Tech
These 3-in-1 Wireless Chargers Can Juice Up Your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods at the Same Time
Other 3-in-1 Chargers to Consider
We have tested several other 3-in-1 Apple charging stations. Here are a few we liked:
Zens Office Charger Pro 3 for $104: I’m a fan of some of the interesting, out-of-the-box designs that Zens turns out, but this 3-in-1, while well-made and perfectly functional, doesn’t really stand out. It’s Qi2 certified (15W for iPhone, 5W for Apple Watch, 5W for AirPods), looks nice, and comes with the cable and charger, though it has a barrel port.
Lululook 3-in-1 Charging Station for $76: This is a perfectly competent 3-in-1 with Qi2 certification (15W for iPhone, 5W for Apple Watch, 5W for AirPods). It’s compact, you can angle the iPhone pad, and I like the gold finish of my review unit, but I prefer the Twelve South above, or the ESR if you don’t want to spend as much.
Aukey MagFusion 3-in-1 Pro for $130: Devices get warm when charging wirelessly, and heat is the enemy of battery health, so you may want built-in cooling. Aukey’s MagFusion 3-in-1 Pro resembles a microphone, with a handy adjustable magnetic pad for iPhones that includes a fan to keep things cool. There’s an indent behind it to charge your Apple Watch (the strap droops around) and a spot on the base for AirPods. The fan inevitably makes some noise, but there’s a button on top to quieten it when you want to sleep.
Otterbox 3-in-1 Charging Station With Magsafe for $50: Folks seeking a more compact option will appreciate this solid aluminum 3-in-1 charging station from Otterbox. It can charge all your Apple gadgets (15W for iPhone, 5W for Apple Watch, 5W for AirPods) and comes with a 6.6-foot cable and a 36-watt wall charger. The integrated Apple Watch charger allows for Nightstand mode, but it is the weak link here, and I sometimes find that my watch twists slightly.
UAG 3-in-1 Travel and Desktop Charger for $170: This was close to earning a recommendation until I clocked the price. It’s a very smart 3-in-1 charging kit that folds flat and comes in a snazzy zip-up bag with a 4-foot braided USB-C cable and 25-watt power adapter, including plugs for the US, UK, and Europe. You can prop your iPhone at different angles on the MagSafe stand, and it works well with StandBy mode and Nightstand mode for your Apple Watch, but it’s not Qi2 certified, so you won’t get the stated 15-watt charging for an iPhone. Ultimately, it’s just too damn expensive.
Aukey MagFusion Z Qi2 3-in-1 Foldable Charging Station for $58: This clever 3-in-1 charging station folds flat very neatly and feels durable, but it’s kinda heavy for travel. I found my Apple Watch tended to list to one side on the charger and didn’t work with Nightstand mode unless I folded it above the main charger, which is also the position required for the iPhone to sit in landscape orientation for StandBy mode.
Journey Glyde 4-in-1 Portable Charger for $170: Reviews editor Adrienne So almost voted for this multidevice MagSafe power bank to get a separate recommendation until she noticed the price. It’s a 10,000-mAh-capacity power bank that can charge up to four devices at a time and uses the Qi2 charging standard. However, our pick for this spot is so much cheaper, and the Glyde does not have a kickstand.
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Photograph: Simon Hill
Woodie Milano Foldie for $131: Combining Nappa leather with aluminum and glass, this 3-in-1 charger folds neatly away and looks very stylish. There’s a circular MagSafe iPhone charging pad (15 watts), a central pad for AirPods, and you can charge your Apple Watch flat or pop the charger up for Nightstand mode. You can also fold it into a wedge shape to charge your iPhone in StandBy mode with your Apple Watch on the back. You get a USB-C cable in the box, but you’ll need your own wall charger.
Scosche Baselynx 2.0 Modular Charging Station for $75: What if three spots are not enough? Scosche has you covered with this modular charging station. The basic stand is a 2-in-1 for your iPhone and AirPods, but you can add an Apple Watch charger ($70), a toast rack-style vertical station with USB-C ports ($70), or even an AC outlet with USB-C port ($40). The trouble is, it gets quite big and expensive as you add modules, and I don’t love the way it looks, but it’s a neat idea.
Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 MagSafe-Compatible Wireless Charging Pad for $80: Support for Qi2 offers magnetic alignment for your iPhone and charging at 15 watts, and there’s a spot for AirPods on this compact double pad. A USB-C port allows you to charge something else, such as an Apple Watch, and you get a 5-foot USB-C cable and 30W power supply in the box. There is also a 3-in-1 pad ($90) that adds an Apple Watch charger on the right side.
QDOS SnapStand 3-in-1 for £80: This clever design feels sturdy and comes flat, and you can fold out and angle a magnetic pad for charging your iPhone (StandBy mode works fine). There’s a pop-out Apple Watch charger around the back, and the base has a pad for your AirPods. You get a black USB-C cable, but you’ll need a charger (at least 25W). I like that it’s partly made from recycled materials, and it folds away very neatly, but the charging speeds are relatively slow (7.5 watts for the iPhone and 2.5 watts for the Apple Watch).
Kuxiu Foldable Magnetic Wireless Charging Station for $80: With a very similar design to the QDOS above, but more functional-looking and squarer, this fold-out charger also has a magnetic pad for your iPhone (StandBy mode works), a fold-out Apple Watch charger in the middle, and a pad on the base for your AirPods. It comes with a USB-C cable and a 20-watt wall charger. The X40Q linked here is Qi2 certified, but the identical-looking X40Q is not.
Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 Wireless Charging Dock with MagSafe for $96: This was our old 2-in-1 pick for iPhone and Apple Watch. I like the soft-touch finish, the pad on top can move through 70 degrees, and the shelf for your Apple Watch works with any strap. The braided USB-C cable is permanently attached, but you get a 30-watt wall charger in the box. I don’t remember having issues when I first tested, but using it again, I found the weight of the camera end of my iPhone 14 Pro caused it to slowly droop when in StandBy mode. It’s also kinda pricey.
Anker 737 MagGo Charger for $90: This MagSafe 3-in-1 is sturdy and holds my iPhone 14 Pro securely. Support for landscape makes it a nice way to take advantage of StandBy mode to turn your iPhone into a bedside clock, but it does block easy access to the Apple Watch. It can fast-charge at 15 watts and comes with a power adapter and cable. It can be hard to grab the AirPods out of there, especially if you have an AirPods protective case installed. I just shove a finger from the other direction and push it out. The other slight disappointment is that the Apple Watch charger doesn’t support fast charging.
Twelve South Butterfly 2-in-1 MagSafe Charger for $100: This is an uber compact 2-in-1 charger that looks like a hockey puck. Open the Butterfly and you’ll find two pads that are attached via a rubbery silicone material. You can fast-charge an Apple Watch on one—even pop the charger up to take advantage of Nightstand mode— and the other circle lets you recharge your MagSafe iPhone at 15 watts. It’s a super compact solution, and Twelve South includes a 30-watt charger and cable with international plug adapters.
Native Union Voyage 2-in-1 MagSafe Charger for $100: For a slightly cheaper price, reviews editor Adrienne So also likes Native Union’s Qi2 butterfly solution, which doesn’t come with plug adapters but does come in a tidy travel pouch and has a cable.
Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Station Stand for $80: This good-looking 3-in-1 charging tree is more affordable than our top pick, boasts Qi2 certification for 15-watt charging, and comes with a charger and cable. It just misses out on a place above because of the offset pad for the Apple Watch. It is slippery, so your Apple Watch may tilt, though I never had an issue with it not charging. Anker included stickers to combat this, but they are a fiddly and inelegant solution. It’s also a shame that the main pad for your iPhone is fixed, so you can’t adjust the angle. But these are minor gripes.
Mophie 3-in-1 Travel Charger With MagSafe for $75: This little travel kit comes with a felt carrying case, charging brick, and USB-C cable, and was our previous top travel pick. The square stack unfolds to reveal three wireless chargers in one elongated pad. The iPhone sticks magnetically to the center (15 watts), and the Apple Watch dock supports Nightstand mode (this 2023 model supports fast charging too). There’s a grooved spot for the AirPods. It feels great, is compact, and is pretty lightweight all around.
ESR HaloLock 3-in-1 Travel Wireless Charging Set for $20: This is a decent travel kit at a reasonable price. You can prop your iPhone in portrait or landscape orientation, display your Apple Watch in Nightstand mode (if you turn it backward), and there is a pad for AirPods. It folds with the included cable and wall charger in a faux leather pouch. Sadly, it only charges iPhones at 7.5 watts.
Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe for $100: This dinky, dense, 2.5-inch cube from Anker was our previous compact pick. It has a MagSafe pad on top (15 watts), and the top section hinges to a 60-degree angle, revealing a charging surface for your AirPods. The wee pop-out shelf on the side has a built-in Apple Watch fast charger. You get a 5-foot cable and a 30-watt charger in the box.
Satechi 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand for $93: This compact, attractive 3-in-1 is a little smaller than the Belkin, so it doesn’t take up too much room, and it folds down compactly for travel. The aluminum build is attractive and sturdy (the iPhone mount is made of stainless steel). This is on review editor Adrienne So’s bedside table, and it recharges her Apple Watch Ultra 2 from 70 percent to full in around 30 minutes.
Case-Mate Fuel 3-in-1 Foldable for $77: Finished in a classy gray material, this 3-in-1 charges an iPhone in a case or any Qi smartphone, and it’s easy to fold flat and pack in a bag. It also has a built-in Apple Watch charger and a spot for AirPods. A cable and a 45-watt charger are included. I also tested the solid Case-Mate Fuel 4-in-1 ($150), which is quite good, but the unnecessary LEDs and Fuel logo put me off.
iOttie Velox Duo for $35: This was our 2-in-1 pick for a while. The black and gold combo looks great, the magnet is strong, and there’s a weighted base. On the downside, it only charges iPhones at up to 7.5 watts. The permanently attached USB-C cable is a good length, but you do have to provide a wall adapter.
Avoid These Chargers
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Photograph: Simon Hill
Not every charger will be a winner. Here are the ones we didn’t like.
Mous Travel Charger: While the compact folding nature of this charger and the low price impressed me, it gets kinda warm when you charge all three of your Apple devices, and the AirPods spot is finicky.
Infinacore T3 Pro: The T3 Pro is a 3-in-1 stand that looks and feels very cheap, and it got warm when charging my iPhone. Its saving grace is that it is cheap. It also has Qi2 certification and works with StandBy mode. I also tried the fold-out triple pad Infinacore T3 Wireless Charging Station. Aside from the ugly plastic design, the weak magnets meant it did not work well when folded into the triangular configuration (this also blocks a pad).
Groov-e Asteria Wireless Charging Station with Alarm Clock: There’s a wee clock on the front of this charging station, which can accommodate an iPhone, earpods on a pad around back, and an Apple Watch up top. It feels and looks very cheap, slides around a little too easily, the magnet is weak, and the clock seems redundant when you can set your iPhone in StandBy mode. I also tried the Triton 3-in-1 folding pad (£20), and it was okay. They are very affordable, but you must provide your own power adapter.
Zike 3-in-1 Z557C Stand: This 3-in-1 charger works perfectly well, but there are several better options above. The iPhone pad allows for StandBy mode but is not adjustable. The Apple Watch pad flips up or can be laid flat, and there’s a spot for AirPods on the gray felt pad. It has a barrel port, so you must use the power adapter supplied, but what I really dislike about this charger is the ridiculously bright and utterly pointless white LED on the front that stays on the entire time.
Alogic Matrix Ultimate: This 3-in-1 charger has a folding design, supports fast charging, includes a detachable 5,000-mAh power bank, and comes with a nice pouch, but it is kinda bulky, and the white finish picks up dust and smudges very easily. I have also had issues with other Alogic batteries failing and not supplying the stated capacity.
STM Goods ChargeTree Go: This charging tree station folds flat and can charge a trio of Apple gadgets. But there’s no quick-charge support, my Apple Watch kept sliding out of place during the night, and there’s no adapter included. It’s not cheap either.
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Tech
The Catastrophic Swatch x Audemars Piguet Launch Was Entirely Predictable and Utterly Avoidable
The note from the communications team then, quite remarkably, lists some stats in an attempt to paint the launch in a positive light, as opposed the retail bin-fire it seemingly was: “We have received millions of clicks on our website. This new collaboration is literally making social media explode, with over 6 billion views within one week; by now, it is already 11 billion. All in all, the Royal Pop Collection is captivating the entire world, not least because the Royal Pop is, quite surprisingly, not a wristwatch.”
