Cheap Peak PKCOAZ 450 Amp Jump Starter with USB and 12 Volt DC Portable

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $99.99
Sale Price: $69.97
Today's Bonus: 30% Off

I purchased this with the purpose in mind of using it as a portable power source for things like when I go camping it can provide power for lights, an air mattress inflator, etc. The battery rating of "18 amp/hour" tells you it should be able to run something drawing ~18 amps for 1 hour, 9 amps for 2 hours, etc. I've even tried using it to power a small inflatable boats trolling motor for over an hour and it didn't drain it, but I mainly kept the motor on the low setting (using ~8 amps, high would use ~15 amps but I used that only ~10 minute of the time I was out).

Note: New units are out with a digital display of battery level showing % of charge (instead of LEDs) and has the charge unit built in (with no "charge port"), so the things I've said about those items may have changed if you're ordering one now. The current pictures show the old one, the new one has the main switch for the cables on the front panel.

The only issue I've had with my unit (why I dropped 1 star) is for charging it, I've had to send power thru the lighter outlet or main jumper cables. The red LED indicating "charging" comes on with it plugged in to their "charge port", but after leaving it plugged in for an hour there was no increase in voltage. I connected up a charger to the other places and instantly saw "12.75V, 12.76, 12.77, etc" (about at the same rate you can say those numbers out loud) showing it was actually charging (and FYI I still used a 500mA charger like they provide, not a 10amp or such). Also the switch for the outlets didn't turn them off, but they pass power fine. Update Dec 2012: I got the guts to open up the case and on the back of the circuit board, I saw a line of solder going across the switch terminals for the "power outlet" switch. I'm 99% sure that shouldn't have been there, so popped it off and now the switch turns off the outlets. Still not sure about the charge issue though and didn't want to risk breaking the circuit board trying to dig too deep. I've since got another of these (but the model with the air compressor) for my sister and it accepts a charge thru the "charge port" normally, so it seems a random problem.

For older units, the battery indicator LEDs come on as follows:

While something's in the "charge jack" (to tell the unit that you're charging it) the red LED shows with under 12.75V, the yellow LED shows for 12.75-13.1V, a green LED shows for 13.1-13.5V and 2 green LEDs show for over 13.5. If nothing is connected to that "charge jack" (hinting you're draining the battery) the red LED shows for under 11.6V, the yellow shows for 11.6-11.9V, a green is on for 11.9-12.25V and double green show for over 12.25V. Those make sense to me because 13-14V is fully charged and what you want to measure while charging, yet down in that 12.5-11.5 area is what you want to measure while draining.

This has a switch for the main "jumper cables" that eliminates arcing as you hook them up and it allows the unit to have a "reverse connection alarm". That alarm sounds if you hook them up backwards before you turn it on (and should prevent an explosion that could result). Without the switch, you can't have that alarm and you can't "turn off" those cables (a review of another unit without a switch says "a fire started in my car since the cables are always on and touched each other"). That switch may add a bit of resistance during a jump start and another step to remember to do, but those safety features are good to consider as well.

As far as it living up to it's title of "jump starting" a car, I have doubts. Just like this battery is ~1/3 the size/weight of a car battery, you won't get but about that much power from it (and the labels like "450 amp" or "900 peak amp" are just a big salesman lie to make it sound big). My proof is from connecting up a 100 amp battery tester to it freshly charged, the battery drops to 9.5V under that load for 5 seconds (and that power draw is close to what a small car starter needs). I was taught in shop class that a car battery should keep 10.5V under 1/2 it's CCA load, so this doesn't pass as even a 200 Cold Crank Amp (so how do they get "450"?).

Update Oct-2012: I tried starting my Ford Festiva (4 cyl) with this alone on a morning with it ~40 degrees out (disconnecting the car battery to partly simulate a dead one). It did start it, but the starter was slow just barely being able to crank it. I tested my car battery the next morning and it's labeled as 500cca, but passed as only a 200cca (showing I need to replace it soon). After doing that test I started the car and didn't notice anything abnormal (with the starter going much better than on the Peak unit alone, even after the drain from the test).

