What do you do with your Apple Watch and iPhone when you go to bed at night? If you are like me, you keep them close to your bed, such as on a nightstand, so that they are with easy reach as you go to bed and when you wake up. And of course you want to charge your devices every night. You can just use their charging cords to do so, but then the cords fall off of the table when you are not using them and everything gets messy. The solution is to have a dock to hold those cords and charge your iPhone or Apple Watch — or better yet, both. The Material Dock by Studio Neat is a charger made to be used on a nightstand or desk. It comes in two versions, one for just the iPhone ($45), and one for both the iPhone and Apple Watch ($70). Studio Neat sent me a free sample of the iPhone and Apple Watch model to review, and I've been using it for a few weeks now. I really like this dock. It has a few drawbacks that for some folks will make something like the Spigen Apple Watch Night Stand (which I reviewed last year) a better option, but it has some advantages too, such as its professional appearance and the ability to charge both an iPhone and an Apple Watch.
The Material Dock is an attractive dock. The base is made of solid walnut and has a matte finish. The part that holds up an iPhone or Apple Watch is made of cork. Unless that lighter wood color scheme doesn't work in your room, I think that most folks would consider this a very professional looking product, whether it is used in a bedroom on a nightstand or in an office on a desk. The wood is a nice contrast to the glass and metal of the iPhone and Apple Watch. And these materials are also environmentally friendly and recyclable.
The two guys behind Studio Neat — Dan Provost and Tom Gerhardt — have designed lots of other interesting products for the iPhone (plus some cool cocktail tools), and they have a podcast with Myke Hurley called Thoroughly Considered. On episode 18, they have an interesting discussion of the design and production of this product, including how they selected the wood, cork, and other materials used to make this.
The dock holds your iPhone in the middle. The dock holds your Apple Watch in the front, and has a round shape which allows the band to naturally curve around the dock. And unlike some docks that hold your Apple Watch with the buttons on the side, Studio Neat positions the Apple Watch with its buttons on top, which is the orientation that lets you use the Nightstand mode. The nightstand mode is incredibly useful when an Apple Watch is charging because you can see the time, date and other information. I would never want to use a dock for the Apple Watch that lacked this orientation.
It is very easy to place the iPhone in the dock. And you can be very casual about placing the watch on the dock; the magnet always puts the Apple Watch where it needs to be. Even when the lights are turned off in my bedroom, I find it easy to put both of my devices on the Material Dock.
The Material Dock has some assembly required, but it is incredibly easy to do, and the Studio Neat website has pictures and videos that walk you through the process. Here is what you get in the box:
What you don't get are the cords necessary to charge your devices. You have to supply a Lightning cable to charge your iPhone, and you have to supply the Apple Watch charging cord to charge your watch. However, you do get everything else that you need, including even a small (and very high quality) screwdriver.
The cork that holds the iPhone up is adjustable. This means that you can adjust the distance between the Lightning connector and the back of the iPhone, so the Material Dock can support an iPhone with virtually any case on it. The instructions explain how to keep the middle cork loose, then slide it close to your iPhone, and then tighten the screws so that in the future it is a perfect fit. I sometimes use Apple's leather case on my iPhone, so I configured the dock for that case. But I also find that when I'm not using the case, the dock still holds up my iPhone just fine.
The bottom of the Material Dock has groves to hold both of the cords in precisely the right position. There are other fasteners that ensure that the Lightning connector on the top of the unit is very sturdy and won't move around as you are putting your iPhone on and off of the dock. Likewise, the Apple Watch charger is firmly in place.
The net result is that both chargers work perfectly in this dock. But there is a downside: it is cumbersome to remove the cords from the Material Dock, so I suspect that you will want to just keep them there all of the time. I suspect that many iPhone J.D. readers already have lots of Lightning cords, but you may only have one Apple Watch charging cord. Thus, if you use this dock with the cord that came with your Apple Watch, you'll probably want to spend $29 for an extra Apple Watch charging cord to use when you travel. On the podcast episode that I mentioned above, the guys at Studio Neat explained that they looked into buying third party cords to include with the device, but they were unsatisfied with the quality compared to the superior cords made by Apple. Thus, they decided that it was better to ask folks to use their Apple cords with the Material Dock (and buy new ones if necessary) to end up with a high quality dock. I think that this was the right decision, but if you need to buy an extra Apple Watch charging cord you might think of this as a $99 product instead of a $70 product.
Contrast this to the Spigen Apple Watch Night Stand that I really like; it is super easy to remove the Apple Watch charging cable from that stand, so you don't need to have an extra charging cable for when you are away from home.
The bottom of the Material Dock has a micro-suction pad. It does an excellent job of holding the dock steady on a flat surface. I placed the Material Dock on the nightstand next to my bed, and it is very sturdy. Even though the Lightning connector holds my iPhone very well, I can remove my iPhone just using one hand and the base never moves. It just works.
Because micro-suction is just a bunch of tiny suction cups, you can remove the Material Dock without leaving any sticky residue on the surface of your table. I had no trouble moving the Material Dock when I pulled up the dock slowly. Note, however, that I see that Josh Centers posted a review of this product for TidBITS, and he reported:
The Material Dock perhaps sticks a little too well. I had to remove it to make some adjustments, and it took some of my nightstand’s finish with it! My nightstand is kind of beat up anyway, but you might not want to place the Material Dock on any family heirlooms.
I don't know anything about the nature of the nightstand that Josh Centers was using, and again, I didn't see this problem at all.
The Material Dock has a few drawbacks; you may need to buy an extra cord (or two) to use it, and depending upon the surface to which you are attaching the dock, I suppose you might need to be careful about moving it. But otherwise, this is an excellent product. I have been very happy using the Material Dock on the nightstand next to my bed for the last few weeks, so much so that I don't think I'll go back to the Spigen stand. It is just so convenient to have both the iPhone and Apple Watch in a central location on a nice looking stand. Plus, it keeps your two devices in a compact location, so they are not sprawled out all over your nightstand or desk. If you are looking for a sturdy, attractive dock for both your iPhone and Apple Watch, one that works well and keeps your Apple Watch in the correct orientation to use the Nightstand feature, you should definitely consider this product.
