Satechi 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand Review: A Compact and Attractive Way to Charge Your Most Personal Apple Devices

Satechi 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand Review

Satechi makes beautiful products, often of sculpted aluminum with bright plastic accents. The $120 Satechi 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand is no exception. It looks great while supporting its cadre of Apple products. But it’s perhaps a little too Apple-centric as it struggles to accommodate charging of non-Apple Qi compatible earbuds struggle to charge or fit in the available Qi charging area.

What we like

A single USB-C port powers all three stations. Clutter reduces and convenience increases. The box specifies a 20W power supply to drive the three charging stations. I ran it with an older 12W iPad charger and it worked fine, with the exception of the Qi charger that failed to recognize some of earbud cases. When I replaced the 12W block with the newer Apple iPad Pro 20W charger, the Qi station output increased, and more earbuds cases aligned with the charging sweet spot. 

As with all Satechi products, the 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand is beautiful and complements most office decors. It’s compact, and the single cable keeps it neat.

As with all simple devices, the  3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand does what it does and it does it exactly in the intended way. So if you need to charge your collection of Apple devices, and you count among them an iPhone, an Apple Watch, and a pair of AirPods with wireless charging, then this charging stand will meet your needs. 

If, however, you want the AirPod charging area to charge other devices, need an extra port for your iPad, or want to change the angle of your iPhone, you should keep reading.

What could be improved

The Satechi 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand would benefit from four improvements.

A larger Qi charging platform to accommodate the wide variety of shapes and sizes found among non-Apple Qi charging ear buds. While all of my Qi charging headphones found the charge, they didn’t all look good doing it. Some earbuds, like the Creative Outlier Air V3s appeared to charge based on the stand’s LED indicator, but the earbud case didn’t illuminate its LEDs making me doubt that it was actually charging them.

I could even get an Android phone to charge on the Charging Stand, but, while OK in a pinch, it looked rather awkwardly angled on an otherwise elegant device. 

Satechi should adopt a more universal Qi platform, perhaps with MagSafe, to make this stand truly adaptive to customer needs. A MagSafe solution would cover all Qi devices as well as increase the speed of charging AirPod Pros or a second iPhone.

More degrees of freedom on tilt feature on the iPhone charging platform to offer a variety of viewing angles. Tilt is especially important when the iPhone becomes a Facetime or other video conferencing device. The minimal movement makes it hard to adjust for some video conferencing situations.

An additional charging port would provide more flexibility, even if it would protentional increase clutter. For those of use still using Gen 2 AirPods with Lightning-only charging, the Qi platform doesn’t add any value. An additional USB-C charging port would  

A third LED would help make clear which device is charging. Yes, the watch clearly shows its chart state if you look, but a quick glance at three LEDs would give a general indication of charge or charging all devices without looking at any one of them directly.

Satechi 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand: The Bottom Line

For people who own an iPhone, an Apple Watch, and Apple AirPods with Qi charging, the Satechi 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand will meet all their charging needs. Those without the full suite of Apple devices may still find value, even if one of the charging areas is empty—especially those hopeful about filling it with a Watch or AirPods momentarily. Owners of full-sized headphones or earbuds with bigger Qi charging cases may want to explore a complimentary item, like Satechi’s  2-in-1 Headphone Stand with Wireless Charger (review coming soon).

Satechi provided the 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand for review. Images courtesy of Satechi.

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