The cars battery condition will also play a big role in whether or not this can "boost" you enough to get you going. If a cars battery is pretty weak (like from leaving your lights on while you went to a movie for 2 hours) but can still provide some power, this can give you some extra power and has a fair chance of getting you going. But if a cars battery is fully drained (like from leaving lights on all night long) and you hook this up to the fully "dead" battery, the dead battery will instantly start "stealing" power (to recharge itself) & probably drain this before you can even get from the hood to the driver seat to start the car. In that situation I doubt you'll get started without another full size car battery or a charging source for 20+ minutes (an a/c charger or car & jumper cables).

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Features are good. Materials are bad.

Zipper bag to hold accessories is brilliant. Everything worked well when I got it. It has plenty of power and stays charged for months at a time.

However, after owning it for about a year, and keeping it in the house it has started to fall apart. The air hose is weather checked and will be cracked through soon. The battery clips are plastic with metal inserts. While the clip was attached to a battery, it broke. Unit is nearly useless until I get a new set of clip leads. This unit is better than many models sold at auto parts stores, but it still falls short of a durable, reliable item.

Review of eForCity CAR CHARGER Compatible with BLACKBERRY 8520 8530 CURVE

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This charger did not last but a few weeks. Broke in my cigarette lighter and metal pieces were left causing a spark. Was cheep but you get what you pay for.

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This came very quickly. It still works in May. I am very happy with the purchase. I really like it.

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I use this charger when I'm driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Although it says charger for the 8520 curve, it does not fit into my car lighter slot, cannot use it

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The charger works and fits okay once the vehicle is not moving. My issue is that it keeps falling off the charging port on my phone when ever i am driving. Need to find a better solution.

SOLARBAK stand alone Solar Panel, charges mobile devices, attaches Review

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List Price: $199.00
Sale Price: $39.99
Today's Bonus: 80% Off

my wife thinks im nuts. will take tto the field. keep my phone and gps charged. i get lost a lot. I leave the collector in camp but put the battery in my pocket. gives me longer time to call when i get lost.

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Disappointed that it would not charge a laptop. Returned it as that was the primary need. That needs to be in large type displayed on the info.

Buy Motorola TalkAbout T6310 2-Mile 14-Channel FRS Two-Way Radio

Customer Ratings:

The good.

I got a pair of these for Christmas and have used them while out Kayaking and to keep track of where people are hunting. The terrain is 100-150 foot bluffs leading down to the river and full grown hardwoods covering the 1000+ acres we were in. Reception broke up some at the bottom of the bluffs, but was crystal clear on land. Transmission and reception distance was checked using a GPS and two miles through the woods is the limit. The F.M. radio feature was nice I sat and listened to music paddling and during lunch. Whenever someone would talk the F.M. radio would stop and I could hear conversations clearly. After a second or two pause the F.M. radio would start playing again. It also stops when you transmit. I set the default display for the clock and ended up being very convenient and will likely be left there. The alarm clock/radio feature does work so you can leave one more thing home when you travel with it. If you are used to setting electronics up things are relatively easy considering this is a multifuntion device. The hardest part was figuring out what the two way settings were actually used for as this was my first FRS radio. The NiCads evidently did the trick, I used it all day and the display indicated more than half a charge was left.

The bad.

The belt clip is O.K. on a belt, but if you want to clip it on your upper body so you can just push the button to talk back you will have to work to make it stay in place. I did not like the vox feature as it was too hard to make it transmit even with sensativity set high. The earbuds will have to go and be replaced with the unit that hooks on the top of the ear. I had to keep my stocking hat on all day and rolled down to keep the ear buds in place. The only other thing that I noticed was whenever you recieve or transmit the E.L. backlighting automatically comes on and times out slower than the timer for the F.M. radio to come on and you get to listen to the interference caused by the backlighting module.

The ugly.

I did initially buy the 6320 but returned it as the description of the features in the Cabelas catalog is wrong. It costs more and does not have the F.M. radio built in. Too bad! I would have paid the extra money just the get the amazon green cover. It is just my opinion but the 6310 which is the model I like the best is also the worst color. Such is life.

Would I buy it again? Yes. Will I recommend it to my friends? Yes.

