Customer Reviews

Duracell Mygrid Starter Kit - 1-Count

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(40)
2 star:		(27)
1 star:		(42)

 

 

The Duracell myGrid charging device is a product you want to like. Imagine the possibilities, you come home and toss your phone, iPod or other device on the pad and walk away. No wires to plug and unplug, no more having several chargers plugged in the wall outlet. A wireless home power grid, truly the wave of the future.

In reality, though, this is truly a product that is far from being ready for prime time and is not the "wave of the future" powergrid you would think it is. More accurately it is an "extension cord" that transfers power via contacts in a totally traditional way.

It ships with 3 tips that fit an infinitesimally small number of phone models. Unfortunately, not MY Blackberry nor MY cell phone. The design of the power tips prevent them from being used on any other device than the exact model specified.

There are two glaring problems that Duracell should have considered and abandoned the whole concept of a power grid. One is that the location of the charging receptacle varies from phone to phone. On mine it was impossible to fit it in and have it connect to the included charging adapter.

The other problem is the charging adapter itself. It is a fairly large disc that you have to glue to the back of your phone with double-stick tape. Whaaat? Are you kidding me? So to make it line up with the little charging tip it is probably 90% likely to have to be glued over the phone's camera, flash or rear speaker. That's just plain dumb!

Not to mention, now you have a cell phone that you bought to be as small and convenient as possible, that you can slip into your pocket or purse or nice leather carrying case ... but no more! With a fragile adapter sticking out of the side or bottom of your phone, plus the clunky odd-shaped stick-on disc, your phone no longer fits easily into pocket, purse or case and has to be handled with extreme care so the extra pieces don't break off and get lost. Plus, with many phones that use a mini-USB connector, that same connector may be used for headphones, car speaker accessories or data access. So you have to remove the power tip each time. How is that more convenient than simply plugging the phone into a charging cord?

You can also get an optional overpriced "powersleeve" for a miniscule few devices which is a rubber boot that fits over the device with an awkward hump on the back and bottom of the device. Maybe a slightly better concept than the glue-on disc but so far I have seen them for only one model of iPod and one model of Blackberry.

Another major failing of this products is that if you travel a lot you probably have to take a charging adapter with you. You certainly won't take the power grid. That means removing the power tip each time and reassembling it to use with the grid at home. That would get very old after the first time.

I fail to see the slightest advantage to the entire product; it's like a bad April Fools joke. Someday someone will come up with a way to transfer electric power without wires; I understand that technology already exists. When Duracell or someone else comes out with a power grid that doesn't need ill-conceived adapters I'll be interested.

As far as the "instruction manual" goes, it is almost non-existent. For a product like this that most people have never used before, it is severely lacking.
Sorry Duracell, I can't give this more than one star for "interesting idea".

This product is meant to be mistaken for an inductive charging system and has 3 major problems:

1. The box says it charges up to 4 devices-- well, two iPhones would just barely fit on it... so you'll not be charging 4 of those. The power supply that comes with this is a 1A power supply, and the iPhone itself needs more or less an amp to charge at full speed... so you can't charge 2 iPhones at full speed.

2. When your product requires your customer to use a special case... Make sure said case is not a ill-fitting and unattractive.

3. The case must be removed to sync, or charge off a normal charger.

If you are willing to accept these limitations, all you win is the ease of not plugging in your iPhone when you get home... Is it really that hard to do?

I was very excited to get this item because between the kids and me we have an iPhone and two iPod Touch units. I was thrilled to see I could buy skins to fit the iPod Touch units and use them on this charger (as opposed to it just being for the iPhone) and thought this would make charging much easier than trying to plug one unit in for awhile and remembering to come back later to switch over to another one.

The setup couldn't be easier. You simply place the skin over the phone, plug the charger into the wall, and lay the phone on the charger. It immediately connected and started charging. The phone charged quickly and fully with no problems at all. I have no complaints at all with the functionality of the charger.

So, the two big drawbacks... I have an iFrogz case that I love as do both the kids (we actually know which iPod Touch belongs to which child based on the iFrogz color). To use the charger, you have to remove any existing case and use the Duracel skin instead. The second drawback is that to synch your phone, you have to remove the skin to be able to plug in the cord to connect to the computer.

If you are okay with using the Duracel skin all the time and the synch issue doesn't bother you, this would be a great device. It works perfect and does everything it claims to do. But, those two usability issues will bother a lot of people.

Let me begin by saying who I believe should buy a charging pad such as this one: if you have multiple cell phones that you would like to charge, or if you are very tired of having to go search for your ordinary plug-in charger and then fiddling to plug that into your phone. Also, this particular kit only works for owners of Motorola, Nokia and Blackberry phones. Users of any other brands can forget about this as chances are high that the right charging plug is not included. iPhone users, do know that according to Duracell's website an iPhone version of this pad is supposed to be out in Spring 2010.

