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Review: Seidio Battery Charger for Treo 650

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By: Christopher Meinck

Up until now, Treo 650 owners looking to charge a spare battery were limited to the Palm Cradle Kit or using their Treo 650. Seidio's new battery charger is the only standalone battery charger available on the market and offers a nice option for power users who require a spare Treo battery to keep their Treo 650's powered up.

What's Included:

The Seidio Battery Charger comes with the following:

• Battery Charger
• USB Cable


Charging Your Treo 650 Battery

The Seidio Battery Charger allows you to charge a spare Treo 650 battery. The unit comes with a USB cable that charges your Treo battery when directly connected to your PC or Mac's USB port. The included cable can be used with a wall adapter (not included) that enables you to charge via a standard wall jack. The unit has one LED which illuminates red when the unit is charging the battery. You'll need a spare Treo 650 battery in order to make use of the unit. We tested a Treo 650 battery and it completely charged our battery. The charger does not have an LED indicator that advised us of when it reached full charge. The LED remains red whenever it's on. Not knowing when it's reached a full charge could be a inconvenience. Since most will use this device to charge a backup, then the lack of a "fully charged" LED isn't an absolute necessity, but rather a feature we would have like to have seen included.

Stylus Holder

This is billed as one of the features of the Seidio Battery Charger. If you have a spare stylus, the charger will hold it as if it's a modern day pen holder of sorts. We tested it. It's not exactly a feature that excited us, but it works. As mentioned, we'd rather see this slot used for LED to indicate the battery has been fully powered up.

Desktop Charging

The Seidio charger is meant to sit on your desk. If you happen to own the Seidio InnoDock for Treo 650, then you'll be pleased to know that Seidio makes the Seidio Battery Charger in matching Silver or Blue. The unit itself is lightweight and small making it ideal for charging extra batteries on business trips.

Overall

The Seidio Charger will charge your spare Treo 650 battery without a problem. The USB cable connection makes it compatible with a host of adapters or just by connecting to your computer. The availability of matching colors to the InnoDock make this a flexible and nice alternative to the Palm Cradle Kit - which to date was the only method of charging a spare battery outside of using your Treo 650 itself. We'd like to see future versions offer an LED to indicate when the battery has reached it's full capacity or charge. This product is a nice follow-up to the InnoDock. It's size and weight make it an incredible flexible unit for charging a spare Treo 650 battery on your desktop or while travelling.

The Seidio Battery Charger for Treo 650 retails for $21.95.

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The worst piece of garbage I've ever bought
written by vje , March 26, 2007
This thing won't even charge, and despite trying several different batteries, as well as other components, I've come to the conclusion that these weren't made to perform their intended purpose as advertised, but to serve as something that looks neat, that people would buy,and that's it. You can barely fit a standard battery in this thing (I have to smack the darn thing just to get the battery out), and if you use one of the 2200mAh batteries, you'll be prying it out with a knife, which is what I had to do. When I contacted the seller and told them about this being a problem, their response was "well, we never said it would fit into that charger". Needless to say that seller's no longer registered on eBay, but you get what my point is. This thing is a worthless piece of crap, so if you are thinking of buying one, DON'T. If you want to try one out, I'll send mine to you for free (you pay the shipping). You need a USB cable and an AC>USB plug in order for this to work (sorry, I need my other parts, so I can only get rid of this item). It's junk, and I'd highly recommend you stay away from it. I got mine off ebay, and possibly there's a knock off of these being made in China, like so many other knock-off products (like the oakleys and nokia batteries), so it's possible I might not even have the original brand of this thing, but I'd like to pay the seller of this item a visit, and chuck this at him for knowingly ripping me off.

I still use my original, stright through AC charger for my Treo, and occaisionally I use the battery charger (the one that runs your treo off a battery pack (4 AA batteries), but even that's not that great, and it would take at least a few days to charge the treo, for using it under the purpose. I think the only purpose of that battery pack is if you're in a bind, and you need to use it for a little while - you can just plug the battery pack in, and get your treo going for the time you need it, so I guess it does come in handy for that purpose.

Hopefully this has been informative for someone contemplating buying one of these things. I would stay away if I were you - consider yourself informed.......

vje

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Mine was garbage also
written by TWW , November 15, 2007
I had just about the same experience as vje. It worked once or twice only.
Buyer beware

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