- Touchstone wireless charging kit for Palm Pre, includes both Touchstone Charging Dock and Touchstone Back Cover for Palm Pre
- Inductive coils inside the Charging Dock generate a small, oscillating electromagnetic field and transmit it through the Back Cover
- Magnets snap your Palm Pre into place on the Charging Dock and charging begins immediately
- Charges in the same amount of time as wall charger that came with your Palm Pre
- What’s in the Box: Touchstone Charging Dock and Back Cover for Palm Pre
Product Description
Palm Pre Touchstone KitAmazon.com Product Description
Avoid the hassle of tangled cords and charge your Palm Pre wirelessly with this Palm Touchstone Kit, which includes both the Touchstone Charging Dock and the compatible back cover for the Palm Pre. The first inductive charging solution for phones, the Touchstone Kit allows you to set your Palm Pre on top of the dock without worrying about connection, orientation or fit. The device remains active while charging, allowing access to the touch screen, movies or video, or the speakerphone option.
The Touchstone Charging Dock and Back Cover. |
Palm Pre and Touchstone Back Cover sold separately. |
Just set your Pre with the included Touchstone Back Cover on the Touchstone Charging Dock, and it magnetically snaps into place and begins charging. The magnets align your phone in the correct position for charging, whether in portrait or landscape mode–no cables or connectors required to attach your phone to the dock. And it charges in the same amount of time as wall charger that came with your Palm Pre.
The Charging Dock also offers a number of handy features in addition to keeping your battery topped up:
- Place your phone on the Charging Dock when you’re on a call and its speakerphone automatically turns on.
- Pick your phone up from the Charging Dock while you’re on speakerphone and the conversation is automatically routed back to the phone.
- For incoming phone calls, simply pick up the phone from the Charging Dock and it answers automatically, without having to tap the screen.
- When the phone is not in use, Nightstand mode displays the time and incoming notifications.
The Charging Dock also requires the International Power Charger that came with the Palm Pre to operate.
Palm Touchstone Kit for Palm Pre
This thing is cool and does almost exactly what you would think. A couple items you may not be able to tell from the pic:
Good’s:
- Back has an optional peel off plastic that makes it sticky. I originally stuck the touchstone on a dresser then later re-stuck it vertically to the side of my computer desk – 1 year down and it has not fallen. It is probably secure, but I would be nervous if there wasn’t carpet on the floor. **Update: As the comment to this review states, the adhesive back may not come on new touchstones… wish there was more I could say but a couple minutes google searching did not give an answer… it seems likely the adhesive back is gone though**
- Charge is fast. Under 2 hours gets it from dead to full. Hopefully it isn’t too hard on the battery since it isn’t a trickle charge.
- It feels & looks awesome. There is a reason sprint retail stores sell these at $[...] a pop.
Bad’s:
- Makes a very quiet buzz, I do not suggest charging near your head while asleep!! On multiple occasions I woke up at 1am wondering what was making that strange noise. If you have ambient sound, or if your touchstone is more than ~5 feet away, you won’t notice. If not, expect an almost inaudible but still terribly annoying “mmzzzzpmf… mmzzzpmf” every 2 seconds.
- No cord! The Touchstone needs to be plugged into the wall (computer won’t work) with this cord & 120v adapter, which was included with your Pre: New Sprint Palm PRE Original Smart Phone AC USB Wall Adapter + Original Palm PRE Charging USB 2.0 Data Cable. Problem is if you connect Pre to computer on a regular basis you have to unplug touchstone cord to do it (which becomes a pain). I ordered one like this to leave with my computer: Palm PRE Charging USB 2.0 Data Cable for your Phone! This professional grade custom cable outperforms the original!.
- For vertical users (like me), it would be nice if the magnet was a bit stronger or somehow aligned better internally. Instead of being able to haphazardly no-look slap the Pre on, one has to look, align, and slowly let go.
PS – Amazon has the Touchstone Kit and plain Touchstone for sale. You are currently looking at the Kit, but don’t be surprised if you see the plain Touchstone for less $$. You have to buy the kit first (it includes the replacement back for your Pre). The plain Touchstone is only for users that want an additional Touchstone.
