Artellia Monno review: Overpowering wireless charging

Over the past few years, wireless charging has become quite ubiquitous; even some low-cost genuine wireless headphones support it. Considering this, it’s quite possible that there are several wireless charging compatible devices floating around your home right now. If you’re looking to simplify your power management, a multi-device charger might help. The Artellia Monno, now funded on Kickstarter, is a sleek and capable charger that can wirelessly charge three devices at once. If you can pick one up at its early bird price, there’s not much to complain about – but you better hurry.

Design, material, what’s in the box

The Monno looks unusually good looking for a wireless charger. It is pill-shaped, about nine inches wide. It’s not as striking as something like the Zens Liberty, but it’s understated and clean like a lot of Google’s home products, with soft edges and a fabric-covered top (the color I’m using here is ‘even called “Chalk” on the box; it’s also available in dark gray). It’s not particularly technical, which I like – I wouldn’t mind having this in my living room.

Artellia describes the fabric that covers the cargo area of ​​the cushion as “scratch resistant”, which is fine, but I have reservations about how it will age. Large, flat expanses of fabric are dust magnets, and I haven’t had the Monno long enough to understand how easy it is to clean it. It still looks good after a few weeks on my desk, but I wonder how it will wear over the months or years.

“Anti-scratch” fabric.

There is a white LED on the front of the charger which blinks slowly when there is a compatible device on the pad or blinks if there is a problem. On the back, there’s a USB-C charging input that can take up to 35 watts, vents for the Monno’s two cooling fans (one in, one out) and two USB-A ports from five watts. I would have liked these ports to have been inserted a bit for more flexible cable management, but it seems the Monno’s internal layout makes that impossible.

The guts of Monno. | Image: Artellia

In the box is the charging cradle itself, a one-meter USB-C-to-C cable, and a 45-watt power supply which is impractical: in the power supply under my office, it blocks the adjacent outlets on both sides of the one to which it is plugged. It doesn’t clog the second receptacle on a wall outlet, at least, but for the price, the packaging should really include something slimmer.

Performance

You can charge up to five devices at a time with the Monno: two wireless devices up to 10 watts each and a third up to five, plus two wired via USB-A at five watts each, for maximum power up to. ‘at 35 watts. This capacity should be more than enough for the charging needs of most people. Even if you don’t have three gadgets you need to charge wirelessly, the Monno’s seven overlapping charging coils mean it’s not particularly hard to figure out where you put your phone or headphones. You can’t be totally willy-nilly, but it’s pretty hard to miss the cargo area.

The Monno is actively cooled by two fans.

I had no problem charging the phones on the Monno, even in the cases. If you have three big phones in Otterboxes, you might not be able to fit all of them to the charger at once, but two phones and a pair of headphones fit very comfortably.

The charger’s built-in cooling fans spin whenever it’s active, with increasing intensity as you add more devices. I never felt the charger heat up alarmingly, even after several hours of charging. Most devices on the charger don’t get too hot either. My phones kept the battery temperature going in the mid-90s – warm to the touch, but not too hot. I did notice, however, that my Pixel Buds were a bit more toasted than I would like.

The fans spinning is definitely noticeable in a quiet room, but using it on my nightstand, the gentle whirring didn’t keep me awake.

USB ports on the back. I am upset that the white of the supplied USB-C cable does not exactly match the white of the charger.

Wired charging is slow at five watts; I would have liked to see a higher capacity on the Monno’s USB ports. I also wish they were USB-C instead of USB-A. Still, they’re enough to charge smartwatches or other small devices overnight.

Should you buy it?

May be. The Monno is currently fundraising on Kickstarter, where it has far exceeded its oddly small goal of $ 644 – as of date of publication, the campaign has raised almost $ 13,000. You can get one for $ 79 before the fundraising ends at 9 a.m. EST on Jan. 14 (that’s tomorrow), which is a fair enough price for a good looking and working charger. The catch: Units shouldn’t ship to backers until April. If you’re patient enough to wait, go ahead.

However, after the campaign ends, Artellia says she plans to charge $ 129 for the Monno. This is frankly a very steep price to pay for an accessory like this from a company you’ve never heard of – in the neighborhood of what I would expect to pay for a similar product from Apple or from Google, and I would complain even then. If that ends up being the retail price of the Monno, I can only recommend picking one up if it’s exactly What are you looking for.

Buy it if:

• You can participate in the Kickstarter campaign before it ends.
• You like the simple look of the Monno.

Don’t buy it if:

• You don’t have multiple devices that charge wirelessly (duh).
• It ends up costing $ 129 and you absolutely don’t like the concept.

Or buy: