What this does is stands your phone up as shown and opens the Desk Dock app. The app is lacking features and cannot be customized which sucks. However, you can just close the app to use the programs you want. It also overrides your home button to return to the dock app. The app doesn't do much but what it does great is darkens the phone on night mode and will start a screen saver of just the clock after a few minutes. It is easily readable and thanks to AMOLED screen does not throw anymore light than a standard alarm clock. I like to sleep in pitch black and it doesn't bother me.As far as features it hides an extra battery charging enclosure behind the phone (No extra battery included). It has a speaker out in the rear. It also has two volume control buttons in the front. That is all the dock does. It should include more for the price but I am happy with what it does do.
The phone will not fit in the dock with a case on.
Edit: Upon getting an extra battery I learned there is a charging indicator light for the spare battery on the front of the dock next to the volume control.
One thing I'm not sure is whether the dock can charge extended battery (2600mah) as well.
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This is a nice looking, sleek Samsung dock for your Droid Charge.However, there are some things to note about this "Multimedia Desktop Dock". I would actually call it more of a "Charging Station", because that pretty much sums it up. The dock has a speaker output in back and once docked the Charge will automatically start the Desk Cradle App. But some basic clock/radio type functions I expected are not there: such as being able to listen to internet radio/pandora/whatever through the Charge while docked. You can listen to stored MP3s easy enough, but it looks like it stops there. Fixing that may be as simple as finding a better app... I haven't figured that out yet.
The biggest issue is the dock design. The phone will only seat on the dock if it is naked, ie you can't have a cover on the phone. I have a thin cover, but there simply isn't enough room for the cover and the dock does not adjust. I went so far as to disassemble my dock and remove the plastic seat piece, but the phone still does not seat far enough down to kick on the Cradle App. I'm going to keep working with it. Removing the cover every night to dock my phone is not an acceptable solution for me.
So in short, if you don't use a cover and intend to use the dock mainly as a charger, this should be a good buy.
If you use a cover or want a richer mulitmedia dock, look elsewhere or be willing to experiment and possibly mod this dock.
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I don't want to reiterate what others have said as to the cons of this dock they are all true. It does look good and fits the Charge nicely as long as you don't mind taking off the protector that is required for the belt holster every time you want to use the dock. I like that it came with a spare battery (I bought it from Verizon at a discount online). Why they didn't allow for a USB connection is beyond me. To copy any files from my PC to the phone I have to remove it from the dock and plug in the USB cable. As someone else said REALLY DUMB. Access the the HDMI port would have been nice, too. But no. So how can they call it a true multimedia device when it just has a tiny little mini-plug I/O?My biggest complaint is that when the phone is sitting in this dock it seems to open and close apps at random, sometimes even rebooting the phone for no apparent reason. The amount of activity (screens opening and closing, display turning on and off) is sometimes astounding. I bought a new car with SYNC voice command via the cellphone's Bluetooth connection and could not get the phone to maintain Bluetooth pairing with the car's SYNC UNTIL I stopped using the dock overnight. Some weird things go on with the phone when docked that do not happen when it's just plugged into the AC adapter provided by Samsung. I haven't had the time to document them, it is just an observation sitting at my desk while the phone is in the dock. It is messing with the Bluetooth settings of the phone to the point that the phone can't seem to remember the car connection. I don't want to have to re-pair the phone with my car every single day so I've had to give up the otherwise neat little desk clock app the dock triggers. No biggy, but disappointing since the dock I had for my Motorola Droid was very functional and did nothing like this one does. So now I have a docking cradle that is only good for charging the spare battery. I guess it might just be my next EBay sale...
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(So sorry. I'll make it up to you by formatting this review in the time-honored pro/con tradition, despite the fact that such dichotomies do a poor job of capturing the nuances of human experience.)Pro! I bought this dock for the purpose of turning my phone into a bedside alarm clock. It works well to that end, especially once the docking app native to the Samsung Charge is replaced with a (simpler, dimmer, equally free) app from the Play Store (formerly Marketplace). I guess that places me squarely in the "native dock app is too bright" camp, and I'll fight to defend that point of view till death, or till bedtime, whichever comes first. By the way, many of the Play Store apps seem to be called "Night Clock."
Pro! Judging from the reviews of those brave scouts who bought blind and reported back, the dock should come with an extra battery. However, it would seem that some unscrupulous sellers deliver the dock unbatteried, and, presumably, do something unmentionable with the orphaned lithium involving the shady and lucrative power trade. When in doubt, buy directly from Amazon. I can attest that my Amazon-purchased unit did indeed come in original packaging and with extra battery. Woohoo! No need to spend an extra $5 for an extra battery.
Pro? It turns out that I didn't really need the extra battery anyway. The dock sits on my bedside table, which means that I charge the phone when I get home in the evening, and it so happened that for me, docking the phone was more convenient than turning it off, exchanging the batteries, and rebooting. Nor was it appealing to walk around with two batteries. To add insult to injury (or shortcoming to bothersomeness), the presumably-new battery that came with the dock has a significantly shorter usage time than the one that originally came with the phone hundreds of charges ago.
Con? The phone sits snugly in the dock, and it is clear to anyone with an advanced degree in biomedical engineering that phone+case won't fit; ditto for phone+extended battery. Neither is an issue for me, as my phone is unsheathed and unenhanced.
Con. It would have been nice, given said snugness, if the docking/undocking action had been less rickety. The micro-USB plug doesn't always line up with the micro-hole in the side of the phone, and instead bonks against the phone's edge for a couple of approaches before docking is achieved.
Con! The dock's footprint is unnecessarily large. Even if you want that extra battery and a slot to charge it in parallel with the phone, surely you could have fit the lot of them more compactly. Bedside real estate is scarce and precious for me. You might sleep on the endless savanna, in which case you should invite me over sometime; I'll bring an extra battery.
Khan! I have had neither occasion nor desire to plug speakers into the dock and use it as some kind of micro-stereo system. The phone's micro-speaker works just fine to rouse me from my slumber.
In the absence of other Samsung Charge docking alternatives, I'm glad this one exists. What else do you want me to do, tether my phone to a charging cord and lay it flat on my bedside table? What kind of Luddite do you take me for?
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