Product review: Bolse® Micro Usb Charging Dock Cradle with audio output for Samsung Galaxy Phones

I tested Bolse Charging Dock with Nexus Galaxy phone with Hyperion Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus 3800mAh Extended Battery. This extended battery makes the phone much thicker and often presents problems fitting into devices designed for phones with their regular slim batteries. However Bolse Charging Dock handles this challenging configuration well. This dock has a nice feature that the micro-USB docking plug can be moved and re-positioned, this accommodates different port positions on various phones.

I am attaching a collage of 4 photos that I will be referencing in my review.

The first photo shows the phone in the dock charging. I used Battery App by Elvison to determine how the devices recognizes 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. As you see in this photo, the charging source is recognized as 'AC'.

I use the same test when I test various charging devices so I can compare them to each other. My methodology is to charge each device I own on each port of the unit for 10 minutes and measuring how much each unit was charge in that 10 minute period. Bolse dock charged the phone from 76% to 81% in 10 minutes, which is a 5% difference and ranks well among various devices I have tested.

The second photo shows the profile of the phone in the charging dock to give you an idea of the shape of the battery in case you are using a different extended battery.

Photo #3 shows my ear buds plugged into the the audio pass-through in the back of the docking station. When the phone is in the charging dock its audio output is blocked by the dock, so this audio pass-through is designed to make audio out available. However it did not work for this phone, there was no sound.

Phone #4 shows a top down view of the dock. The top of the devices has 4-LED light that surrounds the pen/stylus holder. This indicator cannot be turned off.

Bolse dock also fits our Nexus 7 tablet, but the fit required Nexus 7 to be placed with the back cover forward. The audio did not work with the Nexus 7 either.

Bolse dock comes with a 4-foot USB to micro-USB cable. It has a 1-year warranty

I was provided a sample unit for an honest and unbiased review and covered positives and negatives of my experience with this docking station.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★☆