REVIEW: Twelve South HiRise Stand for iPhone

REVIEW: Twelve South HiRise Stand for iPhone

Put yourself on a pedestal.

If you’re like me, you have trouble leaving your phone in random spots around your home and office. I’m normally a creature of habit, but for some reason I can’t seem to keep track of my phone. Add misplaced charging cables to the equation, and you have a recipe for digital disaster.

I decided to solve that problem a few months ago and researched every dock I could find for my shiny new iPhone 6. I knew the search was over the second I laid eyes on the Twelve South HiRise for iPhone.

What Does it Claim to Do?

Simply put, the HiRise is an elegantly designed aluminum pedestal that securely holds and charges your iPhone while you work. It claims to snugly hold your iPhone/iPad Mini in place with a solid aluminum body, no matter the case you use.

How does it perform? Read on to find out.

Look and Feel

The HiRise looks right at home on my desk next to my iMac, iPad, and every other aluminum clad Apple device. The components of the stand are precision milled and flawless in their construction. It also has a nice heft to it that keeps it anchored in place and makes it sturdy to add and remove my phone.

Performance and User Experience

The HiRise is currently one of my favorite gadgets in my office. My iPhone slides on and off with no trouble, and the gentle angle of the stand almost turns my iPhone into another tiny monitor; it’s extremely convenient to see notifications with a glance instead of digging through my desk every time I hear a ding.

The stand assembles in just a few minutes with the included guide and hardware. The folks at Twelve South thoughtfully include detailed instructions for threading your cable into the stand and using the correct spacer for your case. After it’s all assembled, the tip of the lightning cable is held tightly at the perfect angle to slide your iPhone on with ease. No more digging for cables behind your desk or fumbling with a wall wart.

Integration with Other Platforms

The HiRise is designed for iDevices, but a Deluxe version was recently released with support for the Micro USB standard (which is supported by most modern Android devices). Twelve South is historically an Apple accessory maker, so it’s hard to fault them too much for their allegiance.

Build Quality and Reliability

As I mentioned earlier, although some assembly is required at the outset, the pedestal is made from high-quality components and continues to feel extremely sturdy even months after I assembled it. The cable hasn’t budged at all, making it easy to charge my phone every time.

Affordability

The HiRise can be found for about $30 (average for a phone dock), with the Deluxe model available for double the price. I’d stick with the cheaper version unless you need support for Android.

Author

Eric is the creator of At Home in the Future and has been a passionate fan of the future since he was seven. He's a web developer by trade, and serves as the Director of Communication and Technology for a large church in Nashville, TN (where he and his family are building a high tech home in the woods).