Gdock is designed for be used as a docking station for use with Samsung Galaxy phones. It can also be used a speakers for any device if the device is connected via AUX IN port by audio cable (included). I received this unit from manufactory for testing purposes to write an unbiased and honest review. I tested this speaker with Android Phone, our two Android tablets (Nexus and Galaxy) as well as a computer speaker. You will find both positives and negatives I encountered during my testing.
Gdock works with AC power source or alternatively can work through a lithium-ion rechargeable battery (sold separately). However, it recharges the phone only when plugged into the AC source. When it operates on the battery it only behaves as the speakers.
I am attaching a collage of seven photos numbered 1 though 7 that I will be referencing in this review.
Photo #1 shows everything that comes in the box: Gdock, cradles, remove control, power cable, audio cable, power supply and cable.
Gdock comes with 6 holders for Galaxy SIII, Galaxy Note, Galaxy SII SGH-T989, Galaxy SII GT-I9100 SGH-1777, Galaxy SOO SPH-D719. The GDock comes pre-installed with a cradel fro S III cradle. The cradle can be removed by sliding it up, and replaced with another cradle if needed. Photo #1 shows me sliding one of the cradles into the dock.
Photo #2 shows the back of the unit, where in the center you see audio in and power connections. On the sides of the unit you see two bass ports for extending the bass performance.
One of the things I found in testing is that the sound is significantly improved if you position the unit in a way that the sound coming out of these port holes has a solid surface to reflect on. The difference was significant and significantly improved my opinion of the sound quality.
Photo #3 shows Gdock on the digital scale. It weights in at 3.3 pounds and feels significant and well built.
Gdock comes with a remote control, which has the following operations:
1. On/off
2. Mute on/off
3. Volume up and down
4. Reset to factory settings
5. Bass up and down
6. Change audio from Aux In to Samsung Galaxy
7. Treble up and down
When the unit is turned on a blue LED light on the front of the speaker is turned on. This light is a bit subtle, it shines through the speaker cloth and I did not notice it right away. I put a red square around this light in picture #7 to bring it to your attention.
To position the phone in the doc the phone is slid into the cradle from the top, through the arms of the cradle and inserted into the micro USB jack connector at the bottom of the cradle. The phone can be positioned either vertically or horizontally on the doc by rotating
the docking port.
Photo #4 shows the Nexus Galaxy phone I used for testing. Several important notes on the phone. The Nexus Galaxy phone is not officially listed as a supported phone. In addition the phone is normally used with an extra large battery which makes is significantly fatter than a standard battery. Despite the "unofficial" configuration I thought this test would be of interest to people who own this phone model.
1) Two of the cradles fit the Nexus Galaxy phone with the standard battery: Galaxy SIII and Galaxy SI SGH-T989.
2) When the phone had its extra large battery even though none of the cradles fit, the unit could be inserted into the USB connection without the cradle.
Photo #5 shows the side view of phone with the extra large battery on Gdock.
Photo #6 show the phone charging. I used Battery App by Elvison to determine how each device recognized the charging source. 'AC' status means the charging is at full charging rate. 'USB' status indicates charging at a lower charging rate. 'Discharging' status means that the charging rate is below the power that the device is consuming so it slows down the discharge rate but does not re-charge. The battery app showed that the phone is connected and is charging at slower USB rate. This is not surprising, since the USB connector has to be a data connector to carry music data to the speaker.
Gdock USB source ... 1% charge in 10 minutes
(by comparison AC source charges this phone 6% in 10 minutes)
Difference between a charging cable and a data cable:
Charging cables short the two data connections together (rendering them useless for data transfer), but this fulls devices to see them as an AC power connection, and thus accept the higher current of the charging source.
Photo #7 shows the phone playing music. However, Nexus Phone appears to be incompatible with the speaker. The speakers did engage, even though the battery app showed that the phone was connected and recognized by Gdock. Since this phone was not officially listed as a supported phone, I am not deducting any stars from the rating, but this finding was a surprise to me and I wanted to share it with other Nexus Galaxy phone owners.
The rest of my experiments was using the audio jack on the back of the unit. I tested Gdock with Nexus 7 Tablet, Galaxy 7.7 Tablet, and as desktop computer speaker. As I mentioned earlier the key to getting good sound from this speaker is to put right agaist a wall or in our case a window pane. This really improved the bass performance. The front facing stereo speakers generate crisp and clear sound, the mid-range was very good. With speaker against the surface the bass sound was reasonable.
When I was testing this speaker as a computer speaker I compared it (using the same piece of music and two different computers) to Cambridge Soundworks speakers and Labtec speakers.
These speakers did not perform as well as my Cambridge Soundsworks but better than Labtec speakers.
To summarize:
1. The mid-range of the speaker was very good, bass performance somewhat weaker but reasonable.
2. Charging is at USB rate
3. Speaker does not work with Galaxy Nexus phone, the charger does work.
You can find it on Amazon by following this link.
Ali Julia review ★★★★☆
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