Alldock 2015 — Hands on and giveaway

Kickstarter and Indiegogo are outstanding ways to take your dream and turn it into reality. The problem for a lot of people is that they either don’t have a vision that captures peoples imaginations, or they don’t know how to sell it. But if you’re good at selling your vision to other people, you may end up as one of the many success stories that have appeared as a result of crowd funding. One such story is the Alldock, originally conceived at the end of 2013 and shipped in August 2014 has come of age with the second generation of the device now on Kickstarter.

The update is sensational with some tweaks to the old model as well as a couple of all new features to make it even better. The basic design is exactly the same as the first generation, a base with multiple slots for your devices to nestle in and get some juice. But where the second generation shows itself to be the new and improved model starts with the feel of the docking station. I backed the original and I still use it every day, but the new model feels and looks cleaner with smoother rounded edges and a ‘single handed docking” clip for the front slot of your dock.

The hardware setup was very simple and frankly doesn’t require any written instructions in the box. All you need to do is open the top of the dock, plug the wanted cables (they support other mobile OS devices as well as Android) in to the USB power hub internally, feed the cables through the slots you wish to use for charging and re-seat the slotted tray. Once you make your decision on where the Alldock is going to live, you can then plug it into the wall and begin using your charging dock. As an existing user of the first generation of Alldock, I found that it easily replaced my existing station and felt very comfortable to me in the habits that it requires to use. What really surprised me was the one hand docking and how convenient it was.

What’s actually new?

One-hand docking: Particularly on weekend when I will use my tablet heavily for a couple of hours, then put it away (out of reach of little people!) for a period of time I found myself dropping it straight into the dock rather than on the bedside table. Without me realising they had done so; the designers have changed my behavior and made my tablet even more useful by saving me 2 or 3 seconds at a shot by doing their job and making a good product even better.

4 x 2400mA USB ports in the dock: For anyone that has one of the original Alldocks, you would likely know that not all of the ports were capable of charging high power-consumption devices such as iPads or some Android devices. But the new Alldock can do exactly that on all of the ports which is an outstanding upgrade.

Magnetic fixings: The first generation of Alldock was a clip together device which could, if manipulated poorly result in the dock being broken. The 2015 model is magnetized making setting up the dock easier and the likelihood of returns on warranty far lower.

Watch Mount: While it is specifically labeled as being for the iWatch, the watch mount will work for a number of Android Wear devices (not perfectly though) with their charging solution, sadly not the Moto 360 which I have as my Android Wear device. If you’re buying this charging station for the watch charging arm, you’re going to be disappointed unless you own an Apple Watch.

The brutal truth is that Alldock isn’t a product for everyone, since not everyone has a phone, tablet, pocket wifi, smartwatch, kindle or various other review devices around; but for anyone that has 2 or more devices that require charging regularly or kids with multiple devices; it is absolutely a device worth looking at for the convenience it offers. If this all sounds appealing to you, you can head over to their Kickstarter page and back the new project or take a chance and try to win ours.

That’s right, a giveaway

We’re giving a new Alldock away, and all you need to do for a chance to win it is tell us in 25 words or less in the comments why you need an Alldock in your life. It could be a funny story, a sob story or an outright work of fiction but it needs to stand out among the crowd.

Our standard terms and conditions apply (which are set out below), and our entry form is right here:

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