popsockets colours patterns

If you’re looking for a new way to accessorize, charge, clean, or make use of the entertainment features of your phone, there are plenty of clever, fun, and convenient mobile accessories that can help. Here’s just a small sampling of some of the most interesting ones we came across on the CES 2020 show floor.

Popsockets Poppower Home Wireless Charger

Popsockets have become really popular little accessories to attach to phones or phone cases, providing a convenient hand grip and kickstand for the device. And now, the company is expanding its line-up with new products, including a wireless charger that works with a Popsocket on the back of your phone. With some Qi chargers, the Popsocket can get in the way of allowing the phone to come into contact with the charging surface. With this one, however, your phone can sit flush on the charging pad with the Popsocket placed neatly inside a recessed circle. The charger itself is a larger circle about the size of a coaster.

Urban Armor Gear AirPods Case

Urban Armor Gear, otherwise known as UAG, develops rugged, sleek, and stylish cases for smartphones and tablets. Its latest venture is a case for the Apple AirPods true wireless earbuds. There’s a silicone version in four colour choices and a hard case in black and orange. A cool feature with the hard case: just tap a button on the side to pop it open with one hand.

Belkin Boost Charge 3-in-1 Wireless Charger

If you own an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods, this convenient charging hub can accommodate them all and charge them simultaneously. There’s a Qi charging pad for charging your phone upright so you can still use it while it’s charging, a charging puck for the Apple Watch, and a pad in the middle where you can recharge the earbuds in their charging case. You can charge your iPhone while it’s in most phone cases up to 3mm thin. An LED light shows charging status.

Whoosh! Screen Cleaner

As they have done every year, Whoosh! is on hand in the South Hall offering to clean show-goers’ phone screens as they learn about the products. The screen cleaning wipes are antimicrobial and include the cleaning solution that can rid your screens of dirt and germs. The solution is non-toxic and eco-friendly, resists fingerprints, and is safe to use on all screens.

Pictar Selfie Stick

This isn’t your ordinary selfie stick. What makes it really neat is that it has buttons on the end that not only trigger the shutter to take a selfie but can also control other functions of your phone’s camera. You can switch between front and rear camera, change photo modes, and zoom in and out. The phone sits on a rotating hinge so you can also push a button to physically move the device back and forth to get the right angle shot. It extends up to 32.7” and you can take up to 800 selfies before you need to recharge it. A new version will include a detachable headlight.

Ampere Side Pocket Smart Fanny Pack

If you have jumped on the revived trend of wearing fanny packs, you might like this one, which comes with a built-in wireless power bank for charging your phone while it’s inside. To recharge the power bank, remove it and place it atop a wireless charging pad (yes, it’s a wireless charger that can also be recharged wirelessly). It can recharge a typical phone once or so per charge, with a green light that indicates successful charging as soon as you put your phone inside. The pack, which you can wear the traditional way around your waist or crossbody to make a more modern fashion statement, comes in five colours. It’s waterproof and has an interior RFID sleeve.

Handl Stick

I love the Handl smartphone case which includes a flexible elastic brace system on the back that you can stretch out and place your fingers in between to secure the phone without having to wrap your fingers around it. This is great while taking selfies, making phone calls, or just walking about. You can also pull the brace out and pop the top end into a small slot to use it as a kickstand for watching videos, working, or just displaying it on your desk. It works in both portrait and landscape mode. But at the show, Handl showed its latest innovation, the Handl Stick, which is essentially that same elastic brace system without the case. Instead, you can affix the Stick to any phone case or phone and enjoy the same benefits you would with a Handl case. There are more than 53 different designs in three price tiers, from basic colours to fashionable iridescent and more bling-y premium options. But when Stick launches sometime in March, there will be more than 100 different colours and designs. Among them will be colours that perfectly match the shades of the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro so when you place it directly on the back of the Apple phone, the Stick will look like an extension of the device, perfectly matched to it.

Scosche Baselynx Modular Charging System

This modular charging system is a really neat idea to help families reduce clutter in that one area of the home where everyone in the family inevitably plugs in their devices to recharge. You buy individual wireless chargers that link together to charge multiple devices on a pad that’s as long as you need it to be. There are four charger options: the vertical stand charger for tablets, a Qi charging pad for smartphones, an Apple Watch charger that can raise up so you can see the screen when you glance over from bed, and an endcap that has a PD and USB-A charge port on the end. Buy what you need and expand the system as desired. A neat feature on the Qi charge pad is a raised bump so that, when charging one of the new iPhones, the camera doesn’t touch the charging surface. It comes in white with a black option coming soon.

Scosche MagicMount Fresche

Another innovation from Scosche, this is a vent mount for securing your phone in the car that has two notable features. The first is a swing arm so that you can move your phone away from the vent once it’s mounted so it doesn’t block the airflow. And the second is the inclusion of an air freshener. Pop a cartridge inside the back of the mount (one is included) and you can enjoy a refreshing scent in your car without having to dangle a gas station freshener from your rearview mirror. There are lots of scent options like pine, peppermint, cherry, and even bacon, purchased in two-packs. Each air freshener cartridge lasts for about 30 days.

Find more great announcements from CES 2020 on the Best Buy Blog

Christine Persaud
With 20+ years of experience in trade and consumer tech journalism, I have covered the tech space since before social media was a "thing" and the smartphone as we know it was even invented. Writing for various technology, lifestyle, and entertainment sites, I have covered and reviewed hundreds of tech products, from home appliances to wearables, fitness tech to headphones, TV entertainment products and services, and more. I'm also a passionate foodie who loves to cook and bake, a TV show fanatic (happy to give what to watch recommendations!), and proud mother to a 12-year-old son.