Grace Digital’s gdock speaker for your Samsung Phone

Jealous of your iPhone toting friends and all the available third party accessories?  I have been.  I’ve got a nice selection of Bluetooth accessories, but nothing that was custom designed for my phone.

Because Apple has had a standard interface for years on its iPods and iPhones, third parties have been able to release an amazing selection of accessories with the knowledge that that will sell a lot of them for many different devices.  You’ve probably noticed the “Made for iPod..blah blah” on most mobile audio accessories you purchase. Android has missed out on this luxury due to the nature of “No Standardization”.  Almost every Android device released is different in some fashion.  Different connectors, differing connector functionality, connectors on different sides of the device and of course the vast range of sizes and shapes.

That has recently changed with the release of Grace Digital’s gdock speaker.  This neat device not only connects to your phone via USB to play your music, but it also charges your phone while holding it in an interchangeable docking system.

Fortunately, Samsung has been pretty consistent with their recent devices, keeping the USB connectors on the base of the device and offering the same functionality through the connector.  One function of the USB connector is supporting USB Audio through an Audio Dock.

If you’re the lucky owner of a Samsung Galaxy S II, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note, and Galaxy Note II then there is a recently released accessory that does everything your iPhone toting friends can do, and does it pretty well.  Thanks to Grace Digital Audio we have the gdock.

[quote]The Grace gdock is a stereo speaker dock designed exclusively to play and charge the Samsung Galaxy S2, S3, Note and Note II. The Grace gdock can be rotated 50 or 38 degrees while the cradle can be turned to view your Samsung Galaxy S2 / S3 or Notes horizontally or vertically. Add the optional (sold separately) Lithium Ion battery and listen to your music, audio books, or watch your videos for up to 6 hours anywhere inside or outside your home.[/quote]

Yes, you can also purchase a Lithium Ion Battery pack that allows you to use the dock while your mobile.  We didn’t get one of these in our sample, so I can’t comment on the battery life or function.

What you get:

The package contains the unit itself, the required docks for each device that are easily changed on the front of the speaker.  There’s a fairly large power adapter supplied in the form of an external brick that performs the power conversion and a flying lead that plugs into the back of the speaker unit.

You also get a small remote control and the auxiliary cable so you can use other devices with the speaker too.

The unit itself is 13 inches wide by 4.3 inches tall and 3.75 inches deep and really not too heavy if you decide to add the battery pack.

If you’re looking for technical details, here you go:

Speaker and Amplifier Specifications

• 3″ full-range x 2 front bass ported speaker system
• Built in 16 watt class D digital amplifier
• Frequency response: 60Hz – 18KHz +/-3dB
• Power: 16 watts average power (8w x 2)
• Speakers: 8 ohms 16W
• Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 89dB

Overall the unit looks and feels nice and the sound it produces is pretty good, but not as good as my SuperTooth DISCO Bluetooth unit.  Don’t get me wrong, you can crank this baby and it’ll blast out your kitchen while your cooking a nice and spicy Indonesian stir-fry.  It’s not window shaking, blood pumping sound, but it’s good enough for the casual music listening and video watching.

Due to the rotating nature of the dock itself, video watching is easy.  Twist the dock with your phone installed into a landscape position and voila… Wide screen video watching.

You can find them for around $100 with a recommended retail price of $129.99.

Is it worth the $100?  I’d have to say Yes.  It keeps your phone charged and it plays audio pretty well and I would say that mix is worth the $100.

Want more info?  Head over to Grace Digital Audio’s website.  They have other pretty cool gadgets too.