PPCGeeks - Desktop cradle that charges extra battery

I was looking for the thread where i posted that i ordered it and will review it, and i guess i was a little blind because i wasn't able to. Since this one has been bumped up and i can see it now, a short review:

The fit of the extra battery slot is pretty good, but mine came with the prongs slightly bent inwards so I needed to bend it out a little more with a small screwdriver to get the tension properly back on to the terminals, after that it worked great.

The slot where the phone sits is not a super tight fit, as a matter of fact all the weight seems to be resting on the usb port, and there isn't much of a tilt, which is guess is a good thing considering the usb port is the only thing that is holding it up so a steep lean would put too much stress on it. I got a innocase rugged shortly after it came and of course it wouldn't fit afterwards so i can't say much about whether or not the usb port will be damaged in any way after prolonged use. While it is not a tight fit, its still tight enough to not work even with a silicone sleeve. It WILL work with invisible shield though.

The last part concerns the power connections. There is a micro usb port in the back that goes to the phone for sync and charge, and a wired-in usb plug that you can plug in to another usb port or a outlet adapter to charge the battery. My old cradles for TP1 and TP2 have their own AC power inputs with a small transformer that provides power for both the battery and the phone, reserving the usb port in the back for sync duties. On the ebay evo one though, you need to have both connected to seperate power sources. This means that if you want to use it to sync and charge the phone itself, you have to use an always-on usb port on your computer, or you have to unplug it and plug it in to another usb power source in order for it to charge with the computer off. Since i don't really use the phone charging part any more its not an annoyance, but while i did use it and wanted to sync, i found myself sometimes forgetting to switch the power and ended up with a low or dead phone in the morning.

For the price, if you need a way to charge a second battery, i would just take in to consideration the power factor that i mentioned above. If you have or intend to use a case, then just drop a few more bucks and grab the seidio charger.