We love a docking station in our house. I’m a bit of a neat freak and like everything to be in its place, and wires being everywhere charging things is one of my bug bares. There is nothing uglier is there? I was asked if I wanted to review the new ALLDOCK 2015, which is currently part of a kickstarter programme, which you can read more about HERE.
So what’s different about the ALLDOCK 2015?
Firstly it looks beautiful, it really is a gorgeous object. Its handmade using the finest of walnut and bamboo wood, originating from sustainable forests in China and New Zealand. It’s flexible, as it could easily be used as a stand as well as to charge.
Within the base there was a USB hub, so you only need one power cable (that’s included too) and then each of the cables can be plugged into the hub, making it useful whether you have apple or a different brand of phone or tablet.
You can also push the cable through at various different points/holes along each of the grooves. depending on where your charging point is. This is particularly handy if the charging point is in an awkward position. It also means, all of the cables remain hidden from view within the ALLDOCK.
The actual frame feels substantial and hardwearing, mine was made from a specially treated walnut. The top was magnetic, so everything fitted in neatly, and felt secure.
The ALLDOCK supports the use of generic Lightning Connectors, as well as MicroUSB, MiniUSB and 30-pin Cables.
There is an extra and new feature of the one hand adapter, that you can see to the front of the unit in the image above. This purely means you can add the phone with one hand quickly and easily. This we used with the ALLDOCK USB cable that was included in the box. Note that the ALLDOCK One-Hand Docking Adapter only supports original ALLDOCK cables.You could order a lightening cable separately from ALLDOCK, if you have an apple phone that you wanted to use the one hand adapter for. This was going to be used primarily by my husband who is not an apple fan like the rest of us, so it was perfect for him.
I wanted to show the ALLDOCK from this angle so you could see how neat it looked, it was charging both the phone and tablet, and no cables were visible. You can also see an Apple Watch mount (this is detachable if you don’t need it) this is a modular piece that you can add to the dock. Upto 2 on a medium sized dock and three on the large.
As you can see the ALLDOCK apple watch mount will enable you to charge your Apple Watch alongside of your other digital devices in an elgant way, its sold separately. Again more details of pricing can be found on the Kickstarter page. Its retail price will be 179 Euros, but the Kickstarter price is 139.
Now here comes some of the more technical advances that have been made for this model:
Thanks to a component upgrade, ALLDOCK has become more energy efficient, without any compromises in its charging speed. You can charge up to four devices simultaneously without throttling the overall charging speed.
ALLDOCK is the racing car of docking stations. It can charge up your phone to up to 80% of its capacity in under an hour. What’s even better is that attaching additional devices to the ALLDOCK does not reduce the charging speed for each individual device. The ALLDOCK Medium can be used to recharge up to 4 devices simultaneously.
So an iPhone 6 for example will charge 30% faster.
I’m impressed, as is my husband. A great product that I’m sure is going to get a lot of use!
Molly says
Oh that is very nice indeed. Funny, yesterday I was just thinking I needed something just like this – though I’m sure a certain someone will say “I’ll make you one” instead of just buying me the one I want – this one!
Amanda Cottingham says
Haha, be interesting to see one made by him! We have a handmade one too from oak. I think you can buy those docks separately too.
Molly says
He’s made me this one for on my desk at work: http://www.teckchair.com/ but I want a box one like this for at home to keep all my chargers in: phone, kindle, ipad etc
Jenny Cottingham says
This looks great, just the sort of thing we need!! Looks like you had to take your devices out of any case you might have them in to get them to fit in the slots though?
Amanda Cottingham says
It depends I think on the kind of case you have. The phone remained in the case, so that definitely worked, it was half case though. Whereas the iPad was a case with a keyboard that I used, and that indeed was to thick to fit. If it was a standard case I think it would, a more wrap around case, I think would struggle.
Jenny Cottingham says
Thank you.. Looking at this an these fair hands that you reviewed before.. Definitely going to get one or the other!! Thanks for the reviews v helpful!!
Amanda Cottingham says
So glad its helped!
Sonia says
Oh that’s fab, my other needs something like this so will have a look into itxx
Amanda Cottingham says
I use one on my desk Sonia, and they are great if you are gadget mad I think, helps keep you organised!
Nikki Thomas says
With four iPads, three phones, two kindles in this house, I seriously need one of those in my life! What a great idea!