Customer Reviews

Griffin TuneFlex AUX Mount and Charger with SmartClick Remote for iPod and iPhone (Black)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

My Griffin TuneFlex AUX with SmartClick replaces a Kensington Liquid AUX Deluxe unit, which my wife accidentally broke while driving my car. I think this sort of accident is much less likely with the Griffin.

The big disadvantage of the Kensington (and the cause of its ultimate demise) were the adjustable arms that clamped on the iPod/iPhone; while it allowed adapting to any model, the clamp and release mechanism were "temperamental". The ratchet mechanism was hard to adjust "just right", and if too tight would rattle loudly as the car moved. It needed to be re-adjusted frequently, as it worked loose gradually. The Griffin in contrast comes with a whole array of plastic "heads" designed to perfectly fit and support various models with no slack or vibration. The heads are unlabeled; you just need to try your iPod or iPhone in each one that vaguely looks like it might fit until you get the right one. If you switch often between various models you'd want to carry the appropriate adapters, and need to switch them out... and the next new model probably won't be covered. (Luckily, I rarely use anything but my iPhone 3G in the car, and it turns out that my daughter's 3rd gen iPod nano can fit the iPhone sleeve. This may however be an issue if, for example, I upgrade to a "next gen iPhone" when such a thing is released, but we'll have to wait and see.)

Like the Kensington, the Griffin has a wireless remote that can velcro onto the steering wheel. I thought this was silly on the Kensington, but found that it quickly became a necessity. The convenience of being able to play, pause, and skip tracks without moving my eyes or taking a hand off the wheel is great. The reliability of the Kensington remote was "inconsistent", however. The Griffin seems to work consistently, but has a very "firm" touch and doesn't always respond when buttons are pressed casually. I do like the button to manually activate the backlight, when it's gone out. The Griffin remote is detachable from a magnetic base, which I find pointless: I see no need to remove it, and several times it's been knocked off accidentally and I need to search for it on the floor.

The flexible neck is stiff and stable, but reasonably easily adjustable; it's longer than the Kensington's neck, and that makes the iPhone more visible and accessible. The AUX cable has jacks on both ends so it can be replaced (unlike the Kensington's). It's much longer than the Kensington's, which might be an advantage or disadvantage depending on your car. (Way more cord than I really need.)

Some glitch in the Kensington occasionally caused my iPhone 3G to complain that the charger wasn't compatible. It still played through the AUX, and charged, but the remote was apparently disabled. Sometimes removing and re-inserting would resolve the problem, and sometimes it wouldn't. I haven't (at least yet) seen that issue with the Griffin, which is a "plus".

Advantages: long stiff neck, easy to adjust; custom fit "heads" for iPod/iPhone models; wireless remote

Disadvantages: custom fit "heads" may mean carrying more than one, and might be a problem for new models down the road; heads aren't labeled so it can be tedious to find the right one; remote is too easily detachable

Well, the other reviewer here brings up some good points, but I think this charger is good enough given the other dross out there. I struggled doing lots of research online, and couldn't find one charger/mount for the 3G that had positive (or even not all negative!) reviews. Finally saw this one got decent reviews from CNet and went with it.

GOOD
-Looks sharp if you have black/dark interior.
-Mount doesn't move at all for me. Bounces a little, no big deal.
-Nice speaker wire. Holds the shape you move it to and stays out of the way.
-Remote actually works quite well & is very handy (no pun intended). I was surprised.

BAD
-Good luck figuring out how to velcro that remote to the steering wheel. Took me 15 minutes! (Disclosure: I can be a bit of an idiot.)
-The Aux out from the charger is rubbish. I can't even get it to play sound. You need to run the wire from the line out on the iPhone, which is fine with me.
-None of the docks will fit your 3G if you have a protective case. I have a super slim case and I have to pop mine off when I get in the car. Not a big deal for my type of cover, but could be a hassle for some people.
-Once or twice got the This Device Does Not Work with iPhone message, but not a deal-breaker.

End of the day, it doesn't seem like there are any perfect car mounts/chargers out there. But I will vouch for this one being good enough. The price is a little steep, but you get what you pay for, and this is a durable product that I don't think will break on me any time soon.

