A while back I’ve reviewed one of the bestselling accessories made and sold by Griffin, named PowerDock Dual. This is basically a nicely designed dock able of holding two iOS devices, and charging them simultaneously. Since this dock features the old 30-pin connector, it can’t be used with the newest generation of iOS devices, so Griffin decided to unveil a new generation of PowerDock.
In case you didn’t know, PowerDock is one of the bestselling Griffin’s franchises, which is over five years old and which consists of a several generations of products. This was always a dock capable of handling more than one iOS device, always nicely designed and very Apple-like. In this article we are going to take a look at PowerDock 5, the newest generation of PowerDock franchise.
The main difference between PowerDock 5 and its predecessors is that this product doesn’t come with any connectors, so you are going to need to supply your own cables. This was expected because of Apple’s decision of high licensing prices of Lightning connectors, and this is something that affected many iOS-compatible accessories. The PowerDock 5 is priced at $100, but keep in mind that you’ll need to purchase up to five Lightning cables which are priced at $19 each, so this can be a very expensive product.
Just like its predecessors, this is also a nicely designed dock. You’ll basically get a white and black plastic rack, able to holding up to five iOS devices. On the top you’ll find six plastic inserts which are there to hold devices, which now need to be placed in landscape orientation. This is needed because USB ports are placed on one side of PowerDock 5, so you’ll get a lot of cables lying around, with no place to hide.
In order to charge up to five devices simultaneously, you’ll need to plug them into provided USB ports and you’ll also need to connect the PowerDock 5 to a wall outlet. Those five USB ports are able of auto-switching from 0.5-Amp, 1-Amp, and 2.1-Amp, which means that you can charge iPods, iPhones, and iPads as well. However, the newest generation of iOS devices use up to 2.4-Amps, so charging speeds won’t reach their full potential.
PowerDocks were probably the best docks for iOS devices for several years now, but it seems that this changed with the newest generation. No matter how hard PowerDock 5 tried to solve some issues and give you a solution for the newest generation of iOS devices, it failed in many ways. This is not a dock which gets rid of clutter and numerous cables, which was its primary role. This is now a device used to simultaneously charge up to five iPhones and iPads, and that’s all to it. Sure, it still can be useful in some situations, but it can’t be recommended to everyone, but only to those who are willing to accept some compromises and spend over $100-200 on a dock that’ll charge more than once device at a time.
