Zagg's iPhone and Apple Watch Mobile Charging Station is Functional, but Not Pretty

[MacRumors]

Zagg's Mobile Charging Station for the Apple Watch and iPhone is both a portable charging platform and a backup battery for your Apple products. With its 5,000 mAh battery, the Mobile Charging Station is meant to be used while away from a power source. It has enough capacity to provide a full charge for both an iPhone and an Apple Watch, with a little juice left over.

There are a few features that set the Mobile Charging Station apart from other portable charging solutions, including a cord management system and a unique pop-up design that charges the Apple Watch in landscape mode and folds flat for travel, but on the downside, it is expensive and unattractive.

Design

Zagg's Mobile Charging Station is not an attractive accessory, but it is functional. Made from black plastic with red plastic accents, the Charging Station has a pop-up charging platform for the Apple Watch, allowing it to be charged in landscape mode, and it includes a built-in cable management system.

It's clear aesthetics weren't on the top of the priority list when it came to creating the Charging Station. It feels well made, but at the same time, the materials used feel cheap, and the thick black plastic certainly doesn't match or complement the iPhone or Apple Watch.

In a bag, backpack, or purse, the Charging Station is portable enough, but it's not pocketable due to its thickness. In width and height, it's similar in size to the iPhone 6s Plus, but it is more than twice as thick. It's all plastic, black outside and red inside, with a soft padded strip on the bottom to keep it from damaging desks and other surfaces.


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Article Link: Zagg's iPhone and Apple Watch Mobile Charging Station is Functional, but Not Pretty

 

[nazuk]

Fugly and expensive

 

[DCW]

For 80 bucks, this unit doesn't seem so bad - especially with the dual-charging capability.
I say this as someone who spent $119 for a Mophie JuicePack Pro, which only charges my phone. It does charge it from empty to full about three times, but still, all it does is Charge.My.Phone!

 

[dwaltwhit]

at $50 im a customer. $80? nahhhh

 

[Bubba Satori]

Functionality is very over rated. /s

 

[jmgregory1]

My idea would be to make the battery a sufficiently heavy rectangular base (which shouldn't be an issue given enough batteries are used), that has a pop-up Watch charging unit and a pop-up Lightning charger (a pivoting male Lightning plug). This way, you get a stand for both the iPhone and Watch without needing extra cables of any sort. And then make it charge using a Lightning cable, so that no micro USB is needed, figuring we all carry around an Apple Lightning cable anyway.

 

[CrAkD]

$80 is way y too much they should
Make something similar without the battery for cheap. When I don't sleep home I have to take my watch stand and cable my phone cable and 2 AV adapters I would spend $20 or so for an all in one I can just take with me.

 

[sinsin07]

Zagg thinks they're Apple.

They applied a Zagg tax.

 

[Bubba Satori]

Zagg thinks they're Apple.

They applied a Zagg tax.

When in Rome...
Third party love the huge margin coattails of the Apple ecosystem.
Think $9 Pencil cozy that costs $1 to make.
Apple accessories are a license to print money.

 

[sinsin07]

When in Rome...
Third party love the huge margin coattails of the Apple ecosystem.
Think $9 Pencil cozy that costs $1 to make.
Apple accessories are a license to print money.

In line with the above, another example from a different company of what can only be described as "sucker tax".

Meet the $9.50 dollar pencil cap.

It's a freakin pencil cap, but because it's for the Apple Pencil, there is that "sucker tax".

 

[Zimmy68]

These companies love Apple. I can see the marketing meeting now at Zagg...

Wait a minute, tell me again... we can charge full price for a charging solution and not provide any cables???
And people would be gullible enough to buy that???

 

[Arran]

In line with the above, another example from a different company of what can only be described as "sucker tax".

Meet the $9.50 dollar pencil cap.
View attachment 621168
It's a freakin pencil cap, but because it's for the Apple Pencil, there is that "sucker tax".

Also available in packs of 24 for $7.00 TOTAL. Each precision-engineered cap comes with a free pen:

 

[Mike Oxard]

I'd like to know how much MacRumors gets paid for writing these glowing reviews, it's obviously an advert! </sarcasm>

 

[Zimmy68]

Ummm, did you mean to quote the entire original post?
Anything to add???

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

They probably could have made a groove in the sides of the thing to wind their monstrous USB cable on it.

What kills me is that so many companies refuse to use the lightning cable for charging. It makes no sense, or very little sense. I have a raft of Apple cables, and have a mass of assorted USB cables, and not there are THREE different types of USB cables, and it's getting ridiculous having to haul around three different cables!

Whatever happened to the EU? Weren't they coming up with regulations requiring a single charging port for all devices? I was looking forward to that eventually eliminating so many of the cords.