Customer Reviews

Palm Vehicle Power Charger for Palm Pre and Pixi

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This Palm charging cord will provide enough current to power the Touchstone charging dock in your vehicle. I initially tried this with a (top quality) Motorola micro USB car cord, and the charging cycled on and off continually (like every second!!!). There is a difference between cords, apparently, and the Touchstone system does require a higher current flow. I know that there are other cords that advertise high rate charging, but I haven't tried any of them yet.

I originally bought a Sprint-branded car charger, but its light started blinking erratically after a few charges, so I returned that and got this charger instead. This one works as advertised. The removable USB cable comes in handy when the battery is running low at work, and is a must-have if you're streaming Pandora or otherwise using the phone a lot. As for the charger, it's nice and compact. I've also noticed that it runs a lot cooler than the Sprint-branded one.

One teeny complaint is that the USB cable is rather short, so if you're plugging it into a desktop that's sitting on the floor, you may have trouble placing the phone on the table.

Several nice features about this charger.

1. It is a USB cable that plugs into a car charger. I can thus take the cable out of my car and bring it into work and charge using my work desktop computer in case the battery is running low.

2. It works with my Motorola H710 headset. Now I don't have to fumble around changing the chargers while driving. I only have to have one charger plugged into the outlet.

3. There is an additional adapter that plugs into the micro usb port that allows one to charge a palm T/X. I can now remove the charger from my car for the palm T/X. Only one charger in the car!!! I still use my palm T/X as my MP3 player and for various other things. Anyone who has a palm pre knows how bad the battery sucks.

4. The price. I got mine for $20.83. Don't know what it is going for now, but I saved $10 off buying this in the store.

I'm very happy with the charger. I wish the battery on the pre didn't suck so bad, but that's not the chargers fault. Five stars

I got this charger after waiting for almost a month. I'd say it was definitely worth it. Packaging was great. Earler, I purchased sprint's charger for Pre. It looked so ugly, the big Sprint logo lighting up with the bright yellow color was such a turn off. Palm's charger looks awesome. The white LED makes it look different and graceful than a cheap $5 charger. Best thing about it is you can take the wire out and use it to charge just about anything with a USB charger. I haven't tried it on my Zune, but I'm pretty sure it should work for that. Another helpful tip is that lets say you are at your friends place, and you want to copy some mp3s, just take the usb cord from your car and use it to transfer files. Its really handy to have it with you all the time.
Charging speed is great. Its faster than touchstone. I play music on Pandora while charging it. Works without any issue.
If you own Palm Pre, this is the charger you should get !!

Unfortunately, Palm is selling two versions of this charger under the same item number! The one I received when I purchased this Amazon item was the one WITHOUT the "Multiconnector." It only works with phones using a micro-USB connector (Palm Pixi, Palm Pre, Treo 800w, Treo Pro - according to Palm store). It did not work with my Centro!

I bought this to use with my Pre as I had learned the battery life of the phone was not spectacular. Since I spend most of the day working or running errands in my car, a charger was necessary to keep me connected.

Not only is the charger streamlined in design and nice-looking, but the USB cable disconnects from the car adapter, which makes it useful if I happen to forget my wall charger and I can just plug it into a computer at my destination.

Also, this charger costs roughly $15 less on Amazon than on Sprint or Palm's official sites. I had toyed with the idea of getting one of those "Case/Charger/Screen/USB cord" all-in-one packs for $5, but had read reviews about bad compatibility and figured "why not get it right the first time?" Besides, I didn't want to get something that would badly impact my newly-purchased smart phone, so I stuck with brand name.

My advice: get the charger here on Amazon. It's cheaper and clearly compatible since it's Palm brand.

I tried generic micro usb chargers as well as a generic usb adapter. They don't work. I had one that would charge my pre whenever it felt like it. I'd have to take the key out, or unplug the charger and plug it back in... it was ridiculous. You can go on [...] and find a usb adapter for less than a dollar. It might work. In fact, I love monoprice. That site has saved me hundreds of dollars over the last few years and their products are great. However, when it comes to car chargers, there were at least two problems I had.
1) You need 1 amp. I think most generic chargers don't have this.
2) Generic chargers/adapters, for whatever reason were just unreliable. They were cheap and could even overheat.
This charger, on the other hand, is great. It's small, solid, and completely reliable. It works just like the wall adapter. I really wanted to give this 5 stars, but there was just one problem. The design of the adapter makes it impossible to plug most usb cords in. It has to have the thin end that the pre usb cord has. I am going to try to find a small usb extension that will fit into the adapter, but the design seems silly to me. I would prefer the simplicity of plugging any usb device into this. The included cord was too short for me, but I got around this by using the cord that was included with the wall charger and it works perfectly. Overall, this is the charger you need for your pre. Don't bother looking around at anything else.

PRO: Small size
CON: Short USB cord

Due to the TERRIBLE battery life of my new Palm Pre, and the inability to connect it to my computer at work due to PED rules, I was forced to look for a way to charge it to and from work. The Sprint store offered their charger which is, in comparison, enormous and ugly. By the way, DON'T purchase ANY phone accessories from a Sprint store as they will not refund your items!! Anyway, I was very surprised when I saw this offering online and wondered why Sprint didn't make it available from their web outlet or store. Anyway, the charger works great, it is very small, with a white glowing LED when it is plugged in. It comes with a (shorter) USB cable so you don't have to use the one that came with your phone... unless you need to talk on the phone while it is plugged in. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it is quite a bit shorter than the cable that comes with the phone and in my car - well, of course I use a hands-free device most of the time - I find that I can only use one ear and I have to scrunch over a little bit in my seat for it to reach. I'm of average sitting height. If I were to try using it in a vehicle that had the cigarette lighter nearer to the floor, it would probably be impossible to reach my ear.

I have to say that I'm very impressed with Palm's Vehicle Power Charger for the Pre. The separation of the cigarette adapter so that it will work with any USB to micro USB cable is a great idea and helps save space. They fit together perfectly, with nice large circles indicating which way to insert the cable so there's no fumbling.

As other reviewers have mentioned, it does work with the touchstone, which is very helpful in the car, as fiddling with the slot on the Pre itself can sometimes be annoying.

Charge time seems to be about the same as using a normal wall adapter.

I bought this from the Amazon seller called "W2 Corporation". Even though this was made for Palm Pre 2 and it comes with a microUSB cable, the cigarette-lighter-power adapter did work with my HP Veer. However, the HP Veer does not have a microUSB connector so you have to use the power adapter with the HP Veer-supplied USB cable. I went and purchased a touchstone to use with this and it worked with the cigarette-lighter-power adapter to charge my HP Veer!