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I have used the Talkabout 250's for about 1 year. The 6310 performs just as well, and has many additional features that I find useful. Also, I get about twice the battery life over the 250.

The only drawback that I have found over the 250, is that it is not as easy to change channels. Also, the user interface is not very intuitive.

However, if you can use the extra features, the 6310 is a great radio.

Best Garmin 12V Adapter Cable Deals

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List Price: $39.98
Sale Price: $30.58
Today's Bonus: 24% Off

I don't know why amazon has this listed for the Rino 5xx series radios they require more power and use a lithium ion recharable pack to get it. This adapter is for the 1xx series radios designed around disposable batteries. YOU NEED A DIFFERENT ADAPTER FOR THE 5XX SERIES THIS IS A WASTE OF MONEY FOR THOSE RADIOS. Amazon should know better.

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Item is advertised as working with all rino series but it does not work with the rino 530

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The item is fine. It was the wrong DC adaptor for the Garmin unit purchased. It was listed along the Garmin unit as the correct one for the unit. It was for another Garmin line of products. I'm sure it worked well on the correct product.

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It has the straight cord just like the picture, not a coiled cord as description states. Works great.

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have had this charger for Rino 130 about 2 mos. Mud, snow, ice and it performs well. No power losses & no shorts. Must have item considering short batt life on GPS's....

Cheap Charger Bat 110V Cig Style 2500Ke .5Volt

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List Price: $30.45
Sale Price: $20.95
Today's Bonus: 31% Off

Unless you keep the two together, chances are you are going to lose the adapter for your battery charger. Since that will effectively render it useless, you might find yourself looking for a replacement. There is nothing worse than buying a cable that, for all intents and purposes, looks like it's going to work, but then it doesn't. I am happy to report that this cable is a fine replacement to your lost/damaged one. It works just fine and will keep your SS charger in use for many years to come.

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This was priced right and is a good little battery charger for the small price that it was sold for.

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This type of charger is harg to find and it was needed for the usage of the product.and should have been included.

Reviews of Satechi CHR-61 4-Way 12V Car Socket Extender Charger Adapter

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List Price: $24.99
Sale Price: $19.99
Today's Bonus: 20% Off

Anyone contemplating the purchase of the Satechi CHR-61 might want to know about a design feature that's not documented on either the Amazon or Satechi websites.

The Amazon/Satechi photos and descriptions mention LED's associated with each of the 4 main power ports as well as for the USB port. It turns out that there are actually two sets of LED's associated with each of the main power ports and a single fifth LED associated with the USB port.

When the 4 main 12V ports are switched off, blue LED's mounted beneath each push button switch glow brightly. When the ports are switched on, the blue LED's turn off and red LED's mounted above each of the push buttons turn on. The fifth LED associated with the USB port always glows blue, and does not change color, even when an attached device becomes fully charged (as is the case with most USB chargers).

The issue I have is that even when turned off, each of the main power ports' associated LED's are always on with no way to disable them. That means that if you plug this unit into a cigarette lighter socket that always on (as is the case with many vehicles), these 5 very bright LED's could eventually drain your vehicle's battery. I know that LED's typically don't draw very much current, but given enough time, full drain could occur.

Additionally, because they're so bright, I think many might find them distracting, especially when driving at night. While some customers might like these always-on LED's, I don't, and think they're inclusion is a dumb design decision.

Because I was otherwise OK with this unit's design, I decided to try disabling the blue LED's myself. If my experiment failed, no big deal; I'd just trash the thing and purchase something else.

I disassembled the unit by removing 4 small bottom screws, and then, using a pair of needle nose pliers, extracted the 4 main, rectangular, blue LED's from the circuit board. The fifth USB-related LED is round and attaches to the circuit board via 2 lead wires, which can be easily severed using wire cutters. I left the remaining upper row of red LED's intact.

After reassembly (it's a bit tricky to get all the parts aligned properly), I plugged the unit back into my cigarette lighter and determined that removing the blue LED's had no apparent effect on operation. That is, all main 12V ports still operated normally except that now there is no glowing LED when a push button switch is off, but the red LED does glow when a switch is on.

