Nomad Base Station Apple Watch Edition Review

While I am a self-described Google & Android fanatic I have come to appreciate Apple’s Ecosystem. For one, the fact their watch uses a Qi Wireless Charging Coil, as opposed to my Fossil Smart Watch Gen 5 which uses some kind of metal clamp system that I am not a fan of.

I acquired the Nomad Base Station though as a gift for my girlfriend who is indeed an Apple Fanatic and I have to admit I am a bit jealous at times. She can easily set down all three of her devices onto one charging pad unlike me who has three separate chargers the Pixel Stand (for my Pixel 4 XL), a USB C cable for my Pixel Buds, and the charger for my Fossil Smartwatch. But let’s get into the device now and talk about its build quality and functionality.

Well Made & Packaged

One thing, you come to learn about a product is that you can typically tell the quality of a product based on how it’s packaged. The Nomad Base Station Apple Watch Edition was very well packaged to the point if you dropped it the box feels more like a case instead of a decorative piece. Inside you have two things the AC charging cable (come on nomad, no USB-C it’s 2020 already), and then of course the base station. The box also came with adapters for different regional plugs but we are going to ignore that since it doesn’t really matter.

The top of the charging base is covered in a nice leather pad (where you set your Airpods Case and iPhone), and it just feels really nice to touch. There are three separate 7.5W charging coils underneath the leather that really only matter for how many devices you’re charging. If you have an Airpods case you need to set your iPhone vertically across the base station to have it charge.

The front of the device has 3 LED indicators which let you know if a device is being charged on each of three coils (keep in mind, there is no indicator for the Apple Watch charger). One nice touch is there is an ambient light sensor that dims these lights to avoid shining in a dark room (for when you’re sleeping). Another nice touch is at the bottom of the Apple Watch charging point there is a rubber bumper. This bumper is meant to protect your watch from hitting the aluminum frame.

Not Perfect Though

Sometimes when my girlfriend uses the charger her device fails to charge she swears it was charging when she turned the device off but I can’t replicate that behavior. However, I will note when I try charging it on her device as opposed to my Pixel 4XL aligning the coils is a bit more difficult. We also have the same style case from Nomad to eliminate that as a point of issue so I am going to assume this is an outlier I couldn’t replicate the behavior on Galaxy S8+ as well when I tested it. But this is something to keep in mind as with all wireless chargers if the coils aren’t aligned the device won’t charge. I will also note there were no issues charging her Airpods or my Pixel Buds on the charger and they were easier to align (in terms of coils) than the iPhone.

The price comes in at $149.95 retail and I would typically scoff at that price, but it’s actually quite valuable. My Pixel Stand retails at $79.00 and if I paid almost twice as much and could charge all three of my devices at the same time I would gladly pay for it and I think the price is fair. It’s expensive without a doubt but slimming down from 3 chargers into 1 makes it a price I would be willing to pay.