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We’ve seen some fairly ridiculous iPhone and iPod accessories in our day, so it’s extra refreshing when we find one as useful, well designed, and...well, sane as the P-Flip. It ably fills three roles: a dock for charging and syncing to your Mac, a travel stand that works in landscape or portrait, and a powerful external battery.
The P-Flip folds into a compact 3x3.5 inches, is less than half an inch thick, and weighs only 2.5 ounces. We’ve carried it in our jeans pockets, laptop sleeves, and backpacks, and even brought it to a wedding in a tiny satin clutch for some quick iPhone-recharging mid-reception. Flipping open the cover reveals the 30-pin dock connector, and a curved support for your iPhone or iPod touch’s back. The P-Flip can hold your device either upright or on its side, although the small nonskid pad didn’t always keep it from sliding around on an airline tray table.
The base is a long-lasting 2000mAh battery that you charge via USB, and then charges your device. Dexim says you’ll get 8 extra hours of talk time, 15 hours of video or gaming, or 60 hours of music. After using the P-Flip for months, we believe it--if we remember to hook up our iPhone 3G before it dies, we can bring it back to 98% charged, disconnect the P-Flip, run it down again, and juice it almost all the way back up before the P-Flip runs out of power. Blue LEDs give you an idea of how much capacity is left. Dexim includes the USB–to–mini USB cable you’ll need for using the P-Flip as a charge/sync dock connected to your Mac, or charging the battery with your Mac or the iPhone’s AC adapter.
It’s a solid performer at a reasonable price, and so essential to our daily lives that awarding it the Editors’ Choice is a no-brainer.
P-Flip Foldable Power Dock
COMPANY: Dexim
CONTACT: www.dexim.net
PRICE: $54.95
REQUIREMENTS: iPhone 3G or 3GS, or iPod touch
Large-capacity external battery can top off your device more than once. Compact design. Doubles as a stand and a synching dock.
Nonskid pads could be a little bigger.