The 5V USB port is now permanently dark, but otherwise continues to function normally. I should note that it's also possible that the remaining circuitry might also draw some small amount of current even when all switches are off, but I have no way to test whether or not this is the case.

If you don't like the always-on LED feature of this unit, but are not inclined to tinker (the hack I describe also clearly voids the warranty), then you might want to consider another product.

By the way, I'd judge the overall build quality of the Satechi CHR-61 to be adequate, though not great. The push button switches don't operate very smoothly, but they're probably OK for their purpose. The circuit board and internal construction look OK to me (I'm a former electronics manufacturing engineer).

As a final note, if you're considering a semi-permanent installation of this unit in your vehicle, you might want to use sticky-back Velcro, rather than the included 3M adhesive pad. While perhaps not as stable as the adhesive pad, the Velcro would allow for easy removal and re-attachment.

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I wanted something like this with four switched outlets badly enough to start building my own. With this thing's measly $20 price, I kicked the homebrew solution to the curb. I'd rather have the switches and the jacks on the same face instead of on opposite sides so I could tuck it into a little cubby below my stereo, but I'll get over that.

Fears of battery drain from the LEDs are absurd.

Yes, the blue LEDs are bright, but that brightness does not necessarily require high power consumption. With all switches off, my unit consumes 30mA @ 12V. With all switches on and no accessories plugged in, illuminating the reds consumes 36 mA @ 12V.

The energy in a single alkaline AA battery, ignoring for a moment that an AA battery only supplies 1.5V, could power this thing for five days. In the context of a 40-pound lead-acid storage battery with orders-of-magnitude more energy capacity than the AA cell, 30mA is utterly negligible. If you're not going to drive your car for a month, sure, go ahead and unplug it. Leaving your vehicle idle for a weekend, don't worry about it.

My unit has a curious but ultimately trivial defect: the plug labels are reversed. The "plug 1" switch operates the socket labeled "plug 4". I don't know if all units are the same way. I first assumed the assembler simply oriented the plate wrong, so I disassembled it to correct the flaw. Well, surprise on me, the plate is keyed to the shell so it can't be reoriented. I now figure that whoever printed the labels on the plate goofed.

Jim Wood said in his review "it's a bit tricky to get all the parts aligned properly" when reassembling it. I'd change "a bit tricky" to "ridiculously fussy." Resist the urge to take it apart unless you have a really good reason.

During my peek inside, I saw some rather poor craftsmanship. The PCBs look fine, but they're surely assembled by robots. The hand-soldering, on the other hand, is generously described as "amateurish." I'm not afraid that the unit is going to catch on fire or fry my phone charger or cause any other trouble, but I won't be surprised if it flakes out in a year.

Don't mistake criticism for dissatisfaction. I'm really happy with the purchase. It fulfills a simple need in a simple way. It's unobtrusive enough to go unnoticed, but good-looking enough that it doesn't need to be hidden.

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There isn't much more to say about this product than it works and has worked well with everything I've plugged into it thus far. Right now it is charging my iPhone 3G through the USB port, but it has also charged my GPS and another iPhone through the main sockets at the same time without any problems. It is also a nice option to be able to deactivate the unused ports to ensure that you aren't draining any power from your car battery unnecessarily.

I will also say that the main cord is a nice length and is long enough so that the adapter is currently connected my dashboard socket, but is physically situated between my center console and the passenger seat without any problems. It's a very nice product and I have had zero compatibility issues so far.

Honest reviews on Satechi CHR-61 4-Way 12V Car Socket Extender Charger Adapter

This item puts a large amount of Radio Frequency noise. Enough noise to effectively block my FM transmitter. Only when I plugged the FM transmitter in a separate outlet and placed the two devices as far apart as possible, the radio could receive a very weak static filled signal of my music. I is the FM transmitter every day and planned on plugging it into this car socket power stip. I like all of the features except the always on led lights. If you do not plan on using this with a FM transmitter I think it is a great buy.

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i have this for about a month now, its ok but its not actually that great

Pros : Great concept and design

Cons: the Charger holes are a tad big, if your actually mounting it sideways,

where the Buttons is facing up and the charger plug holes facing down, it Loses connection

Discount Gizmo Dorks Hard Slim Cover Case (Black) with Carabiner Key Chain

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List Price: $11.99
Sale Price: $4.99
Today's Bonus: 58% Off

excellent for my Garmin , price was good,it fits good nice and secur fit,easy open and close ,very protective unit

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This case was bought for my mother, so is not being personally used. She loves the quality and price paid for the case.