So what is this product? The Duracell myGrid charging system basically allows you to place your cell phone on a mat to charge instantly, without having to fiddle around for a charging cord. Many similar charging systems that are now out use a physics concept called induction to charge the phone, where there are no exposed metal contacts on either the charging pad or the phone. The Duracell myGrid is NOT one of these chargers, however. Probably in the interest of cheaper costs, Duracell chose to use the older, very common concept of conduction where metal contacts on the phone and charger conduct charges.

So what does that mean? It means that the myGrid charging pad is actually one large pad with a large metal surface area. When turned on, this large metal area IS energized with electric charges. At first glance, you might think that you can shock yourself by touching the pad. Nothing to fear folks, as the electricity flowing through the pad is too weak to create any noticeable shocks. And to add peace of mind, if the pad detects your finger or anything else that conducts electricity (like keys, jewelry, etc.) to be touching the pad, then it shuts off the current.

How do you use it? To get the juices flowing into your phone, Duracell includes a special "clip" that has three tiny metal contacts on the bottom. You are supposed to stick on the "clip" with the included adhesive to your phone. The clip then connects to a charging plug which is inserted into your phone's charging port. That completes the setup. To actually charge, just place the phone on the pad with the clip in contact.

What are the flaws? Well, the charger still works if you don't 'stick' the clip to your phone. Instead, the catch is that you'll have to be careful when taking your phone off the pad. The clip is literally a magnet that sticks on to the pad, so you'll then have to exert careful pressure to remove the phone+clip from the pad. I think that's a bad design aspect in that if you were ever to switch phones, you would have to attempt to peel off the clip from your old phone and stick it on to your new one. Also, if you did stick on the clip, then you have an ugly and oddly-shaped piece of plastic stuck on to your phone for most of the day. It can get in the way of your hand gripping the phone, you can't exactly use many cases with the phone, and it just looks odd. Oh, and personally I think the pad just looks plain ugly. The whole metal pad with its black and chrome trim seems like something Doc Brown would've had in his DeLorean back in the 80s.

What could be improved? I think Duracell should do what other manufacturers of similar charging pads are doing and creating sleeves where the phone can be kept in a sleek-looking sleeve all-day that can do double-duty as a nice case. In fact, they seem to be doing this. The iPhone charging system that I mentioned earlier is on their website seems to have this very sleeve. Now if they were smart and brought it to the other brands as well.

Also, this product is being marketed and designed for cell phones only. If Duracell could find a way, I would like be able to charge my other devices on the pad, like my bluetooth headset, PS3 controller, iPod, etc. If a wide-variety of devices could be charged all using this one pad, then I would say the myGrid is guaranteed to be a hit! At the moment though, for just a few cell phone models I am not surprised to see the naysayers here on Amazon shooting down this gadget.

Overall, it's a gadget that is meant purely for convenience sake. If the clip design were improved (and maybe the overall pad design was more sleeker), then this pad can be a big seller.

The Duracell myGrid is a awesome idea that went very wrong somewhere between their R&D labs and their packaging and marketing departments. The idea of having a conductive mat to charge multiple phones is something that is cool and could be used by many households. Duracell's implementation of this idea utterly fails for a couple reasons, though.

First, what's in the box in underwhelming. You get the mat, the AC plug, one swivel clip, and 3 adapters. The 3 adapters are 2 mini-USB adapters (one right side up, the other upside down) and 1 Nokia adapter. Clearly, the mGrid has been in development for years and is only being released now. This is evident because mini-USB plugs are typically found in phones 2008 and older, and the Nokia plug, while useful world-wide, doesn't have as high a penetration rate here in the US. Or at least, as high a rate among the type of early adopters that would be interested in this product. There is no iPhone adapter (until Spring 2010?), there are no Palm adapters, and unbelievably, there are no micro-USB adapters (commonly found in 2009 and newer phones). So if you're still rockin' your RAZR from 2006, maybe you'll find what's in the box to be useful. I did not purchase this product, it was given to me, and I actually had to bust out my old RAZR just to test it...

