Cheap.  It’s from Dealextreme, what did you expect?

When I bought my car last year, the only one available at the end of the year came with an iPod interface with an MSRP of $300.  I didn’t really want it, with an mp3 player in the CD deck that would’ve been good enough for someone like me who doesn’t typically like to listen to my music collection  if it’s older than a year.

Forward 8 months - my iPod nano got misplaced (I swear it was stolen!), but I got an iPhone 3G.  Plug it into the car… the charger is not compatible.  Alas, with the battery life of the iPhone, I needed a car charger for emergency use.  I first looked at the Griffin options, which came to about $20.  but after doing some research, and because I am cheap, I decided to give this little deal a try - a $3.79 charger from DealExtreme.com   If you haven’t heard of DealExtreme before, cheap prices + free shipping worldwide is their game.

While all the basic features are there - i.e. if you plug it into the car, there’s a little light that tells you there’s power, and yes it does charge - you can really tell that this is a cheap product. Maybe because it’s very light, but it just feels cheap. Charging performance is pretty average too - after a half hour drive, i only got about a 20% charge. Good enough to get you home, but not enough to have your phone charged up and good-to-go for a day out.

A cheap alternative for emergency charges
This thing is dirt cheap. And since I only plan to use this in an emergency, works great for me.

Review Score: 2.5 out of 5.

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