Desk real estate is always at a premium at DRN. There is no shortage of review kits and gadgets on my desk, along with two kids worth of stuff that it taking over what space I have. The challenge is what to do with my headphones, and how do I most efficiently have them on hand whilst staying largely off my desk?
The Satechi 2-in-1 Headphone Stand with Wireless Charger seems to fit the bill.
First Impressions
The Satechi comes in a flat pack and a little bit of assembly is required. There are just the two steps: insert the riser into the base plate, use the supplied hex screw and Allen key to screw it in. It looks simple enough.
The base plate is a piano black affair, at least on the top surface. A silver grey trim breaks the monotony. It is not overly heavy but enough weight to not be easily knocked or shifted.
The charging area is raised up by about 5mm and is slightly rubberised to give it some grip.
The riser is a silver L shaped bar. Where the headphone rests is indented with rubberised, again to provide some grip.
A rubber cable management sleeve is mounted about halfway along the riser.
In Use
Putting the 2-in-1 Headphone Stand with together took a little more effort than one would expect. The screw was unexpectedly difficult to thread and the screw material was too soft. This resulted in the hex socket being stripped during installation. In the end I could never quite get the screw quite tight enough to not have some movement on the riser.
Pushing on never the less, it does not affect the functionality of the product itself.
There are two USB-C ports on the back of the base plate, one for power in and one for power out. The unit comes with a USB-C cable but no power adaptor. A 20W unit is available separately if you don’t have something spare lying around.
In order to provide charge to your headphones, you will need to self provide a second cable. Bearing in mind it is a USB-C socket, you will need to have the correct ends.
There is no doubt that wireless charging is convenient, but on the 2-in-1 it is only rated up to 10W. It is fair to middling, and as a technology we are a long way from replicating a cabled charging speed.
Satechi made claims that it is only compatible with Apple products, but the device had no issues working with my Pixels. As long as your device has Qi wireless charging capability, you should have no issues with the it. But for something that is specifically called out to be compatible from iPhone 12 Mini to iPhone 14 Pro Max, I would have thought Satechi would push it to 15W.
There is little to complain about the response time either, it takes no time for the phone to detect the charging pad and get going. In one of my tests, the phone indicated that it would charge from 76% to full in 42 minutes.
The headphone holder itself works just fine. The rubberised strip holds headphone securely without slippage. You can rock the headphone side to side but it was never in danger of falling off.
Gripes
I am going to put the screw issue as just bad luck on the unit. It is not budging either way, tightening or loosening, no matter what I try.
The wireless charging pad is limited to 10W. Nothing wrong with that if you intend to do it overnight and preserve your battery health. If you are in a rush then it isn’t going to give you much of a boost quickly.
This one is less of a gripe but a design choice, the positioning of everything means you have to put your phone down sideways for the wireless charging coil to work.
The website and the packaging both states 7.5W for wireless charging. The bottom of the unit itself clearly indicates 5W, 7.5W and 10W. Judging by my tests, it runs at 10W with my Pixel.
Conclusions
The gloss black finish is a fingerprint magnet, but overall the 2in-1 looks the goods. It gets the headphone out of the way and rather than having a single-use device, you can put your phone underneath to charge.
If you are the type to be desk bound mostly, then by all means have the phone on the wireless charger to keep the juice flowing.
At RRP $139, the Satechi 2-in-1 Headphone Stand with Wireless Charger is not a cheap proposition. I would be more inclined to recommend it if it was rated to 15W, after all we we all time poor. As it stands though, it is a nice to have device but not compelling.
DRN would like to thank Satechi for providing the review unit.
Specifications
Compatible Devices: Compatible with the AirPods Max, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Mini, iphone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, AirPods Pro, AirPods with wireless charging case and rechargeable headphones.
Connector Type: USB-C
USB-C cable included, 20W power adapter sold separately.
iPhone 12/13 – up to 7.5W
AirPods Max – 5W
