Review: Calypso Crystal Dock charging dock for iPhone and iPod touch

Charging docks for iPhone come in all shapes and sizes and are made of a variety of materials. Very few of those docks cost more than a hundred dollars. Then again, very few are made from handcrafted glass like the Crystal Dock from Calypso, the flagship product from a vendor which also offers leather iPhone cases.

The dock is something which looks like it could be out of a museum. It’s a rounded rectangle which tapers down on the front, with a stretch in the center carved out for your iPhone or iPod touch. The thirty-pin docking port allows you to recharge your device, so long as you connect the corresponding thirty-pin port on the rear of the dock to a USB port or power supply.

Three different designs cost $119 each. They differ in the crafting of their surfaces. The top surface of the Beau has a series of curves cut into it, looking a big wavelike. Celestia has swirls on its surfaces. Dune features curved lines. Because they’re made of clear glass, you can see right through them, creating the illusion from afar that your iPhone is floating on your desk. The fourth model, the $349 top of the line Aurora, is polished and painted with platinum.

Beyond standing your iPhone upright and charging it, there’s no advanced functionality here, so you’re paying the triple digit price entirely for the styling an elegance. My hands on tests have left me to conclude that it’s so unique and so cool looking that, if you agree with that assessment and you can afford it, the Crystal Dock is worth the investment.

The major caveat, of course, is that the dock is currently only compatible with the iPhone 4S or older, or the iPod touch 4 or older. Those with a new iPhone 5 or iPod touch 5 will need to wait until Calypso presumably releases a Lightning version of the dock in the future.

Price: $119 • calypsocrystal.com