Journey ALTI Lift Review: A smart desk mat with 15W Qi2 wireless charging

Price When Reviewed

$149.99

Best Prices Today: Journey ALTI Lift

Desk mats, like mouse mats, seem like a thing from the past, when today it’s all yoga mats—but desk mats are a lot smarter than yesterday’s executive desk organizers.

The Journey ALTI Lift Wireless Charging Desk Mat is the latest in Journey’s ALTI range, and the newest version includes a tilting fast-charging stand for your iPhone—placing it close at hand for voice and video calls, as well as messaging while you work at your desktop Mac or MacBook.

Design

Available in Black or Gray Beige (ignore the dull name, it’s actually a lovely sand color), the ALTI Lift Wireless Charging Desk Mat measures 28.7 x 14.6 inches (73 x 37cm), with a height of 0.16 inches (4mm)—so not for offices with an open-desk policy.

You can flip between the cool leather side and a warmer felt, depending on your mood. The charging pad itself is covered in matching vegan leather. Anti-slip stickers keep the mat securely in place during use. 

The double-sided mat keeps your keyboard and mouse in place, but the real action is to the side—either side, again based on your preference or right/left-handedness.

Simon Jary

The charging side panel is 3.7 inches (9.5cm) wide and attaches to the main section magnetically (see above).

At the top of that panel, the iPhone stand can be swivelled and tilted, and will wirelessly charge at Qi2’s full 15W—twice as fast as the previous 7.5W (MagSafe Compatible) flat wireless charger on the earlier ALTI Wireless Charging Desk Mat and Slim version, but the same as on the 15W (certified MagSafe) ALTI Ultra Fast Wireless Charging Desk Mat and light-up ALTI Play (Black only). The company also sells a MacBook sleeve that incorporates wireless charging; see our Journey Nexa review.

Simon Jary

All previous Journey ALTI desk mats have featured flat pads for iPhone charging, and the new pull-up fully rotational ‘Lift’ adjustability is this update’s biggest benefit. The claimed 360-degree rotation is achieved in either 180 degrees clockwise and anti-clockwise rotations, with the charging pad flipping over to face either you or someone sitting opposite.

The phone can also be laid flat to minimize distractions.

A small recess lower down the side panel houses another (5W) wireless charger for AirPods case. You could instead (slowly) charge a second iPhone here. Apple Watch owners will need to look elsewhere: we recommend the best Apple Watch chargers elsewhere.

Simon Jary

On earlier ALTI models, there was a white LED at the top to indicate whether the entire charging pad is active or if one of the devices on it is currently charging. This is not a feature on the ALTI Lift.

You won’t eliminate all clutter as even wireless chargers need to be connected to power—only the phone to charger part is wireless. That means the included 1.5m cable cable needs to be connected to a USB-C wall or desktop charger. You could plug the ALTI’s cable into a powered MacBook ‘s Thunderbolt port, which can deliver a total of 15W. That’s theoretically enough to match the wireless charger’s max power but you’ll lose likely a few watts in the process. A better plan would be to follow Journey’s advice to use a USB-C charger of at least 30W. See our list of recommended USB-C chargers.

Recommended reading: Is Qi2 and latest Qi2.2 wireless charging better than MagSafe?

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To keep your workspace uncluttered, you can tuck a small number of documents between the mat’s layers to keep your workspace clutter-free. Just don’t forget you put them there!

There’s even a magnetic ring included to enable non-MagSafe phones to charge wirelessly. This is something iPhone 16e users may benefit from as that phone doesn’t support MagSafe officially, although it will actually work with MagSafe chargers.

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Price

The Journey ALTI Lift is sold exclusively through the company’s own online store and costs $149.99 / £119.99 / CA$179.99 / AU$169.99 / €139.99, which at first seems rather expensive, and it’s certainly not pocket change.

However, Journey’s well-crafted solution is the best we’ve seen and of course includes a 2-in-1 wireless charger, including a 15W charging stand on an interchangeable side panel. You’ll need to supply your own wall charger, though.

Should you buy the Journey ALTI Lift Wireless Charging Desk Mat

The stylish Journey ALTI Lift Wireless Desk Mat not only creates a calm and uncluttered (fixed) workspace in the home or office that looks and feels great but is also a handy fast charging station for your favorite Apple devices. It’s not cheap but it doesn’t look or feel cheap, either, and its built-in charging functionality is second to none.