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Its a real hard case ideal for the 5" devices.I bought it for the 4.3" GPS but then I'm using it for the 2 TB hard disk I bought recently since it has pouch for cable.

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I got it for my 5" Garmin nuvi 50LM GPS. It's over sized by half an inch in each direction. The sides are stiff, so it offers good protection from bending or puncturing. I would prefer something that's a better fit so it takes up less space in my car's center arm rest console. I'm not sure why it comes with the carabiner clip.

Reviews of Dell Latitude E6430U - Core i3-3217U 1.8GHz 4GB Ram 128GB SSD 14

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this is a good looking laptop. the only downside is if you need to install software from CD. make sure you have an external CD drive to attach if you need additional software installed.

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Cheap Black Premium Rapid Car Charger (with IC CHIP) for UTStarcom

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This charger works great! The best thing is that it cost about half the price being charged at cell phone stores!

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Good enough charger for cheap price, if you're like me and have work-vehicles it's best to buy the cheapest chargers that work since they seem to grow legs...

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I was sent a charger that was completely wrong, after trying to contact the seller and amazon for a full refund several times, I still have the charger and nobody is willing to help... If there was 0 stars, I would rate the seller a 0.

Cheap Gomadic Intelligent Compact AC Home Wall Charger for the Garmin

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List Price: $29.95
Sale Price: $19.76
Today's Bonus: 34% Off

The product was exactly like it was advertised and it was sent to me very quickly and all the process was first class.

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Unless your car doesn't have a readily accessible power outlet, or unless you use this outside of the car (i.e. walking, biking), this accessory is not really needed. I've used it only a couple of times.

Reviews of Rapid Car Charger for Nokia 6101/N95/E71/5800 XpressMusic/E72/E63

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List Price: $19.99
Sale Price: $2.99
Today's Bonus: 85% Off

I can recommend this item. I bought it and used 2 weeks for my long journey. There is no problem.

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It is very good and affordable to use with the Nokia phone purchased without it. It was easy to purchase and it works well.

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Works like a charm for our Nokia 6061 cell phones. Our previous car charger broke and we needed a new one. This one was quite a bit cheaper than other we've been looking at. Would definitely recommend this to anyone who needs a car charger for their cell phone.

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ACCStop described this car charger as fitting a Nokia 2610 cell phone. However, it does not. The piece that fits into the phone is too small. They apologized and sent me another one just like it. I sent another email indicating that I now have two of these that do not fit the Nokia 2610. They again apologized and indicated they would send one that fits properly, but did not. I never received the correct part. Lost $4.25.

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I've had this charger for a couple years and it has worked reliably with my Nokia 6061 phone. For a bargain priced item, that's about as good as it can get.

Cheap Schumacher PSW-7700 DSR ProSeries 300/70/35/30/15 Amp 6/12/24 Volt

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List Price: $572.30
Sale Price: $476.99
Today's Bonus: 17% Off

I own a car shop and the item is robust, and its capabilities described are the same as the ones the item has, maybe the only disadvantage is the union between the cables which will be better if they where more compact. also no where to stand by the clamps and the cable

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Great Product, I am very pleased with the quality of this product. I highly recommend it to others. A+ +

Discount Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX Vehicle Navigation Dock with Rapid Vehicle

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List Price: $59.99
Sale Price: $29.95
Today's Bonus: 50% Off

For the most part, I am comparing this to official Motorola car dock for my Droid 1. This car dock for the MAXX is a GREAT improvement and shows Motorola can actually incorporate some good ideas.

First, I made sure to research docks before getting one. Which can be hard since this one didn't have a ton of user reviews right away. Quickly I did learn that what Verizon was pushing in their stores was not the same as could be ordered from Motorola and elsewhere. My biggest draw was the integrated audio. This is a great idea and, in my opinion, worth the premium over the Verizon (which doesn't have the integrated audio cable). My old Droid dock was just a holder for the phone. I had to supply the charging cord and the aux cable (which went to the 3.5mm jack in the phone). It got cluttered, but hey, that's the way is was 2 years ago.