First, I'm guessing that many if not all the reviewers who complained about low volume level failed to notice the gain adjustment wheel next to the out jack. It is easily overlooked - almost didn't see it myself. I needed to turn the adjustment to maximum to get the correct signal level, but it isjust fine then providing correct line level out signal that matched in volume level to other inputs (radio, CD, and so on). This is actually a thoughtful feature for Griffin to provide, but they should make it more noticeable and accessible - I can't reach it when the Tuneflex is plugged in.

Which leads to my second minor gripe - the placement of the out jack on the outer edge of cigarette lighter plug makes it awkward due to the recessed placement of the light socket in my Acura TL. But, that may just be a peculiarity of the TL and it works fine once it is plugged in and adjusted. I also wish that the neck of the Tuneflex were a little shorter and/or more flexible so that it could be more easily adjusted to be out of the way.

I bought this mainly for the remote control. It works well enough, but I found that there is no place to attach it to the steering wheel where it is completely out of the way. I ended up with it strapped on at about the 10:00 position. I can reach it there easily with my thumb and it is not too much in the way. I think I will get used to it being there pretty quickly. Also, I don't see how the remote magnet could easily/accidentally become detached as other reviewers have said.

My only other concern is that the adapter sleeve for the iPod Classic 160GB provides very little grip to hold the iPod securely and firmly. Having driven around a bit, this doesn't really seem to be a problem but I would feel better if the sleeve provided more support. The iPhone 3G adapter sleeve seems nearly perfect.

My only complaints about the Tuneflex Aux with Smartclick are minor and some are particular to my car and the iPod classic. Even with minor concerns, I recommend it. Overall, I think this is a very good product and I will very likely end up keeping it and using it for a long time.

I also tested with my iPhone 3GS and it worked great - no "not designed for iPhone" message as I got with my older Belkin Tunecast.

And, again, complaints about the volume level are unfounded. I know the difference between a correct line out signal level and one that is too low or high. The Tuneflex gets it right- just be sure to use the adjustment wheel next to the out jack. Most car stereos that are expecting a true line level aux in will need to have the adjustment on the Tuneflex turned all the way up. That is as it should be and is not indicative of a problem.

I purchased this item because the charger had an aux output built into the docking unit. In theory, it's a good setup with less of a wire mess.

Unfortunately, this just doesn't cut it.

a) The dock is top heavy once you've docked your iPhone/iPod. This causes the charger to shift in the cigarette lighter.

b) The aux-output from the charger is very WEAK. This was the dealbreaker for me and the reason why I returned this item. The audio is very quiet and tinny compared to all other input sources in my car (CD, radio). Sure, I could fine tune some settings and crank the volume all the way up in order to listen at a decent volume level. But, if I were to switch it over to the radio or a CD, the volume would be deafening. Not good.

c) This device forced a hard reboot of my iPhone after only one use. For some reason, the screen was at the dimmest setting and would not return to full brightness. I'm guessing it was an issue of my iPhone dislodging from the dock connector due to the weak connection and instability.

I bought this because I wanted an iPhone 4 car mount that did precisely 3 things:

* Charge and play music simultaneously.

* Attach solely by the cigarette lighter port. No suction cups, cupholder mounts, or A/C vent clips.

* Play music through the line-out pins of the iPhone's dock connector port instead of requiring a goofy secondary cable coming out of the headphone jack. It is beyond me why other iPhone mounts do not use the line-out but instead ask you to plug another cable into the top. Just pay whatever hardware licensing fee Apple asks and make a great product!

This does all those, with the benefit of a semi-useful remote control. My only complaints are that in my car, sometimes the gear shifter in the park position bumps the flexible arm, and that the iPhone sometimes comes loose when the ride gets bumpy. But I can't blame Griffin for that -- this is an old model and it's only by chance that one of the adapters happens to nearly perfectly fit the iPhone 4. As a nice feature, I appreciate that the iPhone just 'drops' into place without any kind of side or top clips. It makes docking and undocking simple and quick.

