The Konnet Reflex Dock is one of the rare docks I know of that dares to rise more than a few inches above your desk. Most docks are spineless, tiny little things that try to lie low and out of sight — but not the Reflex Dock. It has a curvy, sturdy plastic back to support use of the iPhone while it’s docked — as well as a 30-pin dock connector and Line Out port (40″ male-to-male cable included) along the rear to charge, sync, and transfer sound to your stereo system. The Reflex Dock can come in white, but I got mine in black to match the colour of my heart (and my mascara).
[click ye on the thumbnails for a slightly larger view]
What the Dock
Docking your device is as simple as placing it on the standard 30-pin dock connector, and you can remove it with relative ease by gripping the screen and pushing off of the top of the Reflex’s plastic back. I’ve awarded major brownie points to the Reflex for how usable a docked device remains, as well as how many devices this charging/line-out accessory can accommodate.
You can fit most any iPod or iPhone on the Reflex: I tested it with a 2G Nano, iPod Photo (do people even remember that model?!), 2G iTouch, 2G iPhone, and my iPhone 3GS. The orientation on the Reflex is also pretty decent — not quite as good as the Just Mobile Xtand — but still viewable and usable.
I actually find the Reflex a little too big to use at my desk because its tall, curved design makes it look bigger than it really is. It takes up about as much space as my Xtand or Dexim P-Flip, but those just “feel” smaller when setup in my work space.
Enjoy Advanced Sound Reflection Design…or just use the Line Out
One of the advertised features of the Reflex Dock is its Advanced Sound Reflection Design, which refers to the curved design at the bottom of the dock which reflects the iPhone’s sound to the front. While I will admit that there is a slight difference between the iPhone’s speaker volume on the dock as opposed to off, it’s really not noticeable enough to become a reason to buy the Reflex.
The rear-facing 30-pin connector and 3.5mm Line Out, on the other hand, make for much better selling points. These two ports could also save some folks the trouble of buying one of those speakers or alarm clocks with built-in iPod docks and replace them with a Reflex Dock instead.
I’ve placed my Reflex right by the stereo so that the whole family can just throw their own iPods on and blast music throughout the living room. We used to charge our iPods with the white Apple cable and insert the stereo’s audio-in cable into the players to play our music, but this was always a two-step process, and you had to take care to turn the stereo volume down to zero or risk damaging the speakers with feedback as you added the iPod line-out. The Reflex Dock simplifies this whole process for us, and now playing is as simple as docking and pressing “play”.
My only complaint about the whole plug-n-play process is that the back of the Reflex Dock might be a little too cramped for some people’s setups. Our line-in cable just barely fit into the dock alongside the Apple 30-pin connector, so you might want to take a look at the pictures above to try to gauge whether your cables will fit.
Conclusion
The Reflex isn’t a revolutionary product that’s going to blow your mind and re-shape the way you think about docking your iPhone, but it does what it sets out to do very well. I’ve got no major complaints about the construction or the usability aspects of this little plastic dock. I wouldn’t necessarily place this thing at my work desk, but it seems right at home in the living room or on a nightstand if you’re looking for a simple way to charge, display, and use your iPhone while it’s at rest. At $45, the Reflex Dock isn’t exactly cheap, but then again, I don’t know of any docks with charging and line-out ports that are.
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You can pick up your own ReflexDock for $44.99 at KonnetOnline.com, but you can actually get it for $5 less on Amazon.com.
The ReflexDock was provided by the Max Borges Agency for review on Just Another iPhone Blog. For further information regarding our site’s review policies, please see the “About” page.
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TAGS: iphone dock, syncing