This dock for the MAXX has the connector that slides in to lock the phone in place, charge it, and place audio. Only one cable that goes into the back of the dock. Very clean. 2nd USB port is also a plus. The "horn" that comes with this dock has the same size ball as my old Droid dock, as well as my old Garmin, so use which ever you like. I like my old Garmin because it is more compact and uses a smaller disk. I haven't had any issue with this dock losing suction, so I'm happy there. Also, just pressing the phone into the dock without inserting the USB/audio connector is easy and seems to keep the phone in there pretty well. It isn't to hard to pull it out, just watch for where the volume buttons are so you don't change them accidentally.

I have one gripe. I use a bluetooth device to [sometimes] talk when I'm driving. This device is also capable of playing music from my phone. With my old setup (Droid,dock), I would have BT broadcast enabled on the device, the music to BT option enabled, and a cable in the headphone jack going to my car stereo. I'm listening to something from my phone and it plays on the car stereo. When I get a call, it pauses the music on the phone, answers the call via BT device, I talk, hang up, music resumes over car stereo. Perfect. With the MAXX and its dock, I no longer need to plug anything into the 3.5mm jack while I'm in the car. The problem is when I have BT function enabled, music to BT option enable, and the integrated USB/audio connect inserted everything is pushed to the BT device. If I turn off the BT device or disable the BT function on the phone, then music plays through the car stereo. If I forego the dock and just use an aux cable going to the 3.5mm jack on the phone, then everything works great (as it did w/ the Droid). This seems like a major oversight and I would think that it is just a software issue (but hey, I didn't design this thing). Now, this is probably more a flaw of the phone than of the dock, but since Motorola makes both the phone and the dock and both of the items work exclusively with each other, I think people need to know about it. There is no reason the integrated USB/audio connector should affect the transfer of functions to the BT any differently than the 3.5mm jack.

I'll gladly edit if I find out anything new on the BT issue or if an update fixes it. Overal, great product at an acceptable price, with one oversight.

==================================================================================================================

Edit 6/8/12

I've noticed that over the past month the audio crackles when going over bumps and rough roads. It is the micro USB connection of the cable to the dock that is failing. When I hold the connection rigid or switch to using the 3.5mm jack then there are no issues. After looking at the micro USB side of the cable under magnification I can see that several of the metal prongs are flatter than others.

Now, I first have to admit that I do not drive on the smoothest roads, and even for Wisconsin I think these are some of the worst roads around. I would still expect better performance than lasting 3 months. I have taken the review down from 4 stars to 2 because of this. And to think that I was disappointed with getting only 1 year out of the bad retaining tab on the original Droid.... I expected better from Motorola. I don't think that expecting this to last more than 3 months was too high.

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03-12-2012

Dock arrived in "non retail packaging" as described, which means it comes in a plastic bag instead of a box (still includes directions, individually packaged cords, etc.) It works perfect. When I plug my phone in, launches the custom navigation mode. This mode is customizable.

Construction of the mount is solid as well. Cords are quality.

I will be updating after a few uses.

UPDATE 03-31-2012

After using this dock numerous times in the past few weeks, I'm still pleased with it. Motorola also has a car finder app that when you unplug your phone from the dock, it automatically launches to save your location for easy car location. This app must be downloaded separately from the Google Play Android Market.

Dock Plug cord: definitely worth the extra cash. The dock plug integrates an MP3 cable INTO THE USB. It works flawlessly. This makes it so instead of having a cord plugged into the phone's headphone jack as well as a usb cord plugged into the dock, there is only one cord, the usb cord, plugged into the dock. Instead, your headphone/mp3/auxiliary cable plugs into the usb cable at the other end near your cigarette lighter. Very convenient. This allows for easy phone removal with NO CORDS unplugging from phone.

Stability: I have had no app stability problems during the several hours of use. App launches when phone is docked and closes when phone is un-docked.

Features: Features are simple (navigation, podcasts, music, internet radio). Outside of these, not much here. HOWEVER, this makes it easier to use with less complication.

