Oh man, take a look at this. It’s the Belkin Boost Up, a wireless charging dock for the iPhones 8 and X. It is a product that is either awesome or ridiculous, depending on how you look at it.

The Belkin Boost Up

When I first saw the Boost Up, it seemed utterly ridiculous. Isn’t the whole point of a charging pad that you can just drop the phone onto it? But after reading a little more, and considering the use cases, the dock seems to fix or mitigate everything wrong with induction charging, actually making me see the point of connector-free chargers.

The Belkin Boost Up is an induction pad (aka. “wireless” charger) in a stand, which angles the pad on your desktop. Most charging pads lay horizontal, so you can just drop the phone onto them. But that’s about all you can do, because you can’t pick up the iPhone and use it like you can when you charge with a cable. Propping the iPhone up in a dock is a great idea, because you can poke at the screen, and see notifications, all while it charges.

Smart fixes

The dock solves another problem of using a charging pad, which is that a phone can vibrate itself out of the ideal charging position, leaving you with a dead battery when you pick sit up to leave the house or office. The Boost Up has a U-shaped base which cradles the iPhone, and puts it in the ideal position for charging, while also stopping it from wandering. You can also prop your iPhone on there in landscape orientation, but without the safety guard.

Finally, the Boost Up isn’t just for iPhones. It also works with Samsung devices, or any other Qi-enabled device. This means that a single dock can be used for any phone, without having to worry about microUSB or Lightning cables. And unlike docks with connectors, you can easily lift your iPhone out, instead of having to yank it free of a tight Lightning plug.

In all, the Boost Up seems quite decent. It’ll be available in Spring/Summer of 2018.