Audemars Piguet seems unhappy with how Swatch has handled the launch of its collaboration on the Royal Pop. AP told WIRED that “we understand the questions around the Royal Pop launch experience. As retail operations are handled by Swatch and their local teams, Swatch is best placed to comment on the operational handling of the launch. From AP’s perspective, safety and a positive experience for clients and teams remain the priority.” The brand did not respond when asked if it considered Swatch’s handling of the Royal Pop launch a “safe and positive experience”.
The madness of the Royal Pop launch is that, considering all that could have been learned from the MoonSwatch release in 2022, Swatch decided to repeat the playbook that went so badly wrong four years ago. This is a move, according to experts, that was entirely avoidable and utterly unnecessary.
Hype With No Control
“Luxury drops cannot rely on surprise, scarcity and social frenzy as the strategy, then act surprised when human behaviour follows,” says Kate Hardcastle, author of The Science of Shopping and advisor to brands including Disney, Mastercard, Klarna and American Express. “Retailers are already dealing with heightened tensions around theft, aggression and crowd management globally. Add a highly restricted product, long queues, resale economics, social media amplification and the emotional intensity attached to luxury access, and the environment can escalate very quickly if not expertly managed.”
Hardcastle confirms that what is particularly difficult for Swatch here is that the MoonSwatch launch already provided a live blueprint of the risks. “Once a brand has experienced scenes involving crowd surges, disappointment and policing,” she says, “the obligation shifts from reacting to proactively engineering a safer customer experience. Successful luxury houses increasingly control the experience with far greater precision.”
Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at Global Data, is even more candid. “The chaos does not reflect well on Swatch, and it probably makes Audemars Piguet wonder what on Earth it has gotten itself into,” he says. “Wanting to create some hype is understandable, but not being able to control it becomes damaging both commercially and for the brand image. Swatch should understand this better than most as it has been through this before with MoonSwatch.”
Not only Saunders and Hardcastle, but scores of commenters on Swatch’s Instagram post, point out well-known and obvious solutions that would have mitigated or entirely avoided the Royal Pop’s shambolic release.
“We have seen other premium or limited launches use staggered collection windows, verified appointment systems, geo-ticketing, VIP allocation tiers, timed QR access, private client previews and controlled queue technology to reduce volatility while preserving excitement,” says Hardcastle, adding that some combine digital ballots with curated in-store experiences so consumers feel part of an occasion rather than participants in a scramble.
Anyone who has had chickenpox shares one distinct memory: the relentless, all-consuming itch.
Ciara DiVita was only 3 years old when she caught the virus, but she remembers it well—along with the oven mitts she was made to wear to stop herself scratching. She also recalls being taken to hang out with her cousin while covered in blisters, in the hopes of deliberately infecting them.
DiVita, now 30, was actually the second in the chain, having been taken by her parents to catch chickenpox from an infectious friend. “I imagine the chain continued and my cousin gave it to someone else at a chickenpox play date,” she says.
A lot has changed over the past three decades, most notably the development of a chickenpox vaccine, meaning the virus is no longer the childhood rite of passage it once was.
Thanks to the vaccine’s success, children today are much less likely to be exposed to the infection at school or on the playground.
Chickenpox parties are also largely considered a relic of the past—a strategy many Gen X and millennial children were subjected to before vaccines became routine. But much like the virus itself—latent, opportunistic—they haven’t disappeared entirely.
Before a vaccine existed, chickenpox, which is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, felt unavoidable. In temperate countries like the UK and the US, around 90 percent of children caught the virus before adolescence (in tropical countries the average age of infection is higher).
It’s nothing to do with chickens. The splotchy, scratchy, highly contagious disease is possibly named after the French word for chickpea, pois chiche, according to one theory, because the round bumps caused by the virus resemble their size and shape. While most infant cases are mild, adolescents and adults are more likely to develop severe complications.
This is where the idea of “getting it over and done with” emerged from, according to Maureen Tierney, associate dean of clinical research and public health at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.
“You were trying to have your child get the disease when they were at the greatest chance of not having complications,” Tierney says, explaining that, generally speaking, the older the patient, the more severe the infection can be.
While varicella-zoster is usually a mild, self-limiting disease in children, it can be much more severe—and sometimes life-threatening—in adults.
