"MICH better in build"
Can you expand? From my observations, all surfaces are flat, there are no gaps in the construction and the lightning jack and line out have no alignment issues. The build is flawless in every sense of the word.
As far as materials you have a point, I tend to prefer metal as well. My WooAudio 2x headphone stand is also aluminium and the finish on the hiRise actually matches it perfectly. The only issue was that the dock was too tall for my config below:
Looking at my setup:
You see the gap between the keyboard and the monitor base? I wanted a dock that would fit in that spot without elevating the phone above the bottom portion of the LCD as not to obstruct my view. My reasoning was that if I have to take my eyes off my monitor for a split second to see a notification on my phone, I can easily look back up instantly if it's not important, as not to break focus from my tasks unless needed. The Hi-Rise would obstruct my view to the monitor when I have my chair all the way down =(
I also sense that I would struggle getting the phone in on the hiRise at the odd times where I'm not the most sober as there's no side walls to guide the phone. I dunno, friday nights at 4AM half drunk after 6 hours of dancing I'm not the most coordinated cookie. For the stock dock I just hold the phone 45 degrees and go sideways until the side of the phone hits the inner side of dock, straighten it out and its a perfect fit every time. I dunno I like these systems to be fool proof haha!
I can definitely see the aesthetics appeal of the hiRise however. It's a nice looking accessory. If they make one shorter in height I may consider it as the finish PERFECTLY matches my headphone stand which is also a matte aluminium =P