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| layout | title | created | disqus_url | categories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| post | Nexus One Car Dock | 1275582232 | /node/139 | [review dock android gadgets] |
Nexus One Car Dock is available through Google checkout for $55. Google, however, does provide so little of information about this dock. You will see whether or not it’s worth to grab one for your Nexus One.
Okay, let’s start with unboxing experience. The package is the same as Nexus One’s which I really like.
The package contains dock with windshield mount, dashboard mount pad, micro USB car charger and documents. That’s basically all you need.
For the adapter, I found that wire is on the side is pretty convenient, but not a big deal. For dock, you can choose whether you want to mount on dashboard (via mount pad) or windshield. It’s up to personal preference at this point. Dock is pretty stylish and neat. I was surprise that there is no messy wire or anything at all. All 3 pins on the bottom are for power and dock signal. Speaker and volume control are available also. Although many users reported volume control malfunction for many apps. we’ll talk about that issue later.
In action:
Well, what do you expect with car dock? It can hold your Nexus One firmly and doesn’t seem to let loose any time soon. Moreover, you can do both landscape and portrait depending on what suit you best =) pretty awesome.
The most interesting of this dock might be how it and Nexus One interact to each other. They talk via Bluetooth. Well, it might sound complicated. However, even I didn’t realize that at first. You just put Nexus 1 on dock, then it will communicate and connect to dock (as a headset) automatically without any hassle. All you can see is Bluetooth icon in notification bar above the screen. You don't even have to turn on/off Bluetooth manually, pretty awesome job IMO. About volume control buttons on dock, I was confused by how that works too since it didn’t seem to respond to any apps but some Google apps like Music. After trial and error for a while, I just found out that it works flawlessly with any apps. However, there is no UI or sound indicated. That’s why it made us believe that it didn’t work. By the way, you have to press and press and press continuously; holding button will not do the trick since it would register only once. If you get the idea, it’s working well.
One thing I noticed about this Bluetooth dock is blue trackball. It looked much better in person though. You might have seen that if you use BT headset all the time, but for me, I don’t have that anymore. So far, I expect Google to have this custom trackball color. For example, red trackball for Gmail, blue for phone call, white for something else.
Summary
Is it worth exchanging with $55? hell, yes. If you are reading until this, there is no doubt since you are interested in this. You will find a good use of it and be enjoy using as much as I am.