![]() Although the door itself worked fine otherwise. It’s supposed to lock in place at an angle, but I found the mechanism and stand a bit flimsy, and didn’t want to use it and risk breaking the door entirely. The door on the front of the unit is made to function as a built-in stand for propping up a phone or tablet. And there is a gap in between the two lower shelves that gives you room for taller devices like a smallish camera or game controller. The opening in the back of the unit means you can run a cable from the Cove’s USB port up to the top for a camera or other devices. The weight of those devices makes the top sink in slightly (pictured above), so that’s something to keep in mind if going any heavier. Technically the top of the unit can act as a fourth shelf, and I’ve been keeping a hard drive and my MacBook and camera there. ![]() It would have been nice if all shelves were able to slide out like the top shelf- the two bottom shelves are stationary. It makes seeing what’s in there a bit difficult for smaller devices, but that would likely be less of an issue if the unit was at eye-level (I’m keeping mine underneath my desk lower to the ground). The one complaint I have with the design of the shelves is how deep the two lower shelves sit back from the front. For the MacBook you’d of course need to snake in a separate power supply, which the Cove allows thanks to an opening in the back of the unit. The two lower shelves are big enough to hold an iPad Pro or 12-inch MacBook. Cord management is up to you here when it comes to neatness, but the small plastic tray in front of the USB ports gives you somewhere to hide excess cord wraps if you have cables that are too long (I’m using velcro cord wraps like these). A small padded platform to the right is big enough to hold a smartphone or two. The ports are located on the left of the top shelf where there is also a small plastic tray big enough to keep a smartphone or a few smartwatches. The idea is that from here you can plug in your USB cables of varying lengths and snake them through an opening in the top shelf of the Cove to each of your devices resting on the shelves below and beside: A single power cord on the back of the unit powers the USB ports, and it isn’t attached to a separate and bulky brick adapter like some of these products, everything is inside the Cove. The top shelf slides out to reveal five USB ports with 12W each on the right, allowing you to charge up to 5 iPhones, iPads or a combination simultaneously. The Cove has three shelves inside to hold your devices. The unit, which measures 16.8″ x 12.8″ x 7″, functions well and is otherwise fairly sturdy, although it will probably feel a bit on the cheap and thin side if you were expecting real wood. It’s actually plastic that feels much like the white plastic on the bottom half of the unit that meets the faux wood. It comes in birch (the color I reviewed), ebony, and walnut color options, and it does a pretty good job of looking like real wood, but it’s not. Griffin’s Cove charging station takes a different approach by offering a self-contained shelving unit with built-in USB ports that can hold just about all of my devices that need charging.Ĭove is stylish enough to look good just about anywhere in your house an office, kitchen counter, or in a living room next to not-so-techy decor, and that was one of the company’s main goals. Little to no extra room for my many other devices– my MacBook, camera, external batteries, smartwatches, etc– meant the majority of my devices were still a mess. I was never satisfied with the crop of charging station products for iPhones and iPads that mostly all use the same design with slots to accommodate tablets and smartphones. ![]()
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