Hate Gorilla Arm? The Saidoka Is The Most Useable iPhone Dock Yet [Review]

By

SK_11

An iPhone dock is a pleasant thing to have on one’s desk. It keeps things nice and tidy, while making it easy to holster your iPhone and juice it up without mucking around with wires.

Saidoka by BlueLounge
Category: iPhone Dock
Works With: iPhone 4, 4S, 5
Price: $29.99-$49.99

There is one way in which tethering your iPhone via cable directly to your computer is superior, though. It’s easier to actually use your iPhone that way instead of gorilla-arming it.

That’s the brilliance of the Saidoka: it’s an iPhone dock that lets you easily tap our text messages, answer calls, and even play games, all while your iPhone is charging and syncing.

SK_16

If you are often using your iPhone at your desk, the Saidoka is just great. Usually, iPhone docks are designed so that your smartphone stands up on end, facing you. There’s something satisfying about that, shades of the Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it makes it very difficult to use because you have to keep your arm hovered in mid-air to use your phone.

This is what Steve Jobs famously called the Gorilla Arm problem, specifically in relation to touchscreen iMacs. It’s not ergonomic, and it leads to shoulder fatigue. Our arms want to use touchscreens parallel to the surface of our laps or tables, and they get grumpy when our screens aren’t aligned that way.

The Saidoka changes all that by being a dock that lies flat across your desk. When you dock an iPhone in the Saidoka, it lays slightly at an angle, making it easy and ergonomic to use. That means you can use your iPhone through your workday to take notes, make calculations, respond to texts, check Twitter and so on: it’s always at just the right angle.

The Saidoka is solid, heavy enough to not easily shift on a desk, especially in conjunction with the rubber feet at the bottom of the dock that keep it in place. Even better, the Saidoka works with most slim cases thanks to an included rubber lining that makes sure your iPhone fits like a glove every time.

Honestly, there aren’t many bad things to say about the Saidoka. It’s simply a better iPhone dock, through and through. Even the Lightning version is a reasonable deal at $49.95, but if you have an older iPhone, the 30-Pin version is even cheaper at $29.95. If you’re looking for an affordable, solidly constructed and innately useable iPhone dock, you can’t do better than the Saidoka.

SK_01
Product Name: Saidoka
The Good: Great ergonomics, solid construction, affordable price.
The Bad: Nothing!
The Verdict: If you want a more useable iPhone dock, this is the one for you.
Buy from: BlueLounge

[rating=excellent]

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.