The IT Nerd

After I got my brand new iPhone XS I discovered that my Belkin Valet Charge Dock for Apple Watch & iPhone wasn’t compatible with it as it would not charge my iPhone XS. That was weird as it is supposed to be an Apple MFi certified product. So as a result I was forced ditch it and find another stand that would charge my Apple Watch and iPhone at my bedside. I trolled Amazon for a while and based on some user reviews, I chose the Bestand 2 in 1 Phone Desktop Tablet Stand & Charging Stand:

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Here’s what comes in the box:

• A Micro USB cable
• The stand which has a Qi compliant wireless charger that’s mated to an aluminium stand that looks classy. The wireless charger has a pair of charging coils so you can charge a phone in portrait or landscape orientation. Or put another way, no matter how you position your phone, it will charge. It has a couple of vents at the back to evacuate heat from the charger.
• Not pictured are two blocks with adhesive for cable management

You’ll notice that in the front facing picture on the right hand side is a hole. That’s for you to insert an Apple Watch magnetic charger as it doesn’t come with one. The cynical side of me says that they did that to avoid having to build something and pay Apple for a MFi certification. The more generous side of me says that they were trying to futureproof the device in case Apple changes something with the Apple Watch charger. I’ll leave it for you to decide which one is fact. But in any case, it has to be an Apple branded charger as third party ones will not fit. Once you get that sorted. This is what you get:

Getting things to this state wasn’t hard. But the job isn’t done yet because what you’re left with is a stand that has two USB connectors for it to get power. One for the Apple Watch and one for the phone. I am guessing the use case that Bestand envisioned is that you’re going to have this stand next to a computer. That means you can plug it into the computer’s USB ports or a USB hub. If you want to use this on a night table next to your bed which is what my use case was, I needed one more thing which was a wall charger like this one to power this stand. So after covering up the LED lights that the charger had so that it did not create a glow at night, I was in business.

Now I’ve used this for the last few days and I found that I haven’t had an issue charging my iPhone XS at all. I place it on the charger with my case on it and it charges reasonably quickly. Ditto for my Apple Watch seeing as that is using an Apple charger. The stand looks classy and feels sturdy. All in all it’s a decent bit of kit. I just wish that they packaged it in such a way that allows it to be used in multiple use cases. Such as having a power brick to allow you to plug it into the wall. Besides that, it came with no directions of any sort. Thus a less technically adept user might become frustrated if they can’t figure out how to make this work in whatever use case they have and return it to Amazon or wherever they got it. Thus Bestand would be highly advised to do something about that. Not only that, they should make it a whole lot clearer in terms of what you will need both with their website and in terms of the documentation that should be included in the box.

Speaking of Amazon, I got this from Amazon for $45.99 CDN. But you need to factor in the cost of the Apple Watch charger which is $39 CDN, and the cost of the wall charger if you wish to use it at your bedside which is $49.99 CDN. That gives you a grand total of $134.98 for that use case. Subtract the cost of the wall charger and it a total of $84.99 if you plug it into your computer’s USB ports. If you don’t mind a DIY project, then I have no problem recommending the Bestand 2 in 1 Phone Desktop Tablet Stand & Charging Stand. If you want a finished good that you can plug in and start using with minimal effort, I’d look elsewhere.

This entry was posted on October 19, 2018 at 9:30 am and is filed under Products with tags Bestand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.