Customer Reviews
Great Multi-Device Charger
I originally got the Touchcharge kit for the Wii and Xbox 360 and loved it. (It also works for ps3 apparently.)
http://www.amazon.com/Touchcharge-Kit-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B001TEQKNC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1255376618&sr=8-2
I have since gotten it for my phone and my girlfriend's. Now, I charge my xbox 360 controllers, Wii controllers, and both our phones all on the same pad.
I would recommend this product to anyone who is tired of having to dig around for their chargers or having to dig under a desk to find the cable that inevitably falls behind.
Convenient tool...with an ugly design
Let me begin by saying who I believe should buy a charging pad such as this one: if you have multiple cell phones that you would like to charge, or if you are very tired of having to go search for your ordinary plug-in charger and then fiddling to plug that into your phone. Also, this particular kit only works for owners of Motorola, Nokia and Blackberry phones. Users of any other brands can forget about this as chances are high that the right charging plug is not included. iPhone users, do know that according to Duracell's website an iPhone version of this pad is supposed to be out in Spring 2010.
So what is this product? The Duracell myGrid charging system basically allows you to place your cell phone on a mat to charge instantly, without having to fiddle around for a charging cord. Many similar charging systems that are now out use a physics concept called induction to charge the phone, where there are no exposed metal contacts on either the charging pad or the phone. The Duracell myGrid is NOT one of these chargers, however. Probably in the interest of cheaper costs, Duracell chose to use the older, very common concept of conduction where metal contacts on the phone and charger conduct charges.
So what does that mean? It means that the myGrid charging pad is actually one large pad with a large metal surface area. When turned on, this large metal area IS energized with electric charges. At first glance, you might think that you can shock yourself by touching the pad. Nothing to fear folks, as the electricity flowing through the pad is too weak to create any noticeable shocks. And to add peace of mind, if the pad detects your finger or anything else that conducts electricity (like keys, jewelry, etc.) to be touching the pad, then it shuts off the current.
How do you use it? To get the juices flowing into your phone, Duracell includes a special "clip" that has three tiny metal contacts on the bottom. You are supposed to stick on the "clip" with the included adhesive to your phone. The clip then connects to a charging plug which is inserted into your phone's charging port. That completes the setup. To actually charge, just place the phone on the pad with the clip in contact.
What are the flaws? Well, the charger still works if you don't 'stick' the clip to your phone. Instead, the catch is that you'll have to be careful when taking your phone off the pad. The clip is literally a magnet that sticks on to the pad, so you'll then have to exert careful pressure to remove the phone+clip from the pad. I think that's a bad design aspect in that if you were ever to switch phones, you would have to attempt to peel off the clip from your old phone and stick it on to your new one. Also, if you did stick on the clip, then you have an ugly and oddly-shaped piece of plastic stuck on to your phone for most of the day. It can get in the way of your hand gripping the phone, you can't exactly use many cases with the phone, and it just looks odd. Oh, and personally I think the pad just looks plain ugly. The whole metal pad with its black and chrome trim seems like something Doc Brown would've had in his DeLorean back in the 80s.
What could be improved? I think Duracell should do what other manufacturers of similar charging pads are doing and creating sleeves where the phone can be kept in a sleek-looking sleeve all-day that can do double-duty as a nice case. In fact, they seem to be doing this. The iPhone charging system that I mentioned earlier is on their website seems to have this very sleeve. Now if they were smart and brought it to the other brands as well.
Also, this product is being marketed and designed for cell phones only. If Duracell could find a way, I would like be able to charge my other devices on the pad, like my bluetooth headset, PS3 controller, iPod, etc. If a wide-variety of devices could be charged all using this one pad, then I would say the myGrid is guaranteed to be a hit! At the moment though, for just a few cell phone models I am not surprised to see the naysayers here on Amazon shooting down this gadget.
Overall, it's a gadget that is meant purely for convenience sake. If the clip design were improved (and maybe the overall pad design was more sleeker), then this pad can be a big seller.
Works if you have the right phone
The concept of the Duracell MyGrid, as well as other pad charging devices, seemed like a good approach to eliminate all the different cables needed to charge your different devices. So I was excited to give the product a try on my many mobile devices. In our house we have an Iphone, Motorola Krazr, LG phone as well as a few others. I knew going into this that your phone had to be certified to work with this device and on the box they list Blackberry, Motorola, and Nokia. But what I didn't know was is how specific and limited the list was for the adaptors included. The box on the front shows a list of about 5 or 6 motorola phones such a Razr so I figured it would work with the Krazr as well as they have the same USB port for charging. That was not the case, the adaptor fits but the phone did not receive any charge from the pad. This means that the phone won't work at all with this device. The box did not list anything for LG phones so I was out of luck on that one, now onto the Iphone. The box shows that it is Iphone compatible with additional purchased adaptor that you have to utilize. So out of the box none of my devices worked unless I spend more money to buy more adaptors. And that is the real question on this technology, what is the difference between having to plug in my iphone small charger or hooking up an adaptor to it to work with this device. Seems like the same hassle to me and with my Iphone or Motorola chargers I don't have to worry about additional adaptors just to charge my device. The adaptor for the Motorola is very small so can be easily lost which would require buying a replacement.
So in the end, I'm not sure this technology is worth the cost and hassle when my current chargers for each device I have work and I don't have to buy the charging pad and adaptors to do the same work that came with my devices. If there was one adaptor that could be used for more devices then maybe this would be worth it but for now I don't see the utility in spending the money.