Voice Features: a little lacking here; only allows you to say "read message" when receiving a text or "make call" in response to receiving a message. These features work and both reads and makes calls to voice commands: however, these features are only activated when receiving messages/calls. I wish they would be available outside these situations. Perhaps a future update will provide more.

*More to come

Best Deals for Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX Vehicle Navigation Dock with Rapid Vehicle

I won't reiterate what has already been said about the actual product, but I would like to discuss fit. Please be aware that this navigation dock only fits the Maxx WITHOUT a case. I have a hard plastic case on my Maxx, and it does not fit into the dock unless I remove it. Having to remove the case every time I want to use the dock is quite the nuisance and I wish the dock would've been designed to allow for some adjustments. If anyone has input on alternative docks or a way to manipulate the Maxx dock to fit with a case, please share.

Honest reviews on Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX Vehicle Navigation Dock with Rapid Vehicle

OK, so I bought this for traveling to use the navigation and it works well. The only thing that doesn't really work for me is the charging. It works to a degree, but not as I had hoped. So to explain a little further, when I use the navigation, and the battery was charged down to say 40 or 50 %, I have it plugged into the lighter socket and the battery doesn't deplete, but it doesn't increase either. I used to to drive about 2.5 hours and it stayed at 50% the whole trip. On the way home, I used the navigation and radio app at the same time, and the battery actually drained as I used it. I was hopeful that the charging would be better. Still haven't decided if I want to keep it or no because of that.

Please note that the audio on mine playing thru the provided jack and into the Aux in of my car works flawlessly. The sound is awesome. Maybe I got a bad charger part and other got a bad audio jack.

The suction works perfectly for me. Didn't fall off once.

Also, sometime when I dock the phone and try to lock in the charger part, it doesn't go in easily. I have to carefully press, release, press, etc, until it goes in.

And, no, for those asking, you cannot use any case when using this. You must remove it from the case. I have a few easy ones to remove, so that isn't a problem for me.

I know that using navigation, especially in junction with i heart radio or Pandora, will use more battery life, but I thought since it was plugged in to charge, and yes the charge icon is showing charging, I figured it would still charge somewhat.

I will try to use the phone by itself without any apps or anything running, to see if this charger does work. But I haven't traveled anywhere since that trip other than a short trip to work and back. Last time I tried this, for about a half an hour, it went from 20% to 21% in 30 minutes. My standalone charger was much quicker than that. Just mentioning this so you know.

I still recommend this, but if it isn't to your satisfaction, you can always return it.

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Unfortunately, the USB cable that was included in the packaging was NOT the USB cable pictured in the description. The CORRECT USB cable has an additional dongle with a 3.5mm audio jack, so only one cable is connected to the dock itself and both audio and 750Ma of charge are carried by it. The cable that was included in the sealed box was the run-of-the-mill motorola USB cable that would only carry charge (and probably was a data cable limited to 500Ma, although I don't know that for sure).

I contacted Amazon Customer Service to see if the correct cable could be exchanged, however the ONLY remedy was to return the entire item and re-order. Customer Service was unable to assure that the next item shipped to me would not have the same issue, so now I play the waiting game to see if this was a simple packaging oversight or a systemic issue. Based upon my reading of recent reviews, it looks like others are receiving the correct USB cable, so here's hoping!

Oh, and the price jumped $12 since I ordered it... Fortunately I noticed while still in live chat with customer service and they issued me a credit to make up the difference.

If the next box arrives with an incorrect cable, I will NOT be a happy camper. However, if the next box arrives with the proper cables, I will revise this review and rate as appropriate, although I will still knock off one star for the hassle.

EDIT 10/09/2012 Received new shipment of this product, the correct cable WAS in the box this time! Will further update once installed.

EDIT 10/14/2012 Installed, works quite well. I have love/hate relationship with Motorola... I dislike how they have handled software issues (Motoblur, Music Player on DroidX2, Bionic/Atrix upgrade fiasco, locked bootloaders, etc.), but I have to say from a hardware perspective their stuff is first rate. The ability to have a single cable to the car dock with audio and charge carried by it is great! Motorola has clearly put a lot of thought into accessories for their phones.