Gadgetory

if you've got an LG g4 like this one here on loan from AT&T you've got a pretty solid smartphone but out of the box it's lacking one cool feature wireless charging you could buy a quick circle case from LG to enable it but it's pricey and as we recently learned from a post over at Phandroid you can achieve the same end for just ten bucks and a little modding i'm michael fisher with pocket now and we're going to show you how so the first thing you need to do is go to Amazon and pick up this thing linked in the description it's called the new wisdom LG g4 Qi wireless charging IC chip plus NFC antenna sticker for LG g4 for such a long name the product itself is tiny as it needs to be to fit under the g4s battery cover now while you can do this modification on the stock cover I'm partial to the leather backs so LG was nice enough to send us a couple to test out with our review unit I'm gonna go for yellow and just to be splashy about it first things first peel off the existing sticker from the battery door you're working on it's the large rectangular plate at the centerline and you may need a knife to get the peel started use caution if you do then it gets your knife or pry tool underneath the corner of this black plate and remove the NFC module itself which is really stuck on there so be patient and don't go too fast obviously this contains the NFC antenna but it doesn't matter because if you got the product we link to you'll get that functionality back when you connect the new sticker hey what do you know that's the next step the new component is the thicker of the two items in the envelope and it's backed by 3m adhesive align the new antenna with the silhouette of the old one and alignment here is really important you want to match the contacts exactly to their counterparts on the phone side so when the battery door goes on they make contact don't rush this when you think you've got it right peel off the sticky stuff take a second to admire the inductive charging coils if you want and smack it on there at this point you may wish you'd sanded the plastic to get a better surface for the glue to stick to but if you're like me you'll just keep mashing on it till it stops bubbling up pop the battery door back on engage all the clasps and notice how you've added no measurable thickness to the phone which we can't always say for these kinds of mods now it's time to plop down the charger keeping in mind that only qi wireless chargers will work if it starts charging congratulations you're a hack soar if not as shown here you're a failure sad BAE's just kidding remember what I said about alignment earlier it this just means you have to adjust the interface points so they line up better on close inspection we can see that I put the sticker a little higher than it should go here fortunately we don't need to unstick the entire thing just peel up the interface portion here and nudge it just a skosh in the right direction again be careful and patient pop the cover back on maybe with an extra squeeze or two around the contact points cross your fingers and toss it back on the charger if you've done it right and the demo gods are with you BAM you're sucking juice wireless style and now keep in mind you'll want to check your NFC connectivity too that's the other set of contacts you stuck on there fortunately I had better luck here and got the chief floor to talk to one of my old Samsung tech tiles with no muss when you're done testing this is the final step unpeel the bigger sticker you got in the package from Amazon and seal everything in place so it can't shift around on you so there you have it wireless charging on your LG g4 no matter what back cover you pick and it only costs you 10 bucks and 10 minutes thanks to Phandroid comm for the tutorial if you prefer written instructions the link to that article is in the description check out pocket now's other videos here on youtube and be sure to check out the pocket now weekly podcast for more do-it-yourself suggestions until next time this has been michael fisher captain two phones on twitter thanks for watching we'll see you next time