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Quick Review: Griffin Powerdock 5 Port USB charger: Expensive but effective

I’ve been using the Griffin Powerdock 5 to charge my devices for over a month now and I don’t have anything terribly profound to say about it.  It works.  It works well.  It charges 5 devices including iPads and tablets as quickly as possible. The output for each USB port is 10 watts (5 volts DC @ 2.1 amps) for each charging bay.

You can even charge portable speakers like the Logitech Boom or JBL Charge as fast as their native chargers will. It also looks nice (when you get short wires pictured above, not my set up below).

The problem? The retail price is $100, and we’re seeing low prices around $75. That’s a little bit nuts for a 5-port charger even if it is well designed and effective.

There are nice items at Amazon including this Anker 5-port USB charger (which can also quick-charge 2 iPads) for $16-20 and gets great reviews. It is hard to justify paying 4 times the price for a nice plastic stand.  But it you think it is pretty, have at it:

Not me:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyppUIP7Odk]

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Comments

  1. Scott C - 10 years ago

    I have one. I will be placing strips of that dashboard pads in between the plastic separators so the devices don’t slide around so easily. Also, I picked up son 8 inch lightning and microusb cables. Looks much enter. The charger is very light and shifts with the slightest tap. Overall I like it and would recommend it.

    • Seth Weintraub - 10 years ago

      I agree. Wish it were a little heavier. They could have put the power brick in the unit to both make it look better and have it function better (weighted down more). To me, if it were $30-40 it would be a buy. At $75, not so much.

Author

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Seth Weintraub

Publisher and Editorial Director of the 9to5/Electrek sites.


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