magnusmx's Full Review: Callpod CHPA-0002 Chargepod 6-Way Mobile Device Ch...
I've had the Callpod Chargepod bundle for several months now. The following would be my experiences in using the Chargepod mostly on travel, but sometimes at home. For those of you that don't know, this device was supposed to be the end of tangled messes of wires running amuck, and multiple wall warts by allowing you to power / charge up to six devices at once off of one wall adapter.
Setup:
It's really simple as long as you have the proper proprietary device adapters. All you do is plug in the relatively large AC adapter (or car adapter) into the small puck's mini-usb type plug. Then plug in the proprietary device adapters into the puck for each device that you want to charge. Plug your devices in, and you're done. A blue LED lights up for each cable plugged in, regardless of whether its charging anything or not. The way the proprietary device dongles are designed (a couple of inches long for most) makes a tangled mess nearly impossible for each device plugged in. They also plug in a round the clock manner, and evenly spaced.
Good:
It simply works. One device that can charge all your devices, at home or on the go.
Generous AC Adapter cable length.
Callpod customer service is quick to respond and helpful. Gripes:
Adapters aren't available for everything. This is primarily designed to charge small personal electronic devices so things such as your laptop, portable DVD player, kindle 1.0, digital camera battery charger, etc are not supported. (They do have a new Chargepod type unit for laptops to be released this year).
The little adapters are easy to lose, and over time come off the chargepod a little too easily making them difficult to find like say, under the bed at a hotel.
The proprietary adapter cables are expensive, often running $10.00 per device or often about the price a real dedicated adapter would run.
The AC adapter is a few times bigger than the Chargepod. If they could manage to shrink the AC adapter down to the size of the Chargepod, I would like the entire setup a lot better. Because the AC adapter is so big, I don't casually bring the charger out with me regularly in my laptop bag making it less useful to me.
No airplane adapter included.
Expensive. I bought the bundle, and at the time it cost me close to $100 USD. Unfortunately I don't use most of the adapters it came with. But it did come with the car charger, which is not included in their cheaper bundles that they offer now.
Other notes and recommendations:
The LED indicator lights are really bright! I often need to cover it with a hand towel if I'm charging by bedside at a hotel or it'd light up the room.
They sell a universal USB adapter so that you can plug in your own USB charge cables for your devices. Buy a bunch of them in bulk online so that you can make use of your already existing USB charge cables which you might use to synch anyway. The ziplinq ones work great because they retract and allow you enough room to use the device a few feet away from the chargepod.
Buy a separate mesh bag to hold the valuable little adapter cables and tie them together with a rubber band when storing. I find some of the REI outdoor equipment stores have stuff that work well.
To use the chargepod effectively you really have to have a flat surface of about 1.5 square feet to work with if you are charging up to 6 devices.
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