I'll be fair, the car dock is great, the phone fits in very snug, but in my case Verizon blew it with their Bing and VZ Navigator crapware. But it's not a big deal to switch over to Google's navigation app. The dock is by far the best looking dock I've seen to date. My car doesn't have a mp3/audio input jack so I'm not going to even comment on that. Since I'm a freak about keeping my cars windshield clean on the inside I was very happy that it came with a single sided 3M sticky plate so I could mount the dock else where other than the windshield and plus I don't have to have the power cable dangling in front of me. Also I've read reviews from people that they purchased the dock with the understanding that a charger was included, but when they received the dock, there was no charger. Well the car dock I got came with the charger. But you might want to verify with the seller just in case. The only other things I'm not to crazy about is that I have to take my phones case off every time I want to use the dock. Also when I want to take the phone out of the dock, it's in there to snug. Samsung Fascinate Galaxy S SCH-I500 Mesmerize i500 OEM Samsung ECS-M985BEGSTA Cell Phone Vehicle Navigation Mount / Window Mount (Black)
I hardly ever write reviews, but I had to about this product because honestly, the price and quality blew me away and I can't understand why all the complaints and sub five star ratings (unless they were written before the 2.2 upgrade to our Fascinates). First, I remember this dock when I originally got the Fascinate was going for $40 and was almost convinced to get it then, but the price was kind of difficult to stomach. Plus, at that time, Android 2.1 made the user interface a pain to live with as you were stuck with Verizon Navi. Fast forward, I purchased it through here for just shy of $17 including shipping, and our phones now have the 2.2 upgrade. It arrived in three days, in original Verizon/Samsung packaging, brand new. Still had the $39 sticker on there! I've used several car windsheild docks before, I've owned three tomtoms, and had several docks for various phones and ipods. This dock is probably the best form and finish factor out of all the ones I've used. It just feels sturdy and looks nice. I'm not a fan of sticking things on my dash and leaving behind sticky residue, so this opinion is based on this dock as a windshield mount. It has a great suction device, no chance this thing is falling off. It is very sturdy, and the dock swivels 360 degrees as well as at any angles for tilting, all effortlessly. Note, the pivot point is behind the phone, which you can't see in pictures, is what swivels, not the arm or base. This makes for a very sturdy and efficient method and keeps what passengers in the car sees very clean looking. This has been attached in my Subaru Forester and Acura MDX and no problems reaching it or with angles on either. I especially like the quick 360 degree orientation adjustment just by turning the phone as I prefer google maps in verticl mode, not in landscape, but prefer most other things in landscape. I do this effortlessly with this method where everything is based on the swiveling head.
Finally, for those that have had problems with the speaker phone not working when you dock it, there is a big button on the screen when you dock it that shows a microphone with sound coming from it. If you don't want to use the 3.5 mm jack, push the button, it will operate in speaker phone mode like normal. Simple. What else do you think this button is for that is shown clearly on the middle of the screen? Also, you don't even have to use it in car dock mode, you can click "EXIT", also shown right in the middle of the screen as an icon. Finally, you can completely turn off all docking functionality with the drop down menu from the top and just look at it from the normal screen. If you can't figure this out, you probably shouldn't be using a smartphone (scratch that, you shouldn't be using one, not probably), because honestly, these were all common sense. These options aren't hidden, they're right their on the screen clear as day in the middle as icons, not even hidden in the corners or anything. 2.2 has made a big difference as far as functionality with this dock. Blue tooth calls, blue tooth audio with Pandora, and especially Navi, are all excellent with this dock.
The only downsides are that you can't add extensions to make it longer, but you can't do that with TomTom, Garmins, etc. either, IMO, it makes it look cheap and makes the dock less sturdy. Also, there is no charger, but the article never said there was a charger, the pictures doesn't show one, so its not like they advertised falsly. I just hooked up my Samsung car charger to it, works perfectly. For this price and quality, this can't be beat!
A pretty good mount for my Samsung Mesmerize. It holds it perfectly and I like that you can turn it horizontal or vertical. I did have trouble getting the cup to suction to my window, you really have to make sure the surface and clean and dry. I found that when the weather gets really hot the mount will fall off sometimes. But other then that it works great, the charger is a nice feature too. Perfect for the extremely cheap price I paid.
We have 2 different galaxy S phones and fits both well and recognizes the mount and goes into driving mode. the holder is the original Samsung product.
cons.
rattles just a little while driving "when the fone is removed
charge/dock port could have lined up with the fone better, takes a little pressure to get the port into the phone
The good: excellent suction cup, phone is solid in the mount, price is not bad. There are no vibrations so looking at your phone doesn't drive your eyes buggy.
The bad: Hard to mount on most dashes as the dash angles down toward the windshield and the mount will not adjust down enough in this situation. Phone can be a bit hard to get out of the mount when you want it to.
Overall, pretty decent product. - Mounts - Car Dock'
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