The Good: The Encore’s construction is top-notch, the design is beautiful and the foldable hinge makes it convenient for different usage scenarios.
The Bad: Besides the premium price tag, nothing.
The Bottom Line: If you’re willing to pay the premium asking price, the Encore is an impressively built tablet stand.
There’s no shortage of third party iPhone and iPad accessories on the market, but when it comes to making premium accessories for these devices it’s the few brands like Just Mobile that do it really well. I’ve already reviewed their headphone stand as well as the AluBolt iPhone dock — both of which impressed me — and this time around I’m taking a look at their iPad stand, the Encore.
A foldable hinge supports the iPad with a rubberised exterior to prevent scratching.
Unsurprisingly, there’s little I can criticise about the Encore’s design — Just Mobile have done a brilliant job here. The stand’s circular frame looks stylish without compromising on build quality, with the aluminium construction giving the Encore enough strength while keeping it portable at just 210 grams.
Having reviewed Just Mobile’s AluBolt dock a short while ago, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities in that curved arm supporting the device. Fortunately, unlike the AluBolt’s plastic and immovable arm, the Encore features a hinged design that folds back into a typing position and far enough forward that it’s easy easy to close up and carry around. And leaving aside the convenience of completely adjustable viewing angles, it’s the build quality of the Encore’s hinge that really stands out to me — you’ll need two hands to fold it back and forth, but the result is a well constructed, stable stand.
The Encore’s rubber base keeps it from shuffling around.
The aluminium frame gives the Encore enough heft to keep it grounded, but it’s the rubber ring underneath the stand that keeps it from sliding about when in use. During my time tapping away at my iPad Mini, the Encore stays still and I can comfortably type on the screen with the hinge pushed all the way back.
Even with my iPad Mini in portrait mode I’ve found that the Encore provides ample support, although that’s helped a lot by the rubber lip surrounding the base of the tablet. Not only does it provide a cushion to prevent the iPad from scratching directly against the Encore’s aluminium frame, but the raised lip at the front keeps the iPad from sliding off the stand too — no matter what angle you’ve positioned the hinge at.
A rubber lip surrounding the Encore’s base prevents scratching and keeps the iPad stable.
One of the few downsides to the Encore stand is the inability to charge your iPad while in portrait mode, but to be honest, it’s hardly a deal-breaker because you can easily charge in landscape mode instead.
Since most people tend to use cases on their iPads, it’s also nice to know that you can comfortably use the Just Mobile Encore stand with a case too. It might need some fiddling when using your iPad in portrait mode, and you’ll need to take in to account your case’s thickness etc., but typically speaking you’ll be able to use the stand just fine.
The Encore stand works just fine with cases too, in landscape or portrait.
Verdict
The bottom line is Just Mobile’s Encore stand is a fantastic stand for iPad, or any other tablet you’d like to use on it. And while it certainly isn’t cheap at just under €60, Apple accessories like this hardly ever are. Besides, you’re getting top-notch build quality (especially that hinge!), a good looking design and the benefit of portability too.
If you’re prepared to pay a premium for an iPad stand, feel free to buy this stand — it gets full approval from me.
ORDER FROM AMAZON U.K. ORDER FROM AMAZON U.S.