Stick your iPhone to this foldable MagSafe stand [Review]

The SwitchEasy Orbit Universal Magnetic Stand is an incredibly handy little stand that’s sturdy and easy to use. It’s seamlessly blended into my daily iPhone habits — and unlike most products I review, everyone I show it to instantly wants one. 

The handy stand props up your iPhone on a table, desk or kitchen counter. Its puck shape allows you to orient your phone vertically or horizontally. It collapses and folds flat, so you can carry it around. 

You can also stick on double-sided tape and attach it to the back of your monitor as a camera mount for your iPhone.

I’ve been using it for a few months now at my desk and around the house. Here’s why I recommend it.

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SwitchEasy Orbit Universal Magnetic Stand review

Much like the final installment in the Harry Potter, Hunger Games and Twilight movie franchises, the MagSafe component in your iPhone is made up of two parts. There’s a magnetic circle that provides most of the grip and charging capability — plus a small line of magnets that snaps your device into a vertical position. (You can see both of these elements exposed in the Apple clear case.)

The SwitchEasy Orbit leaves out the second piece of the MagSafe equation. This means you can freely rotate your iPhone as it remains attached to the Orbit from portrait to landscape.

You leave your phone in portrait. You start to play a YouTube video or put on a show, you spin it to landscape. A FaceTime call comes in, and you spin it back to portrait.

Dare I say, it is very easy to switch.

Leaving it on my desk

You can leave your iPhone attached to the SwitchEasy stand all day long on your desk. Unlike more-permanent charging stands, you don’t have to worry about taxing your battery by leaving it on a charger all day long.

If you do want to charge your iPhone while it’s on the SwitchEasy Orbit, you might have some trouble with a larger iPhone. In the vertical orientation, I have to tilt it back quite far to have enough room for a Lightning cable — and I only have the mid-size iPhone 12 Pro. To get around this, I sit the Orbit on top of my Mac mini to get more space beneath.

Carrying it around the kitchen

When I go downstairs for lunch, I just fold it down and carry my phone with the Orbit attached on the back. It adds a noticeable hunchback to the phone, but it’s not unwieldy.

Around the kitchen, it’s handy for propping up my phone as I check a recipe or play a video.

At the table, I tend to prop it up just a little higher by sitting it on a butter dish, an upside-down bowl or whatever is nearby. I try to avoid the bad ergonomics of looking too far down at my phone as much as possible.

Stand or stick

I’ve been describing the Orbit thus far as a portable stand — but that’s not the only way to use it. In fact, you must make a choice when you take it out of the box.

In the box, you will find two attachable pieces for the bottom half of the Orbit. Both come perfectly sized for the bottom puck. One of them is a rubber mat, designed to keep the Orbit stable on a surface. The other is a piece of double-sided tape, so you can more permanently affix the Orbit to a display.

The bottom puck has a tiny button on the bottom. I’m not entirely sure what it’s for. I expected it to act like a small suction cup, but it doesn’t seem to do anything. Maybe it’s for use with the double-sided tape layer, but I couldn’t find any reference to its function online.

Update: I figured it out. Hold the button down and the rubber pad on the bottom will spin. This is so that you can glue the Orbit to the back of a monitor, hold the button down and rotate it out of the way when it’s not in use.

Collapsible design for portability

When you’re not using the SwitchEasy Orbit, you can collapse the stand and fold it together into a small puck. As you collapse the stand, it makes a very satisfying click, with a slightly louder clack when you reach the end.

The hinge is very sturdy. It’s not hard to adjust, nor is it jittery — it’s pleasant and smooth. It sticks out quite far, but I can forgive that for how nice and solid it feels.

Several times I have had friends over, they see it sitting on my kitchen counter or dining room table, they ask what it is, I show them, and they want to steal it from me. I can’t blame them — it’s a convenient and handy little stand.

Buy from: Cult of Mac Store

★★★★☆

Note: We originally published this review on May 25, 2023.