Phone stand chargers make for neat desk decorations, but aren’t much use beyond the range of wall outlets. Portable batteries suffer from the opposite problem: they’re great on the go, but cumbersome when desk space is at a premium. So, thought aftermarket accessory company Ventev Mobile, why not merge the two?
The ChargeStand is, as the portmanteau suggests, a combination smartphone stand and external battery. Plug it in at the office and it acts like a cradle, resting your smartphone in portrait or landscape configuration on soft touch rubber as it charges. Fold the clamshell hinge, though, and it becomes a portable battery, reducing in footprint and switching to a 3,000 mAh internal cell for powering attached devices.
The obvious benefit is convergence. The ChargeStand ships with removable charging tips that fit both Android and Apple (it’s MFi certified) devices and, when folded, can fit easily in the pocket (2.35″ x 3.30″ x 1.25″ closed, 3.0″ tall when open). It recharges quickly — in 3-4 hours, Ventev says. And if you plug it into a computer, it’ll sync USB data.
There isn’t much in the way of customization right now — Ventev’s launching the ChargeStand as an IndieGogo campaign — but the model available to backers is inoffensively nondescript. It sports a gray outer shell and “glossy black” inside, an orange and black braided charging cable, and a silicon rubber anti-skid phone rest.
Ventev’s crowdfunding goal is $20,000 in 30 days, and it’s already well on its way. Considering the choice of the combination stand and battery chargers, that’s not surprising — Samsung and a few third parties sell battery-charging stands for the Galaxy and Note series of smartphones, but the selection is otherwise rather bare. It’s a surprisingly underserved market.
The ChargeCase starts at $29 for backers. It’ll jump to $59 when it hits retail sometime next year.
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