I have read soooooo many bad reviews about the sound quality on this device that I felt the need to put in my 2 cents. I suspect that the actual problem lies in something that I also did when I first hooked mine up in my car. There is nothing wrong with the sound quality on this item. YOU must make sure you adjust the MASTER VOLUME switch on the base of the device. It's near the hole where you plug in the mp3 auxillary cable on the device. It MUST be turned up adequately. Then, when you adjust the volume in your actual vehicle's stereo system, everything plays clearly. I hope this helps some people. I wish I had known this as well. It seems this was overlooked in the product directions.

I purchased this item at a local retailer because I wanted the gooseneck and remote control. I unpackaged this item right in the parking lot and proceeded to set up the unit with my iPhone. The gooseneck wasn't very flexible. It only seemed to bend up and down and wouldn't rotate at all. The second and bigger issue is once you get the correct holder for your device the unit didn't have enough strength to keep the iPhone in an upright position. It kept swiveling down and turning my iPhone at an awkward angle. I packaged the item up and took it right back inside for a refund.

I had the original Griffin Tuneflex, which is a great product, but unfortunately, when I got my iPhone, learned that it was incompatible with it. I couldn't just plug my iPhone into the original Tuneflex Aux just like my iPod video, and listen to music on my car stereo using the integrated line-level aux output on the Tuneflex base. Instead, it would only work if I plugged the stereo mini cable into the line out on the iPhone. So, I decided to get the newer version of the Tuneflex that is supposed to be compatible with iPhone. Don't make the same mistake that I did. This thing is a piece of junk... Griffin ruined a great product.

1. The aux out on the base is not line level like the original Tuneflex. You have to turn the audio on your stereo up twice as loud to get the same sound from it. It's mind boggling to me why they did this. If you want a true line level output, you have to directly plug the aux cable into the aux out on your ipod/iphone, which defeats the purpose of this device. I should have just got a $5 charging cable instead, because that's essentially all this thing is.

2. It doesn't come with a base that works with the 5th Generation iPod video 60 GB. Why? I have no idea, but it's an inexcusable omission.

3. The "strong magnets" that keep the remote in place aren't strong at all. You'll spend more time searching for it on the floor of your car than using it, because it easily falls off.

4. The arm that holds the ipod/iphone is sturdier than the first generation Tuneflex Aux, but it's not as adjustable, and it's shorter, which limits where you can locate your ipod/iphone.

I'm returning this, and just going back to using my first gen Tuneflex Aux. I can use it with my iPhone if I plug the audio cable into the aux out on the iPhone, which is essentially all this thing does too. If you're looking for easy integration into your car stereo, look elsewhere.

It's a good thing I do not base all my purchases on reviews and I understand you get "good ones" and "bad ones", products that is. I installed the Griffin TuneFlex two days ago (maybe to soon for a review but we will see) and it is working great. At first it has some static but I noticed my ipod was not seated all the way down (colud not see it but a slight push showed it) after just pushing a bit it seated and no more static to be heard of. The volume control on the power adapter allows me to set the volume along with the radio/cd player so when I switch between the sources the volume does not jump or sink. I went to the Griffin website to insure it fit all my applications, so that was not an issue. I then labeled the different cradles I need and stored them in my console. The arm is stiff and secure (like it should be) and the ipod is staying right where I put it. You might want to bend it a bit before installing it. The rubber cleats on the plug grab the sides of the accessory plug-in and keep the whole thing from tilting side to side, not sure how it grips in a cigarette lighter plug. The control does what it says and seems to work fine, it does control the back light as well so make note of that button as well as the volume control on the plug... Read the directions.. The control is magnetic and lifts off easy so my wife can fast forward through the tracks from the passenger seat if she likes. If this becomes a bother or keeps getting knocked off (has not yet but its early) A small bit of epoxy glue or dab of caulk depending on how permanent you like should hold it there for quite some time. So far mine is a "good one".

The product works good, but you're still limited to a mount attached to your cig lighter. That might be great for most, but my lighter is a bit loose which means the mount moves around more than I want. The audio was great in my truck which uses an aux for input. However, it's horrible in my wife's SUV that uses a FM modulator. YMMV