Kensington PowerBolt™ Micro Car Charger

Reviews for Kensington PowerBolt™ Micro Car Charger

Customer Reviews and Ratings

3.0 out of 5 stars

Based on 12 reviews

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Died in 6 months

    • Written by from New London

    Hi-pitch hum after charging for a while. Received in early March, died in mid August. At time was highest rated car charger in Apple store with 3 stars. Don't get one of these.

    196 of 199 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Weak cable

    • Written by from Hollis

    Sleek looking but very weak cable at the iPhone end. Bought two of these and the charging cable broken on each within a few months. Apple Store replaced under warranty but the new cables broke a few months later.

    196 of 200 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Form factor and removal...

    • Written by from Chagrin Falls

    I wanted this mostly for travel so the small form factor appealed. However it will be a fingernail buster to remove from some cars. I drilled two small holes in the flange and tied a loop of strong thead through the holes. Now it's no problem getting it out of any rental car. The designers should have thought of this. Will be a 4 star product if it holds up.

    184 of 192 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Waste of Money

    • Written by from Fleming Island

    I bought this charger for two reasons-1) I could not find many choices to choose from, and 2) because of the Kensington name, as I've had and faithfully used a Kensington FM transmitter for my iPod for 4 years now-it's been a wonderful, wonderful device.
    When I bought an iPhone, and found that the old transmitter's charging function doesn't work on the much newer device (though it still plays music through the speakers), I wanted a basic back up charger for emergencies. Nothing fancy.

    So I bought this piece of junk and now don't know what I'm going to do with it!
    The product is in two parts-the charging end that fits into the lighter/outlet, and a detachable usb cord. The cord too easily disconnects from the charging end and the two pieces do not even fit together all the way. You can see about 2 or 3 mms of the silver of the USB port sticking out of the charging end when the two are pushed together!
    And when people say that the charger is difficult to remove-they're not kidding! If you are going to leave this in your car full time, I suppose it's manageable, but if your car is like my 2005 Mazda and has only one outlet, don't insert this into it! I had to resort to pliers to remove it! The exterior of the plug portion sits almost flush with the dash, so there's nothing to grab to remove it. If you happened to try to disconnect it using the cord (which you usually would not want to do anyway for the risk of damage to the wiring), as I said, it is already too loose and disconnects immediately. The one time I dared to use this garbage, it didn't even charge quickly.

    Don't waste your money! Personally, I'm just going to look into an updated transmitter!

    92 of 112 people found this useful

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  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Works well with new cars, won't work with OLD cars

    • Written by from Third Lake

    It worked fine in my 2009 Prius. Then I took it along in our 1999 Saab and the charger wouldn't light up! I assumed it was burned out after a very short period of use and contacted Kensington. They sent me a new one, took that along on a road trip in the Saab and THAT one didn't work.. When I got home, I tried both again in the Prius and both work. The plug is very short, and I'm guessing that the older cars have longer jacks, maybe from the old days of actually having lighters and ashtrays in cars.

    The other minus for me, is that it's very hard to pull the plug out of the shorter outlet. I'm going to let it stay in my dashboard jack, to use on ipads, ipods and iphones. If you have strong fingers and a newer car, this may be perfect for you.

    Sorry, don't know when the change between old enough 1999 and new enough 2009 occurs.

    84 of 100 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    poorly constructed connector

    • Written by from BEAVERTON

    The product functions well but the iPad connector has already started to fray and expose internal wires after light use. Also, it falls off of the iPad more easily than the Apple-made connectors do.

    66 of 68 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Super fast charging, but strange behavior with iPhone

    • Written by from Charlottesville

    I purchased this charger for two reasons. First - so I could keep a single charger in my car for both my iPhone 3GS and iPad. Second - a charger small enough I could leave it plugged in and still close the little hinged door over the outlet compartment when not in use. The diminutive PowerBolt handles both requirements with ease. But I also noticed a strange behavior. If I leave my 3GS plugged into the charger, when I turn the car off, it shuts down the phone. When I turn the car back on, the phone boots up again. This did not happen with my previous charger, which would just stop charging when the car was turned off, not completely shut down the phone. It does not do this with the iPad, just the iPhone (3GS running 4.0.1). Other than that, small and fast charging are the name of the game!

    75 of 78 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Burned out first day!!!!!!!

    • Written by from chugiak

    This charger quit working in less than ONE day!!

    Can't believe it....

    Now I need to see how much of a hassle it will be to get it replaced so I can charge my Ipad when I am out and about.....

    It worked good for a few times that first night.....but died next morning... Battery wasn't even that low when using it...like 90%

    66 of 77 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Great charger but be careful...

    • Written by from Tualatin

    Charger works great and as expected. The quality of the product is good and does not feel cheapy. My only issue is on my behalf. I did not think twice before plugging the very small adapter into one of my car's cig lighters. The slot it recessed about 2 inches into the center/radio unit by a plastic molding. I took ten minutes using my car key at an angle to pry the charger out of the socket. My bad. Now it's in a more appropriate cig lighter.

    So... The size if very compact -- if not too compact for some people. But overall it does what it's made for and I have no complaints.

    234 of 245 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Holy Fast Charging Batman

    • Written by from Huntingdon Valley

    Charges the iPad and iPhone very quickly, almost surprisingly quickly. The included cord is a tad thick, but the charger unit works with any usb / dock cable as I have tried using both the included dock cable from apple, as well as a coiled usb / dock cable from griffin. The LED on the front of the charger lights up as a warm red, but isnt so bright it lights up your car at night. there isnt much else to say as this charger is incredibly simple, but suffice to say it works, and it works well.

    241 of 251 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Works Great!

    • Written by from Atherton

    The Kensington PowerBolt Charger is very small, fits into car jack perfectly, charges iPhone/iPad quickly. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking to charge their iPhone or iPad in the car (very useful for iPhone since it runs out of battery quickly).

    76 of 81 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Great charger, but. . .

    • Written by from Cherokee

    The Kensington PowerBolt is a very small and effective car charger for the iPad. It not only charges the iPad VERY quickly, but it also charges my 3GS iPhone equally as fast. The cable connects very securely with the charger unit and shows no signs of being easily pulled out. The unit feels very solid and well made. I also like the 2 year warranty with this product. The only complaint I have about this unit is the length of the cable - it is only about three feet. Basically, I can plug the charger in to my power source on the lower part of my dashboard, but the cable will only allow me to barely put the iPad down on the front part of my passenger seat. This works well for charging the iPad, but it can present some issues with trying to charge it while using it.

    290 of 303 people found this useful

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