Second, the conductive clip part has an adhesive back that you are supposed to stick to the back of your phone, and then have one of the 3 included adapters jammed into the side or bottom of your phone. Yeah, adhesive, as in--it's gonna be on there forever. Adding all that bulk to your phone. No joke. On top of that, if you have a smartphone that you want to sync with your computer through your 2008 mini-USB port, um, well, you can't do that cuz you have the adapter jammed in the plug. Even if you slip out the adapter, the clip on the back is still going to block many of the USB connector cables out there. Finally, if you're using your mini-USB phone from 2008, you're probably going to get a new one in 2010 (when your 2yr contract expires), which means you somehow have to peel off the adhesive to place it on your new phone (assuming you can buy a new adapter from Duracell's website in the future that fits your new phone). I was able to position the clip and adapter in my RAZR without using the adhesive, but the magnet is surprisingly strong. Pulling the phone off the mat caused a lot of strain on the phone's USB port. Repetitive usage like this could easily damage the port on the phone. In addition, without the adhesive, it took me way longer to insert the clip + adapter in the RAZR and carefully pull it off the mat when finished than it does to simply just plug/unplug the regular AC charger, thereby eliminating all advantages of using the mat.

I will mention that the grid does indeed work and does charge up a RAZR in about the same time as the regular AC charger. But Duracell totally failed in the execution of the device. These people make batteries! What we need are Duracell-made battery replacements with the small metal conductance nubs on the back. This way you just pop in the new battery and can lay the phone, without any extra bulk, directly on the grid. Palm does this with their Pre phone and the Touchstone accessory and it works incredibly well. Also, Duracell should offer replacement batteries/adapters for cameras, video game controllers, and other electronic devices. This would be a 5-star, highly versatile product if they did all this. But no, instead we get 2 mini-USB plugs, a Nokia plug, and one swivel clip. A craptastic failure pile in a box!

As a techie gadget lover, I want to really like this product. The actual grid itself is cool. Unfortunately, there is no other word to adequately describe the adapters + clip idea other than "stupid." At the time of writing this, the Grid goes for $70-90. If they dropped the price to $50, included adapters for video game controllers and cameras, and offered conductive replacement batteries on their website like I mentioned above, this thing would be a gadget-person's dream charging station. Until then, I'm not sure how the people at Duracell pushed this out to market. Too bad...

I thought this looks interesting so I gave it a try. Frankly, I'm disappointed. First off, this is not one of those new inductive chargers. This one comes with a rubber sleeve that has 4 metal contacts in the back. These contact touch the metallic part of the pad and charges the device. So it is a contact, not inductive charger. As far as the charging function, I can't tell any difference than the wall plug that I normally use. A few things to take note of:

1. First, the box pictures two iPhones, but there is only one sleeve included. $30 for another sleeve, are you kidding me?
2. They advertise charging multiple phones, but realistically, only 2 can fit on the charge pad. Just take a look at the picture on the box.
3. You basically have to give up your protective sleeve to use the device. Although the rubber sleeve included is of decent construction, I like my leather sleeve much better.
4. The sleeve that is included must be removed to sync.
5. Unlike the wall plug, the charging pad does take up space, even if you are not charging anything.
6. If you travel, you have to bring a regular wall charger and remove the sleeve every time you charge, unless you want to lug the charging pad along.

These 6 reason makes it difficult for me to think why anyone would actually pay for this device.

The Duracell myGrid Cell Phone Starter Kit is an interesting concept, but the execution leaves a little to be desired. It seems to be targeted at the household that has multiple cell phones (that are compatible with myGrid) to allow simultaneous charging while only using one outlet. The other place it could catch on is in an office setting where you have a number of people with supported phones. If you are not in these situations, you will probably not find this a cost effective solution for your charging needs. If you are still interested in the myGrid, read on for my experience using it.

The myGrid is easy to use overall, but you need to understand why this is a "starter kit". While it comes with three tips (one each for BlackBerry, Nokia, and Motorola), it only comes with one power clip that will allow a device to be charged. For each additional device you will need to purchase additional power clips separately. It seems that intent is to insert the tip into your devices charging port and then connect the power clip permanently to your device by peeling the cover off of an adhesive strip. I actually found the adhesive confusing as I could not imagine leaving the tip and power clip in permanently. So I left the cover on the adhesive on the power clip.

The mat itself and the ac power adapter are the only other pieces to the myGrid. I connected the adapter and plugged it in. The blue indicator light came on properly and went out as specified in the instructions. I with the tip and power clip installed on my BlackBerry Curve, I placed my phone on the myGrid. The magnetic connection formed very easily, and the blue indicator light lit on the mat to indicate that charging had begun. I checked the display on my Curve, and it also showed that the device was charging.

After getting a complete charge, I removed the tip and power clip and stored them near the mat for later use. Users have the choice between this mode of usage and the suggested leave in by using the adhesive. For BlackBerrys this is just not practical as the mini-USB port is also the mode of data exchange with your desktop.

A special not for iPhone/iPod users: this starter kit does not give you any support for your device. The mat itself will work, but you need to buy a separate charging sleeve. Duracell does make a starter kit for Apple devices, but this is not it.

Overall, the myGrid is an easy to use device, but it seems to have a very small population of users who will benefit from it. I hope that I have given you enough information to decide if it is for you.

