HD Web Dock

[STL 314]

has anyone bought this?

is it worth the 100$?

What are the main features?

I was gonna look at one but my local sprint didn't have it in stock

 

[beantown]

I bought the hd station and finally got the chance to use. I love it! I love the fact I can connect it to my tv and it mirrors everything. I had the HTC EVO 4G prior to the Photon and always wished I could do everything I was able to without beeing rooted. So, when I connected the hd station and Photon I was just amazed. I tried it with the game emulators with my wii controller, and just reliving street fighter II on the big screen was awesome. I also tried angry birds, and again it was awesome seening the birds flying across my tv screen. I also tried watching a few movies and again, awesome! Maybe I was a little to excited since I never rooted my HTC EVO 4G and wasn't able to do all of these awesome things. But knowing that I am now able to do everything I wanted to do with my EVO with my Photon and not have to be rooted, yeah, I can say the hd station was worth the extra $100.

 

[draggingknee]

you can do everything you just described with a $7 hdmi cable off ebay.

 

[KoukiFC3S]

The HD Dock's main feature is webtop mode.

I used it on the Atrix, and it was too slow to be enjoyable. Google Docs didn't work that good in it.
But for some light browsing on the tv, it might do the trick.

 

[sjamie]

The webtop mode definitely seemed too slow for me when I was playing with in at my local Sprint Store.

 

[Tiffy]

I have the web dock and it doesn't seem slow at all. I was playing a slideshow from my friend's wedding site. It streamed just fine and played the music without skipping... and buffered quick. I also had FB open and was making a call to my sister all at the same time. I was running off of the 4G and not Wi-fi btw. I think it is worth it. I had the EVO and think the docking station was missing some key features the Photon is able to do.

 

[KoukiFC3S]

Its awesome that Sprint isnt charging a tether fee like ATT does to use the webtop.

 

[boggs3010#AC]

The best feature of the dock is it uses fire fox 5 full browser to surf the net. I would only recommend it if you use a bluetooth or wireless keyboard with it. The dock has usb plug in btw.

 

[Lokifish]

Reasons why to get the dock:
Full desktop version of Firefox (hacks and mods to get site like Hulu working are no longer needed)
Full version of Google Docs via Firefox
Wireless remote (comes in the box)
USB keyboards and mice (unverified but some wireless combo's are reported to work)
FAT formatted external mass storage devices like hard drives and flash drives (I'm using mine for media and archiving nandroid backups)

Future advantages of the HD dock:
(In development) Multi format media card readers
(Looking into it) CD/DVD drive support
(Looking into it) 10/100/1000 USB dongles
(Looking into it) External HDMI touchscreens
(Looking into it) USB media playback controllers

 

[dsx968]

I was told at the store that Netflix won't stream from the phone to the TV directly. The dock appears as a computer to Netflix and lets it stream. I don't have Netflix so I cannot verify.

 

[Lokifish]

I was told at the store that Netflix won't stream from the phone to the TV directly. The dock appears as a computer to Netflix and lets it stream. I don't have Netflix so I cannot verify.

The store is wrong. If you can see it on the phone's screen you can output it to a TV/Monitor.

 

[KoukiFC3S]

Netflix works great on my TV using the HDMI out.

 

[mgiven]

Can anyone with the HD station chime in and let me know what they feel it offers over just using the phone upside-down on the kickstand with an HDMI to the TV and charging. I'm off to the Sprint store to get the car dock and I know if I add the HD station I get 25% off on both. That would make the HD station $60 extra since I was commited to pay $60 for the car dock alone. Just deciding if the HD Station is worth it than just using an HDMI cord to my tv.

 

[Lokifish]

Can anyone with the HD station chime in and let me know what they feel it offers over just using the phone upside-down on the kickstand with an HDMI to the TV and charging. I'm off to the Sprint store to get the car dock and I know if I add the HD station I get 25% off on both. That would make the HD station $60 extra since I was commited to pay $60 for the car dock alone. Just deciding if the HD Station is worth it than just using an HDMI cord to my tv.

Check my post about HD Dock features.

 

[mgiven]

I caved and bought them both...$120 + tax after the premier 25% off, so it was like getting the HD Station for only $60. A very cool toy for sure and works well. I'm traveling this week and using a wireless keyboard and mouse right now on just my phone sitting in the dock as a display and fine for emailing. The Microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse combo at Staples was $49 on sale for $29 - $10 coupon I had = $19 so can't go wrong. Didn't know if the HD Station would recognize the hardware since the back of the box says "requires Windows" and "must install drivers through CD" but works just fine. No need for expensive Motorola bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

The car dock just plain rocks! We just drove 9 hours overnight and I more than kicked the tires. Added and tried Pandora, LastFM, Sprint Navigation, MOG and Spotify and all work perfectly in the cool UI car dock mode. Even more impressive was I could run run internet radio, navigation and web browsing all at the same time and not only did my phone still charge up to 100% and stay there the duration of the trip, but the extra USB port on the plug kept my wife's phone charged as well. NICE!

 

[DenDiMarco]

Are you saying that whatever is on the screen of the Photon will be transferred to an HD TV by using a mini to HDMI cable? So, for example, I could use this to display a power point presentation, a pdf document or a web page?

 

[Airwolf79]

Are you saying that whatever is on the screen of the Photon will be transferred to an HD TV by using a mini to HDMI cable? So, for example, I could use this to display a power point presentation, a pdf document or a web page?

That's correct. The Photon has full HDMI mirroring. Whatever u see on ur phone will appear on the screen, however, u have to be in landscape mode to fill ur TV screen.

 

[DenDiMarco]

Thanks, Airwolf - - - That good to hear!

 

[Airwolf79]

Thanks, Airwolf - - - That good to hear!

U got it. Its an awesome feature that every smartphone should have IMO.

 

[DenDiMarco]

I received the cable today and tried it out on a 32 LCD flat panel. As you said a horizonal display works best. I did notice that the resolution looks low on the TV screen. I suppose the pixel count on the phone is just too low to translate well to a large screen.

Or is there some setting or action I can take to smooth the TV image?