PDA Power Adaptors & Cables

This category is very specific. It isn’t about the glitz of PDA and Smart Phone cases, or the ease of use of the mounts and bracket section. Let’s face it: there is nothing cool or sexy about a PDA cable or a smart phone power adapter or charger. That is, until you need one. Then they are a must.

Now we have combed the internet to make buying these adapters and chargers easy for you which is why we are on this electronic earth. The issue is, what do you need the cable to do? There are USB to serial cables for PDAs and GPS devices. There are a variety of chargers, from cigarette lighter to USB chargers that let you charge your device through your laptop. There are adapters of all types that will fit a variety of plugs and devices. The point is, there is a cable out there that will fit almost any PDA or smart phone to allow you to charge, transfer information, enables you to travel easier, etc.

There are many, many web sites dedicated to this category. So, here are a few of the larger online companies to look at:

 www.cellphoneshop.net – This site offers a wide selection of chargers, cables, dongles, just about any type of attachment for your phone or PDA. Cables to transfer data from your phone to your PC or laptop, charging adapters, travel chargers, and headset adapters are all available from this complete site. Easy to follow menus will direct you to the phone or PDA of your choice.

 www.tangshop.com – This site is also a good resource site for all of your pone or PDA adapter needs. The front page is plain but easy to follow. Just click through the links to find what you need. For example, I clicked on the I-Phone link and it brought me to a page that had all of the cables and chargers with pics for me to choose from. Headphone adapter cables, travel chargers, even an FM transmitter for those without a plug in their vehicle. All of these items were reasonably priced as well. The same held true for Palm Treo add on cables and chargers.

The one criticism I will give this site is the Blackberry section had no options available for purchase, just a picture of the phone and a text listing of items with no click throughs. This could have been a glitch that will be corrected.

 www.abacus24-7.com – This seemed to be a very interesting site. At first I thought it was quite dry and had an antiseptic feel to it. However, I noticed that there was live chat available. They were also into the marketing thing with pages on Facebook, Twitter, etc. (As an aside, I did not see this on any other site I visited.)

The dropdown menus were easy to operate and they brought me right to the accessories page I wanted with a listing of all options for that device. As previously mentioned, I tried out the site by inputting the I-Phone information and I got a complete page listing many options for cables, adapters and chargers including quick charge cables    and a retractable data sync and charger cable. There were other cables available as well as headsets and ear buds. All in all a very thorough site.

 www.sewelldirect.com – This site was a little more difficult to understand or for that matter to navigate around. Unlike the other sites mentioned, there were no easy drop down menus showing a picture of the device you were searching for. If you knew what kind of cable or adapter you wanted, then this site would be adequate. However, if you weren’t really sure, you might have a hard time finding it here. One thing they do offer is live chat, so I suppose you could initiate it and ask, but I guess I don’t quite see the point when I can go to another site and find what I need quicker on my own. The selection was not quite up to par with other sites as well. 

 www.eforcity.com – I had a little trouble loading this site for some reason. Once it was finished I liked what I saw. Easy to navigate through to your selection. The pages were very slow loading but the selection was impressive. If you have the patience, you will probably find what you want here.

www.uxsight.com – This web site had a nice selection of cables, adapters and chargers. It did not have the ease of navigation as other sites, but it was not bad. Definitely worth checking this site out for that cable or adapter.

www.cell-phone-accessories.com – Now this site might have the best selection of cables and adapters online, but I had a very hard time navigating around to find them. The menu was not clear cut, and the descriptions were very long. The items weren’t categorized by item, as far as I could tell. Now this might not be considered bad for the techno-geek out there who wants complete detail, but for the average person who is in a hurry to find what he or she wants, this site seemed a tad dated. But go for yourself and check it out and let us know what you think.

As for selection, they seemed to have a complete inventory, but once again, I seemed to lose interest after a short time due to navigation issues.

Let me add one important fact to this description. On the front age of their site is a top service award from Yahoo. So, that might very well override any navigational issues. But they might want to consider upgrading their site to make it easier to find items. 

www.mygearstore.com – This was a colorful site. There was a nice selection of cables and adapters, although in some cases I had to go through several pages of items to find what I was searching for. These people also had a live chat option.