“I had an otherwise healthy adult patient who died of chickenpox pneumonia when I was first practicing,” Tierney says. “You never forget those scenarios.”
The virus spreads rapidly through respiratory droplets and contact with fluid from its characteristic blisters, meaning if one child contracts it, siblings and classmates are likely to be next, if unvaccinated.
Before the existence of social media, the idea that children should deliberately infect each other spread just as rapidly around communities—in conversations in the school yard, church groups, and pediatric waiting rooms—leading to the popularity of so-called chickenpox parties.
Parents swapped advice about oatmeal baths and calamine lotion and arranged to bring children together when one was thought to be infectious—despite the practice never being an official medical recommendation.
“They thought, well, if it’s going to happen to my kid anyway, it might as well happen in a controlled environment,” says Monica Abdelnour, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. “The families were ready to encounter this infection, deal with it, and then move on.”
While the majority of children who develop chickenpox feel well again within a week or two, around three in every 1,000 infected experience a severe complication such as pneumonia, serious bacterial skin infections, encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), or meningitis.
In 1996, Guinea-Bissau seemed like an ideal research post for budding pediatrician Lone Graff Stensballe. Her supervisor, a fellow Dane named Peter Aaby, had spent nearly two decades collecting data on 100,000 people living in the mud brick homes of the West African country’s capital.
Aaby and his partner, Christine Stabell Benn, believed that the years of research in the impoverished country had yielded a major discovery about vaccines—and what they described as “non-specific effects”: The measles and tuberculosis vaccines, which were derived from live, weakened viruses and bacteria, they said, boosted child survival beyond protecting against those particular pathogens.
But, the scientists said, shots made from deactivated whole germs, or pieces of them, such as the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) shot, caused more deaths—especially in little girls—than getting no vaccine at all.
The World Health Organization repeatedly and inconclusively examined these astonishing findings. They tended to elicit shrugs from other global health researchers, who found Aaby’s research techniques unusual and his results generally impossible to replicate.
Then came Donald Trump, Covid, and the administrative reign of anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Suddenly, Aaby and Benn weren’t just sending up distant smoke signals from a far corner of the planet. They were confidently voicing their views and policy prescriptions online and in medical journals. The “framework” for “testing, approving, and regulating vaccines needs to be updated to accommodate non-specific effects,” their team wrote in a 2023 review.
And the Trump administration has taken notice.
“They became more strident in saying that their findings were real and that the world needed to do something about it,” said Kathryn Edwards, a Vanderbilt University vaccinologist who has been aware of Aaby’s work since the 1990s. “And they became more aligned with RFK.”
Kennedy, as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, cited one of Aaby’s papers to justify slashing $2.6 billion in US support for Gavi, a global alliance of vaccination initiatives. The cut could result in 1.2 million preventable deaths over five years in the world’s poorest countries, the nonprofit agency has estimated. Kennedy has frozen $600 million in current Gavi funding over largely debunked vaccine safety claims.
Kennedy described the 2017 paper as a “landmark study” by “five highly regarded mainstream vaccine experts” that found that girls who received a diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, or DTP, shot were 10 times more likely to die from all causes than unvaccinated children.
In fact, the study was far too small to confidently make such assertions, as Benn acknowledged. In a study of historical data that included 535 girls, four of those vaccinated against DTP in a three-month period of infancy died of unrelated causes, while one unvaccinated girl died during that period. A follow-up published by the same group in 2022 found that the DTP shot by itself had no effect on mortality. Critics say the 2017 study, rather than being a landmark, exemplified the troubling shortfalls they perceive in the Danish team’s research.
As Aaby and Benn’s US profile has risen, scientists in Denmark have set upon the work of their compatriots. In news and journal articles published over the past 18 months, Danish statisticians and infectious disease experts have said the duo’s methods were unorthodox, even shoddy, and were structured to support preconceived views. A national scientific board is investigating their work.
Stensballe, who worked with Aaby and Benn for 20 years, has been among those voicing doubts.
“It took years to see what I see clearly today, that there is a strange concerning pattern in their work,” Stensballe said in a phone interview from Copenhagen, where she treats children at Rigshospitalet, the city’s largest teaching hospital. She said their work is full of confirmation bias—favoring interpretations that fit their hypotheses.
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