SonyDK39 Magnetic Charging Dock for Xperia Z2 Tablet and Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact - Black

I bought this to go with my  Sony Xperia Z3 Compact UK SIM-Free Smartphone - Orange . Is it necessary? No, however i was dubious about the amount of time the flap would last being opened all the time to charge so erring on the side of caution i bought this.1st of all it is an absolute waste of money in the sense that i dont see how anyone can charge more than a fiver for it.2ndly it is the size of a box of matches.3rdly it comes with no cables, cheap much as the supplied cable in the phone is really short, also you cannot charge the dock to a computer, only to a wall charger.4thly the adapters are confusing because it comes with a little instruction book to tell you which ones fit which phone, 2 for the z3 and 2 for the z3 compact 45a and 45b and 34a and 34b respectively.As i dont have a case wrapped around mine as i keep it in a padded pouch i picked up 34a and the phone fitted perfectly, however 34b is too narrow for even the phone to fit in it so i am sure i have been sent the wrong part, it is at least 3 mm too narrow for the width of the phone so there is no way the z3 compact with a case is even going to fit in it.However it does work with the 34a so i guess i will just live with that and if i ever do buy a tough case i will just have to take it out to charge.Now then the tricky bit, getting the damn thing connected to even charge in the 1st place, no matter what position you try nothing seems to work you think you have it centered but nope nothing happens so ive developed a little trick.Hold the phone horizontally on the side the charging point is on and place the bottom left corner flat inside the right side of the charger and slide it along flat until the magnetic points click into place and voila a little tone comes on and the screen rotates. Hooray. This is the only way i could get mine to work.This is smart connect enabled, so when you have it connected go to smart connect, choose charging dock and set your events if you want any.On a side note, i personally find the new version of smart connect annoying, the fact that you have to have a start action drives me nuts, maybe i dont want it to go to alarm/clock when its charging, maybe i just want it to stay on the home page but you have no option for this, beyond maddening , plus the alarm/clock page on the compact is rubbish so i downloaded an app called Timely which i now have all my events set to open, its a clock app that is superior to the built in one.Job done.

So, what should we expect from a Sony magnetic charging dock?1. It's Sony, so it should be well built - it is (hooray).2. It's Sony, so it should be well designed - it is... well almost (well, almost hooray then).3. It's Sony, so it should be twice the price of the competition - it is (damn it).To be honest, I expected the first and the last points to be true. Sony always make sturdy tech that does what you'd expect for twice the price you'd actually like to pay. Unfortunately, it's let down by point number 2 and it's here that it loses a star.First the good stuff: it's a magnetic charger, so you drop your phone into the surprisingly neat little cradle, then slide it along until it clicks into place and starts charging. It's so easy, you can do it in the dark with one hand (no mean feat with a phone this big). Okay, it doesn't come with a USB lead or a plug, but the phone did and presumably you used these to charge it before, so there's no real problem there. All good so far.Now, here's the rub: it's advertised as having a clever removable insert that you can swap for a bigger one that accommodates your phone when it's in a case. The only problem is that very few cases are actually thin enough to work with it. In fact, as far as I know only 3 on the market work (Sony's own "Style" Case, CaseMate's "Barely There" and some German case that costs almost as much as the phone did). If you're going to sell a dock that works with cases on (and please do continue to do so), why not offer a little more flexibility? Don't ask me how. You're Sony, figure it out for yourselves - that's why we pay you twice as much as the competition.All in all, it works. It might just be worth checking out a cheaper alternative next time.

I wanted to preserve at all costs, the waterproof ability of my Sony tablet, so I got the charging cradle, to save keep opening the somewhat flimsy looking rubber flap.I'm really happy I got it, but I have to say that it is pretty hard to line up the "pins" so that charging commences. So much so that when it first arrived, I honestly didn't think it was working.I've made a little white "spot" dead centre, and this is really helping with alignment of tablet to charging cradle. I don't think it would have taken a lot for Sony to make a little marker themselves to assist in this process. Having done that, I am aligning almost every time, and so I'm therefore very happy with it.It's a bit light, so you sort of have to hold it down to remove it (magnetic effect). That's no problem really, and I guess it could be slightly cheaper for what it is, but being Sony, I'm almost surprised it did not cost a bit more.All in all, its perfect once aligned, but note that I was not able to use even the thinnest of silicone sleeve AND charge at the same time. So the protective sleeve has had to go, and I'll put that on only for travels abroad.I recommend, but knock one star off.