Quick Look Review: A Stylish $17 iPhone and Apple Watch Charging Stand

If you own both an iPhone and an Apple Watch, your bedside table or nightstand may be a bit cluttered with charging cables. Although battery life — particularly for the Apple Watch — has gotten better over the years, these devices still need to charge most nights. In response to this need, third party companies of all kinds have stepped forward to offer a variety of charging stands that can accommodate all of your Apple devices.

Companies such as Belkin and Twelve South offer relatively expensive high-end charging stands. While these products are no doubt high quality, most people don’t really need a $120 charging stand, and that’s where the “no name” brands come in. Just name an Apple accessory of some kind and you’ll find dozens of options from companies you’ve never heard of. Some of these products are truly garbage, but others just might be a steal.

Case in point: a $17 iPhone and Apple Watch charging stand that’s actually pretty darn good. We’re talking about the Mercase Apple Watch Stand, currently available at Amazon for $16.59. We needed something to consolidate the storage and charging of our iPhone and Apple Watch, and we figured that at just $17 it was worth a shot.

The Mercase Apple Watch Stand features a “Z-like” design that holds your iPhone in landscape mode on the bottom while your Apple Watch charges in Nightstand orientation on top. The stand itself is made from aluminum alloy and feels quite sturdy and well-balanced. All of the areas that might come into contact with your Apple devices are covered in silicone, and there are four silicon feet on the bottom to keep the stand in place and prevent any scratches to your nightstand surface.

Here’s the one drawback of a stand like this: most of those more expensive Apple Watch and iPhone charging stands include built-in power, meaning that you plug just one cord from the stand into the wall and then the stand’s internal electronics provide power to your devices. With the Mercase stand, you need to supply your own Lightning and Apple Watch charging cables.

The Apple Watch charger slides into the hole on top and fits quite snugly. It won’t fall out on its own, but it’s also not a pain to remove when you need to. The Lightning cable for your iPhone, on the other hand, just rests freely on the side of the stand. It all looks quite nice and organized when everything is plugged in and charging, but it can be a bit messy when the device is removed and you have a lone Lightning cable just hanging out.

But, hey, it’s probably still better than your current setup of loose charging cables (it certainly was for us) and it’s the type of drawback that’s perfectly reasonable at this price point.

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Other than that, there’s not much else to say about this product. It’s cheap, looks sharp, and serves its purpose of organizing and charging your iPhone and Apple Watch. Looking long-term, we might be worried about those silicon feet, which are attached with just a bit of adhesive, eventually falling off. We’re also not sure about the true “scratch resistance” of the silicon and aluminum surfaces. But after real-world testing for a few weeks in a home with pets and kids, it still looks great.

If you’re looking for a nice iPhone and Apple Watch charging stand that won’t break the bank, we think that the Mercase Apple Watch Stand is an excellent choice.

Review Terms: This product was purchased at full price by TekRevue for the purpose of this review. We have had no communication with the product’s manufacturer and this review is not subject to review or approval by any entity outside of TekRevue.