HiRise 3 Deluxe review: A luxurious, Apple-blessed MagSafe charger
On the heels of Apple's iPhone 15 announcement, on Thursday, Twelve South released an all-new MagSafe multi-charger with a handsome appearance and fast speeds.
Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe
The new HiRise 3 Deluxe can power up three devices while occupying only a small footprint on your tabletop. Plop down your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods to charge all your daily gear.
It's full of useful features such as adjustable charging surfaces and almost no plastic to be found. The company is also following Apple's footprint in ditching leather for eco-friendly alternatives.
Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe on shelf
Let's dig into the details.
HiRise 3 Deluxe review: Design
We're smitten with the simple, clean, luxurious design of the HiRise 3 Deluxe. It uses premium materials and is well-designed for your desk or nightstand.
HiRise 3 Deluxe review: metal and vegan leather base
It uses a nearly all-black finish, something Apple does with its "pro" or high-end products. The base is metal with raised silicone feet and a soft-touch vegan leather surface.
HiRise 3 Deluxe review: AirPods 3 charging
You can charge your AirPods or AirPods Pro on the back of the charger, tucking them behind the elevated MagSafe post. Your Apple Watch then sits in the front.
HiRise 3 Deluxe review: Opening the Apple Watch puck
The Apple Watch puck pivots, lying flush or perpendicular to the base. Upright, it will support nightstand mode. To move the puck up, you can press through the bottom, which does require two hands.
A matte-black metal post holds the MagSafe puck up in the air with enough clearance to charge your phone in either portrait or landscape orientation. Even the 6.7-inch phones can charge without hitting the Apple Watch below.
HiRise 3 Deluxe review: Tilting the MagSafe puck
The MagSafe puck has a 35-degree range of motion, tilting just shy of flat or perfectly perpendicular. It should be plenty to placate a wide variety of user's needs.
What is especially neat about the MagSafe puck is that you may have noticed it isn't as bright as almost all other MagSafe chargers.
MagSafe puck with its vegan leather surface and Twelve South logo
See, Apple sells these MagSafe and Apple Watch modules to manufacturers and as part of its MFi agreement with those companies, typically requires the puck to retain its white silicone surface.
There have been two instances of Apple allowing third parties to use a different charging surface for MagSafe. We saw Anker release its 3-in-1 cube that was plastic with a grey silicone ring.
Twelve South went more premium with a supple vegan leather. It looks fantastic, has a velvetty feel, and helps the overall appearance of the charger. Too bad the Apple Watch puck is still bright white...
HiRise 3 Deluxe review: Fast charge your gear
Unlike the original HiRise 3, which lacked official Apple certification, the HiRise 3 Deluxe is fully certified by the iPhone maker. In turn, you'll get the fastest possible speeds out of the chargers.
Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe
The flat rear portion can charge your AirPods at 5W of power and the iPhone MagSafe puck clocks up to 15W. The Apple Watch module supports fast charge, yielding an 80 percent charge in less than 45 minutes.
Twelve South includes the power adapter in the box for the HiRise 3 Deluxe, which is a 36W charger. The wall-facing side is a little chunky and comes with adapters to work in various locals worldwide.
If we had to find fault with the HiRise 3 Deluxe, it's that we'd have preferred a smaller adapter or USB-C.
It's hard to fault Twelve South too much, though. The HiRise 3 Deluxe is ultra slim and looks fantastic.
HiRise 3 Deluxe review: power supply footprint
Unfortunately, the laws of physics mean all those power components must fit somewhere -- and the power adapter is the clear destination.
It would have raised the cost of goods substantially, but Twelve South could have opted for a USB-C power adapter with a USB-C cable. Then users could swap in their own wall charger with multiple outputs -- but that would have made things messy.
HiRise 3 Deluxe: Should you buy it?
Twelve South has ticked all our boxes with the new HiRise 3 Deluxe. It has a high-end feel with premium materials like metal.
It charges all of our devices as fast as possible with Apple-certified components. A power adapter is included in the box so we don't need to provide our own.
Plus, it is very narrow, making it great for busy desks or small nightstands. Not to mention it got Apple to allow a better MagSafe puck color.
This launches at the perfect time, coinciding with the release of iOS 17 that brings a new feature called StandBy. StandBy mode automatically activates when your phone rotates sideways, showing a series of widgets or photos.
Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe using StandBy mode
StandBy mode is one of our favorite features and this is an excellent charger to take advantage of it.
Its price isn't cheap, but is fair when considering the rest of the market. It matches the price of Belkin's BoostCharge Pro 3-in-1 and the Anker Cube, but we'd argue the HiRise 3 Deluxe looks a bit better on our desk.
HiRise 3 Deluxe review: packaging
HiRise 3 Deluxe review - Pros
- Sleek, compact design
- Articulated Apple Watch puck
- Vegan-leather covered surfaces
- No bright white MagSafe puck
- MagSafe puck tilts
- Power adapter included
- Fast charge Apple Watch puck
HiRise 3 Deluxe review - Cons
- USB-C power adapter preferred
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Grab the new Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe today for $149.95 directly from the company's website.
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Comments
When will all devices adopt a two USB-C connector pass-through so that we can power and maximally organize our devices with only one wall-connector needed?
Well, my Belkin just arrived and I do plan on returning it!