The concept of the Duracell MyGrid, as well as other pad charging devices, seemed like a good approach to eliminate all the different cables needed to charge your different devices. So I was excited to give the product a try on my many mobile devices. In our house we have an Iphone, Motorola Krazr, LG phone as well as a few others. I knew going into this that your phone had to be certified to work with this device and on the box they list Blackberry, Motorola, and Nokia. But what I didn't know was is how specific and limited the list was for the adaptors included. The box on the front shows a list of about 5 or 6 motorola phones such a Razr so I figured it would work with the Krazr as well as they have the same USB port for charging. That was not the case, the adaptor fits but the phone did not receive any charge from the pad. This means that the phone won't work at all with this device. The box did not list anything for LG phones so I was out of luck on that one, now onto the Iphone. The box shows that it is Iphone compatible with additional purchased adaptor that you have to utilize. So out of the box none of my devices worked unless I spend more money to buy more adaptors. And that is the real question on this technology, what is the difference between having to plug in my iphone small charger or hooking up an adaptor to it to work with this device. Seems like the same hassle to me and with my Iphone or Motorola chargers I don't have to worry about additional adaptors just to charge my device. The adaptor for the Motorola is very small so can be easily lost which would require buying a replacement.

So in the end, I'm not sure this technology is worth the cost and hassle when my current chargers for each device I have work and I don't have to buy the charging pad and adaptors to do the same work that came with my devices. If there was one adaptor that could be used for more devices then maybe this would be worth it but for now I don't see the utility in spending the money.

This is one of the poorest designed products that I have seen. The price is way out of range. It only comes with one bulky "thumb charger clip" (and three adapters that may or may not fit your phone) that attaches on your cell phone with tape(provided). The adapters are expensive, around $30. The adapters only fit a few phones and models. If I wanted to buy 4 adapters it would cost me about $120. So the charging grid cost about $70 and 4 adapters about $130, total price to charge 4 phones around $200.

I had a Motorola phone that it did work with, but I had to tape the "thumb clip" to it and found that it was too bulky to carry in my pocket. I have since switched to a Samsung phone and they are no adapters that fit the Samsung.

I do NOT use this product and now it is cluttering up my closet waiting to be discarded. This product is so poorly designed and priced too high that only Duracell would choose it market it. This product is too much trouble to deal with...and I rarely write a one star review. Do not buy this product. Look for other grids or wait for improvement on design and price to go down.

I bet Amazon and other retailers are flooded with returns. Shame on Duracell for trying to push this good idea, but poorly designed product!

Seeing ads for this made me quite excited to get one. And I have to admit, it does charge just as easily as it looks...the metallic grid looks sleek and modern on our desk and all you have to do is put the phone down anywhere on it and it charges without having to connect cords. On the run, just plop it down and it does the work for you. Every time you lay your phone down you charge, that's clever.

That said, although I'd planned to use this for both of our iPhones, it's delegated to one. Here's why...

First, what I didn't know was that you have to use only their rubber case around your phone to get it to charge. This makes both phones in a two-phone household look exactly the same in the same black case so one spouse grabbing a phone on the way to work may wind up with the wrong phone. (not good if one is a business phone!) And, if you do have more than one phone, you'll need to buy another case since this kit only comes with one.

However, if you only need it for a one iPhone household that should be fine, right?

Well, in my opinion...not exactly...The second design issue I had with it is that, in this case, there is no way to charge your phone in the car. The bottom of the phone is blocked because the case has a plug that fits into your phone from within the case. For me, it's a real drawback that the bottom can't just slide off the case or unsnap and open to allow me to charge the phone at work away from this charger or in my car. I use my GPS often on the phone and talk on the phone often in my car so not being able to easily plug it in isn't good for me. The day I realized this, my phone was losing juice as I expected an important call while driving. In order to charge it, I needed to get the rubber case off. But the rubber case is quite snug so driving and trying to remove it to charge it wasn't the safest thing to do...I pulled over to do it. Because you also can't access the bottom of your phone easily, that also means you need to remove the case every time you wish to sync it...they should have had some kind of removable bottom to make doing so easy because it's not exactly a quick fix to get the case on and off.

That said, if you only charge your phone at home, never need to charge it in the car or work, and don't sync often, I'd say this is perfect for that usage.

The charging grid will fit two iPhones. I believe it says it fits up to 4 but maybe that means you have to have the phones all half off the mat because only 2 would fit on it.

Additionally, I don't care for a matte black case since makeup shows up on it more easily...and it's the only option with the kit.

Conclusion: The charge worked easily. I wish this worked by merely having the wireless plug attach onto the bottom of my phone without having a whole case around it, however--for the reasons noted.