Hands On With the Griffin PowerDock 2
If you've enjoyed a swig of the Apple kool-aid, chances are there's more than one iGadget in your household. And if you plan on picking up the 3G iPhone, keep in mind you'll be down one dock, as the $199 price with two-year contract comes with just a cable for your charging inconvenience. Luckily, Griffin is offering up the the panacea for our fruit-filled lives, with the PowerDock 2.
A tandem iPod/iPhone dock for two, the brushed aluminum device will charge just about any generation iPods you can throw at it, thanks to seven included dock adapters. Quick note to Griffin, though: individually wrapping all seven adapters in plastic is a waste of both your customer's time, and the world's oil reserves. One bag is more than enough, thank you very much.
Other than that pet peeve, the PowerDock is a capable charger for all your Apple charging needs. And at $49.99, it's two docks for the price of the single universal dock that Apple sells on its site. It arguably looks better than the universal dock, too, with a curved, brushed aluminum surface over a wide base that should keep your iPods from tumbling off your desk. A large piece of rubber on the base keeps the dock from moving around. It took less than an hour to charge a completely drained fifth generation iPod, so topping off any iPhone or iPod should be speedy.
For the $50 price tag, there's no question that the Griffin PowerDock 2 is a good value for anyone who owns more than one iPod or iPhone. The only real question is whether two chargers is enough for the average gadget-happy household. Apparently Griffin doesn't think so, as they list a $70, four-seater iPod dock as 'coming soon' on their website. If the company really wants to impress, they should throw in a couple side USB ports for charging other gadgets, but maybe that's just a little too much to ask.
(Via Gearlog.)
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