Verizon Phone with Cardock like Droid X

November 5, 2013 8:07 AM

My (Verizon) Droid X is dying. I'm looking for a new-ish used phone on Swappa, but am overwhelmed by the options. One of the features I love most about my Droid X is the car dock / vehicle mount. The dock integrates the power cable, such that I don't have to plug and unplug the cord every time I use the vehicle mount. I just put it in the cradle and it's charging. It's a small detail, but it's really nice for getting in and out of the car quickly. Is there another, slightly newer model phone that has a similar car dock available? Or are there third-party vehicle mounts that are available that are model-specific enough to incorporate the power connector?
posted by ecrivain to Technology (2 answers total)

Pretty much every phone has an available car dock. I went on Swappa and found Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3s including the car dock for under $300. The S3 is a fairly recent phone and should be a big upgrade from the Droid X.

But you really want a phone with wireless (Qi) charging, and a car dock with that feature. There are lots of recent phones with that feature (sometimes it requires an optional battery door, or sometimes you need a sleeve that provides it; the latter adds bulk and is not optimal) and plenty of third-party docks. The advantage is, you also can charge your phone wirelessly outside the car using a charging pad or cradle, and when you upgrade your phone you can keep using the same dock(s). The Galaxy S3 supports it with an optional battery door that has the Qi receiver in it.

Wireless charging doesn't sound like much (how hard is it to plug and unplug a cable, really?), but it's pretty crazy how convenient it is.
posted by kindall at 8:20 AM on November 5, 2013

I would not recommend wireless charging in the car. If you're using GPS and/or streaming audio while driving, it will likely drain your battery faster than wireless charging can charge it.

I just got a Galaxy Note 3 and this car mount. Which does require you to plug/unplug a cable every time you mount the phone, but I haven't found it to be too inconvenient.
posted by jozxyqk at 9:50 AM on November 5, 2013