnets in the back snap on by themselves. Everything else uses the steel sheet in the box, which sticks to the back of the phone or inside the case. The phone still needs to support wireless charging for the charging half to work — if it does not, this is a mount only.

Vent mount or dashboard mount?

Joyroom builds this model with both. The vent version uses a knob-tightened hook, the dashboard version sits on a weighted base. Check which mount the option you are buying is listed with, because they are different parts and only one comes in the box.

Will it stay put on corrugations?

The vent clip is tightened by hand on a thumb knob rather than sprung, so it does not creep the way a spring clip does. Corrugated dirt road is still the hardest test there is for any vent mount, and a heavy phone on a soft, worn vent blade will droop. On a rough road the dashboard version is the safer pick.

How fast will it actually charge?

Depends entirely on the handset and the adapter. An iPhone gets 7.5 W. An Android that negotiates the top tier can reach 15 W, but only from a QC 3.0 adapter. Wireless charging always runs warmer and slower than plugging the cable in — this is for topping up while you drive, not for a fast charge from flat.

Does it drain the battery when the car is off?

That depends on your vehicle, not the pad. If your USB socket stays live with the ignition off, the pad stays powered. Not specified by supplier for this model, so check your own socket.

Specs