Griffin’s first WatchStand for Apple Watch is a tall, sturdy, plastic stand with built-in cord management — while it isn’t the prettiest Apple Watch stand around, it’s quite effective and affordable. The company has doubled down on this design with the new WatchStand Powered Charging Station. This new stand essentially takes the original WatchStand and adds another felt-topped section, meant for resting an iPhone. Underneath the stand are two USB ports, additional built-in cord management, and a port for the stand’s AC adapter, which provides power to the USB ports for an Apple Watch and iPhone.
WatchStand Powered Charging Station is about 4.25” x 8.88”, and its felt-covered iPhone area is about 1.25” high, while the WatchStand itself is about 7” high. It will take up a fair amount of space on a desk or nightstand. As before, the stand is almost completely plastic, save for some rubber elements. The WatchStand still has a channel to run the charger cord through, while cords can also be run around wraps in the station’s base, further reducing cable clutter. Nevertheless, you’re still going to see two cords jutting out from gaps under the base — the AC adapter cord and a cable to charge the iPhone itself.
Once everything was hooked up and plugged in — a bit of a time-consumer, so users who travel a lot should have some extra cables handy — the station did indeed supply power to both devices. WatchStand Powered Charging Station puts out 2.1A of power for an iPhone, and 500 mAh for an Apple Watch.
While we think there’s plenty of value in an Apple Watch/iPhone charger — it makes sense to charge them side by side at night — we’re not sure Griffin’s station is much of a solution. You’re still dealing with an iPhone charging cable, which has to dangle out from under the base. Perhaps it’s a bit more elegant than simply having a Lightning cable splayed across a nightstand, but not by much. It makes more sense to have an iPhone dock built into this type of station.
Not to mention that this station takes up lots of space, and at double the price of the original WatchStand, the design is pretty much the same — with some added felt. Griffin also points out that an iPhone can be angled against the WatchStand for viewing while charging, but doing that feels haphazard at best. For those who don’t mind the design and need the wall outlet space — this station uses one outlet to charge two devices — WatchStand Powered Charging Station might be worth a look. We give it our limited recommendation.
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Company and Price
Company: Griffin
Model: WatchStand Powered Charging Station
Price: $60
Compatible: Apple Watch, iPhone