Rating: 4 / 5
I bought this kit for my wife. She found the touchstone quite cool. The touchstone kit allows you to charge the Palm Pre without the annoying process of removing the micro-usb cover to insert the micro-usb charging cable into the phone.
The kit comes with the phone back panel and one dock (hockey puck). The dock has a reusable sticky surface on the bottom to hold it firmly onto your desk.
You connect the dock to AC power via a micro-USB cable. The kit does not include the micro-usb cable or the AC adapter – these come with your phone. The instructions state that you should not connect the touchstone dock to a computer via USB; I think the average computer USB port may not deliver sufficient electrical current.
The next question is, do you want to buy additional docks to charge your phone at the office or in the car? You can order an additional dock separately. If so, you may also need to buy an additional the micro-usb cable and AC power adapter (or car charger).
Rating: 5 / 5
When I first found out about the Palm Pre, I was already very excited about the Touchstone charging kit, so as soon as I was able to buy it on sale, I ordered it. Overall the Touchstone kit continues the great style and physical design of Palm Pre.
1. It is sleek, minimalistic.
2. It uses your Pre’s charge cable, so you better still have it. (E.g. you cannot order this kit as a replacement if you lost your original cable.) Nonetheless, it helps reduce environmental waste by not including extra cables.
3. It works great. Instead of prying open the USB cable slot cover on the Pre every night (as the Pre’s charge only lasts for about a day), you can simply place your Pre on the charger stone.
On the other hand, there is a serious design flaw with the Touchstone charging process. And I am not talking about you having to force off the back plate to replace it with the new Touchstone back plate. My biggest and only issue with the charging process, is that it forces the backlight on while your Pre is charging. I guess the idea was to show the clock at night. However, the Pre’s backlight (even dimmed) is enough to light up the night sky. Besides, it wastes energy. I hope that Palm will introduce an option to turn this backlight off during charging.
Rating: 4 / 5
I am compelled to write this review because I based my purchase on a previous reviewer stating that the car charger works with the Touchstone. Well, not always!
The only reason I don’t give this product 5 stars is because it doesn’t *always* work for charging your Pre in your car–which was the main reason I bought it in the first place. I’m sure I’m not the only one who thought “what a cool way to charge the phone in the car without worrying about inserting the micro USB thingy and use it to hold the Pre in the dashboard while I use Navigation or Pandora!”
Well, it may not always work and it could depend on your car (at least from my experience).
It may depend on the “juice” that your car power outlet puts out. I got the Palm brand car charger kit and hooked it up to the Touchstone. I tried it in my auxiliary charger spot in my 2002 Rav4 and it didn’t work there. The Pre kept making the “ding” noise when it gets connected to begin charging… but it never started charging–just a repeated *annoying* ding.
I had read that the issue was with the Palm car charger but before getting a different charger I decided to try it out in my other car. To my surprise (and delight) when I used the Palm charger and the Touchstone on my 2005 Mini Cooper it worked perfectly!
Hope it works for you!
Rating: 4 / 5
The Palm Touchstone charging station is an extremely convenient way to keep the Palm Pre charged. Simply place the phone on top and it will automatically position itself properly. Charging is a little slower than when using the plug, but not significantly so.
I would give it 5 stars, but am taking one away because the design of the Palm Pre almost requires you to purchase the Touchstone. The charging port on the Pre is hidden behind a fiddly cover on a spindly post; every time I had to open it to charge the phone I was afraid of breaking it or snapping it off. If they had simply left the port exposed like almost every other cell phone does, I would have still purchased this item, but would not have felt like I had to.
One small complaint about the Palm Pre phone, and not the Touchstone directly: when the Pre is charging on the Touchstone, the display will not turn off even in locked mode. It will dim, and display the time, but at night in the dark the glow is still pretty bright. I wouldn’t recommend keeping it near the bed if you’re light sensitive.
Rating: 4 / 5