Smartphone Thoughts: Mobis Just Mobile PK1 Docking Station

First Impressions
Over the past week and a half I have been lucky enough to test out the Mobis Just Mobile PK1 Docking Station. When it first arrived on my doorstep I was actually quite surprised. I had read a fair number of reviews of this device online beforehand, curious as to what others thought of it, and every review I read on the device said the same thing: this is a great device with rich sound. What these reviews failed to mention is that this docking station is incredibly light, and I don't mean that in a good way. The first thing I noticed when I picked the docking station up was that it felt more like a toy than something I would want to put my phone in. But, deciding not to judge a book by its cover, I unpacked everything as quickly as possible and took an assortment of pictures to show the rest of the guys here at Smartphone Thoughts. :)


Figure 1: The box is actually really nice. It's made out of a glossy cardboard material that is surprisingly smooth.


Figure 2: The PK1 contains everything you need to start listening to music. On the left we have a line-in cable that is used to hook up external CD players, iPods or any other music device. We have the power cord on the top and on the right we have two separate heads to make sure you can use this device in any country you go to! Very nifty!


Figure 3: My hands are not gigantic, this device is just incredibly tiny :)


Figure 4: Here we have a close-up shot of the device's 2.5mm adapter and USB adapter. It should work with almost every HTC handset out there.


Figure 5: A nice shot of my Cingular 2125 resting in its new home.


Figure 6: Side profile shot to give you an idea of not only how tiny the device is, but also how thin it is.


Figure 7: On the backside of this device is where we connect all of our cables.

After I was done emailing pictures, I decided it was time to put this bad boy to the test, so I plugged in the power adapter and attached it to my laptop via mini-USB cable. This is when my first hiccup occurred. Once I inserted my phone into the docking station, nothing happened. I sat there for a couple seconds confused, this was usually when my laptop started playing that familiar little chime that let me know I was about to sync, except that never happened. First thought that went through my head was that I needed to restart my computer but that had no effect on it either. I tried a different USB port but that had zero effect on the situation too, so I did what any guy in my position would do, I asked the girlfriend if I could borrow her computer. :lol:

Unfortunately, this docking station wouldn't connect to her computer either, so I tried another computer, and then another. After the fourth computer, I decided that maybe it was just some faulty mini-USB connector on the device. Seeing how my excitement for this device didn't revolve around using it as a docking station, I wasn't too disappointed that my phone wouldn't sync. My real purpose for reviewing this item was for my love of music, and while my Cingular 2125 sounds fantastic with a nice pair of iPod headphones, sometimes I just like to sit back and enjoy music without sticking something in my ear.

Now as I mentioned before, every review I read on this docking station said the sound was rich, outstanding, and "not tinny". This, however, is not the case at all. After loading up "Michael Jackson's - Number Ones" I was disappointed yet again. While the device does not output a tinny sound as you would expect from something this small, it does output a very hollow sound, like a clock radio. I shouldn't have been surprised by this due to how toy-like the device felt from the moment I picked it up, but I was. I have seen/heard iPod docking stations for the same price, that produce a much cleaner and richer sound than the PK1. Considering how expensive this device is, I figured it would be on the same level as some of the better iPod docking stations out there. But first impressions have shown me that it isn't. Not wanting to give up on the PK1 right away I figured that maybe it just didn't like the King of Pop, so for the next week and a half I played every genre of music I owned through the device as well as some of my favorite Podcasts!