TUAW la received a Griffin RoadTrip for review on Friday, and I put the combination FM tra mitter and car charger through the ringer over the weekend. If you'll recall, Dave posted about the recent updates to the RoadTrip last week.I've uploaded a small Flickr set of the Griffin RoadTrip in action with both an iPod nano and a new iPod in place, as well as pictures of packaging and the different adapters included with the RoadTrip. Although the review unit we received was in white, the RoadTrip also comes in black to match your black iPod and iPod nano, and it retails for $89.95. Check after the jump for the full review...
In and out of the box: The first thing you'llnotice when you get your hands on the RoadTrip is that it is neatlypackaged. As soon as you rip that packaging open you will notice thatit's somewhat me y with the amount of parts and adapters included.In the end, this is a good thing, but unle you have multiple iPodsin multiple sizes, you're going to have a lot of bits and pieces thatyou either put in storage, throw away, or try to sell on eBay. Atfirst, this is somewhat daunting, as you have to figure out whatpieces you will need to use for your set up, and then you have to dosome basic a embly. There's an adapter for the iPod nano, a beltclip for the iPod, an adapter that fits in with the belt clipincluded with the iPod mini, and an optional adhesive pad for holdingthings in place. There's a combination U and audio cable forattaching the RoadTrip to your computer. Out of the box you caneither attach the car adapter directly to the back of the RoadTrip oradd an extra exte ion arm, and there is an adapter ring included forfitting different cigarette lighters/plugs.
Use with a computer: One of the cool things aboutthe RoadTrip is that it's not just a suped-up iTrip, a combinationiPod Dock/charger for your car with FM Tra mitter capabilities. Youcan also remove the tra mitter part from the a aratus and using anincluded cable, plug it into your computer to broadcast tunes fromeither your laptop on the road or from your home computer to yourhome stereo. This works nicely, but the only dow ide to this set upis that the U part of the cable is used exclusively for poweringthe RoadTrip, while the audio comes in over a regular stereo-minicable plugged into the headphone jack of your computer. This mea that if you are blasting your iTunes music from acro the room, youwill also be blasting your iChat alerts and any other System Soundsgoing on on your computer. Also, you have to adjust the volume levelsboth on your computer and on the stereo system, which i 't as smoothas the iPod integration, which overrides the audio controls of theiPod by using the lineout audio levels available through the dockco ector.
Use in the car:The RoadTrip, as the name implies, is designedto be used in your car. As an FM Tra mitter for your iPod, it'sgreat. I have in the past used the original iTrip, which was not asuser-friendly as po ible, due to the multiple frequency MP3s you hadto scroll through to set the broadcast frequency. My wife has been alongtime user of the Mo ter iCarPlay combo carcharger and FM Tra mitter, which seemed to get a signal boost frombeing plugged into and powered by the car, but lacked the ability totune to statio outside the limited presets. The RoadTrip combinesthe best of both these devices, as it plugs into your car for itscharge and a little signal boost, and you have the full gamut ofavailable cha els to choose from via an integrated and easy to usetuner. This becomes invaluable in metropolitan areas like New York,where every two to three miles tends to interject a anish- eakingradio station on a frequency which 5 miles back had been entirelyvacant. The best part of this: no need to deal with multiple MP3tuning codes and separate iTrip-excluding playlists.
The RoadTrip also edges out the iCarPlay in the way it holds youriPod, iPod nano, or iPod mini. It's not only an FM tra mitter andpower adapter, but it's a nice stand too. This makes it easier to seeand control your iPod. Also, as an added bonus, if you have a newvideo-capable iPod and you've been thinking about buying an in-carDVD player to entertain the kids, why not just plug one of thesesuckers in front of their eyes. The RoadTrip tra mits video audiojust as well as music and does a nice job of holding the iPod'sscreen in place for easy viewing. (Note the pictures of ace GhostCoast to Coast playing on my iPod docked in the RoadTrip).
Overall verdict: As we don't have a regulated rating systemhere at TUAW, I'll break it down into positives, negatives, and whatI'd like to see out of the next iteration of this device:
- Positives: Strong, effective and clear FM tra mitter withintegrated charging that is easy to set up and use; Adapters providedfor every Dock-friendly iPod model; doubles as an in-car iPod stand;can also be hooked up to your computer.
- Negatives: A bit unwieldy and intimidating out of the box; lotsof piece my wife said that with the exte ion attached, it was uglyand looked like it involved plumbing; audio out from computer notintegrated through U port.
- Next iteration: I'd like to see integrated adaptation fordifferent iPod models, rather than separate iPod adapters. I'd alsoprefer one cable for attaching to computer, rather than a U andaudio cable.
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