The Eco Bamboo Multi-Device Charging Station is a cord-taming dynamo. This charging station doesn’t actually have a built-in charger, but it does have is a hidden compartment with built-in elastic straps to secure and organize the chargers and USB cables for all of your phones and other electronic devices. We put an Eco Bamboo Multi-Device Charging Station to the test around the office and at home, testing how well it fits into various real-world spaces, how many devices it’s realistically capable of holding, and whether it’s built well enough to withstand the rigors of daily use.
Design: Attractive natural wood construction using renewable bamboo
The charging station has a fairly basic design. It looks somewhat like a desktop letter organizer, with three-tiered dividers and three separate sections for you to store your devices. It’s built entirely from renewable bamboo, and it looks great. The front section is further divided into thirds, with each third corresponding to a cutout for a charging cable. Each one is meant to house a phone, standing up vertically, with the charging cable helping to secure it in place. The two rear sections are designed for small laptops and tablets. Each one also has its own corresponding charging cable cutout on one side of the charging station. Since the dividers are tiered, you can place a smaller tablet in the middle slot, and a larger one in the rear slot, and still have a partial view of each screen. Underneath all of that, you’ll find a hidden compartment that’s big enough to hold all of your chargers and charging cables. For ease of use, you can even place a multi-port USB charger in the hidden compartment. The two halves of the charging station are held together by strong magnets. The one design flaw that we noticed during testing is that the lower chamber, which holds the charging cables and chargers, is a little too shallow. When the USB connector on a charging cable is too long (many of ours were), they bottom out and prevent the phone from securely settling into place. To use this charging dock safely, you need low-profile USB cables or 90-degree cables. That represents an additional expense if you don’t already own cables like that, so that should be a consideration when deciding whether to buy this unit.
Setup Process: Snaps together like a charm
The Eco Bamboo Multi-Device Charging Station comes more or less ready to use. It does come in two pieces, but those pieces snap together, and stay together, thanks to four very strong magnets. However, to get the most out of it, you’ll want to spend some time securing your chargers in the hidden compartment and routing your cables through the access slots. The hidden compartment includes several elastic loops to help with cable management.
Ease of Use: Phones and other devices are easy to see at a glance
The Eco Bamboo Multi-Device Charging Station features space for three vertically oriented phones in the front, allowing you to charge three phones at once while being able to see how they’re doing at a glance. Plugging and unplugging the phones is easy, and cables are unlikely to disappear through the access holes due to how shallow the compartment is. The two rear slots are just as easy to use, with each one featuring a charging cable access hole on one side of the unit. Heavier laptops can cause the whole thing to tip over, or the top to separate from the bottom, but it holds smaller laptops and tablets just fine.
Construction: Quality control could use some work
This is a solidly built charging station, and it’s put together well enough to stand up to daily use and even some inadvertent abuse. The magnets that hold the two pieces together are remarkably strong, and the unit suffered absolutely no damage when we accidentally knocked it off a table. However, it comes up short in terms of quality control. The unit we reviewed was put together wrong, with the middle divider not slotted all the way into place prior to the application of wood glue. Other customers have complained about similar issues, indicating that these units aren’t being inspected closely enough when they come off the assembly line.
Charging Speed: No charger included
Some charging stations come with a USB charger, but this one doesn’t. There is an upgraded version that comes with a USB charger that’s sized appropriately for the hidden compartment, but you can just as easily select any charger that’s small enough to fit.
Charging capacity: Room for three phones, but no charger included
Since the Eco Bamboo Multi-Device Charging Station doesn’t have a built-in charger, there’s no hard limit on how many devices you can charge. It has enough space for three phones in front, and two tablets in the back, but the exact number of devices that you can fit will depend on how big the devices are.
Price: Competitively priced, but you’ll pay extra for an actual charger
The Eco Bamboo Multi-Device Charging Station is priced competitively against other charging stations that don’t include a charger. It typically retails for about $40, and it’s worth that price considering the overall build quality and organization. You just have to remember that it doesn’t come with a charger, or charging cables, so those represent extra expenses.
Competition: It comes down to aesthetics and functionality
The Eco Bamboo Multi-Device Charging Station compares favorably to the competition in some ways, and less favorably in other ways. For example, it has slots for three vertically oriented phones, while the similarly priced EasyAcc Multi-Device Organizer only has room for two. On the other hand, the EasyAcc Multi-Device Organizer has a utility tray for things like pens and scissors, and a handy drawer underneath to store extra charging cables and anything else you need to organize, while this unit doesn’t have either of those things. Another charging station in this general price range, the Organize-It-All Multi-Device Charging Station, doesn’t have any slots for vertically oriented phones or tablets at all. However, it does have two roomy flat platforms and a massive drawer. What really hurts the Eco Bamboo Multi-Device Charging Station, in terms of the competition, is that it doesn’t have a built-in charger. The slightly more expensive SIIG 90W Smart Charging Station is a big lump of plastic that doesn’t have any of the charm that’s exuded by this unit, but it does come with a built-in charger with 10 USB ports. Finally, the Simicore USB Charging Station has a built-in charger, four USB ports, and even comes with a small assortment of USB cables.
Similar Products We’ve Reviewed:
SIIG 90W Smart Charging Station Organize-It-All Multi-Device Charging Station EasyAcc Multi-Device Organizer
The Eco Bamboo Multi-Device Charging Station looks great, and it’s solidly built, making it a decent choice if you’re looking to get a dock where you have to supply your own charger. It does have some quality control issues, but they were barely noticeable in the unit we tested. If you like the way it looks, but you don’t want to use your own charger, take a look at the upgraded version which includes a USB charger.
