This week's Tech Yeah comes to us from a company called Raptic. It's the Raptic Rise headphone stand, and I know what you're thinking. "A headphone stand dude? Really?" There's a reason for that. This headphone stand comes with a Qi Charger in the base of it. Now is that the most amazeballs thing you've ever heard of? No, but it's a huge space saver for me. I use headphones a lot. Having a headphone stand is a great advantage, and having one with a wireless charging pad in the base (which would have taken up space anyway) is pretty valuable and that's what this is.
The base of the stand is a heavy plastic/metal combo with a sort of faux leather on the charging pad which charges at 12W. There's a single LED indicator on the front that lights up when a phone is charging. The stand is metal that attaches to the base and has a nice rubber coating at the top to keep the headphones in place. The headphone stand is powered by the included USB-C plug and cable, which honestly could be a little longer. The back of the base also has an extra USB-A plug that you can use to charge another device if you want.
There's a bit of branding on the bottom of the metal bracket that holds the headphones, but other than that, this is a very attractive unit that is pretty and very functional. It's a bit on the pricey side at just under $70, but that's kinda worth it for me, because of the multi-functions going on here. Having a Qi pad, plus a headphone stand, plus an extra USB-A port all together in one unit is pretty tempting at $70.
Raptic also used to make a separate headphone stand that included a watch charger right below the part where the headphones rest. That's fun, and it gave me an idea. I headed over to Home Depot and for about 50 cents, I bought the bolt, nut, and washers I needed to bolt my own Samsung Galaxy Watch charging stand to the headphone stand. I plugged the watch charger into the extra USB-A port on the back of the Raptic Rise stand and just like that I had a triple-duty headphone stand. The headphones rest on the plate on top, the watch rests inside the circle of the headphones, and the phone rests on the Qi plate on the base. That's pretty killer and that's why i love this stand. But even without the extra watch charger, this is a very worthwhile purchase if you use over-ear headphones and have a phone that charges with Qi. As always, there's a link to buy the stand below and if you pick one up, you'll be helping out at no extra cost to you.