The Best Charging Valets

Charging Valets Buying Guide

Do you come home from work and struggle to find a clean surface on which to deposit your wallet, keys, loose change and other items? Is your bedside table a mess of charging cables that seems impossible to tidy up? If you need a better system for organizing your small items and charging your gadgets, you need a charging valet.
Charging valets come in a variety of different sizes, shapes and materials. They also vary in the amount of storage that they offer. The one thing that all charging valets have in common is that they provide a convenient way to dock and charge at least one mobile device. So, how to you choose the best charging valet for your needs? Our buyers guide will provide some tips that can help.

Key Features of Charging Valets

Material

Some of the typical materials for charging valets include wood, plastic, bamboo, particle board, leather and imitation leather. The material of a charging valet will greatly affect the durability that you get out of it. For example, a particle board valet with a laminate finish will look like real wood out of the box, but the finish will bubble or peel if it gets wet. You'll have to clean it very carefully. A plastic charging valet may not look like a piece of stylish furniture, but it'll tolerate rough handling.

Some charging valets may have felt compartments to protect jewelry and gadgets from nicks and scratches. While felt can help to keep your items looking nice, it also attracts dust and can be difficult to clean. If you decide to buy a charging valet with felt compartments, you may want to buy a valet with a cover that helps to prevent dust from collecting.

A charging valet may be somewhat heavy when you load it down with gadgets and other items. If you plan to store your charging valet on a dresser or other piece of expensive furniture, you should buy a valet with a felt bottom to prevent scratches. If your favorite charging valet doesn't have a felt bottom, though, you can always buy a set of stick-on felt pads.

Device Capacity

Charging valets vary greatly in the types and amounts of devices that they support. A large valet may have an open design to accommodate tablets of any size. A smaller, sleeker charging valet may only have room for a single phone. Some charging valets are designed only to accommodate Apple products. For example, the Belkin PowerHouse -- our pick for Apple Watch owners -- only holds a single iPhone and Apple Watch.

Cable Management

If you want a charging valet with support for several devices, you'll need one with a good system for cable management. Charging valets may handle cable management in up to three different ways:

• Holes: A charging valet that uses holes for cable management typically has a large hole in the back for cable entry, a cavity in the bottom for hiding cables and smaller holes through which to thread the connectors on the ends of the cables.
• Power strip: A charging valet that uses holes for cable management does a good job of hiding cables once they enter the back of the valet. If you look at the charging valet from behind, though, you'll see a mess of cables extending to the wall or the back or your computer. Some charging valets alleviate the mess by including space for internal power strips. If a charging valet has room for a power strip, it'll only have one cable extending from the back of the valet to the wall. All of the individual charging cables will remain hidden inside the charging valet.
• USB hub: An internal power strip gives a charging valet great flexibility in the types of devices that it can support. Power strips are often rather large, though -- and most mobile devices support USB charging. To save space and allow for sleeker designs, some charging valets include USB hubs instead. If a charging valet has a USB hub -- and the hub has connections for both data and power -- you can synchronize your devices with your computer while you charge them. If you want to purchase a charging valet with a USB hub, it is important to remember that there are many different standards for USB power delivery. Some devices may not charge as quickly from USB hubs as they would from dedicated wall adapters.

In charging valets, there is no system for power delivery and cable management that is better than the others -- so you'll have to choose the solution that best fits your needs. A solution that charges your devices at the maximum possible speed may not look as nice as a solution that charges devices more slowly.

Extra Storage

Are you looking for a charging valet that serves as your home's primary hub for gadget storage, or are you looking for a valet that stores all of the items you typically carry in your pockets? Some charging valets can accommodate multiple smartphones, tablets and even laptops simultaneously. Other charging valets offer multi-purpose storage for all of the items that you typically carry when you leave the house. A multi-purpose charging valet may have compartments for items such as rings, watches, keys, cash, cuff links, tie clips and sunglasses.

If you want to buy a charging valet that provides storage for items other than electronics, these are some of the features that you may find useful:

• Locks: help to keep curious hands out of your belongings
• Ring rolls: keep rings in place and prevent them from scratching one another
• Watch storage: keeps watches secure and separates the bands from the faces
• Mirror: allows you to check your appearance quickly before leaving the house
• Money storage: provides a space for bills and loose change
• Wallet storage: provides a convenient place in which to drop your wallet when you come home

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