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Griffin iTrip Auto – Review

I wanted to play my iPod in the car and went looking for possible products. I have an iPod Video (fifth generation iPod) and ended up buying the Griffin iTrip Auto.

I have been very satisfied with it so far. It costs around $80 Canadian, but on eBay you can get it for just over $50. Dell.com will also occasionally list them for $30.

Sound quality

The sound quality is quite good. Griffin’s original iTrip is wireless and runs on iPod power, so it doesn’t have a lot of transmitting power. The iTrip Auto runs on car power (needs a spare cigarette lighter power port), so it has plenty of juice to transmit the signal. I can place the transmitter anywhere in my car and it works perfectly.loads too

This is the other reason I wanted the iTrip Auto. It charges while plugged in too. Apple tries to rip you off on video iPods by not even giving you an AC adapter or any other way to charge it other than the USB cable that plugs into your computer. Apple’s AC adapter is $40 and so is the car charger I think.

With iTrip Auto, you already have the charger built in, so you don’t have to worry. Then I went and bought an AC to DC converter on eBay for $10 and just took my iTrip home when I was traveling and plugged it in to charge it there.

This is off topic, but if you want another option for a wall charger, Kensington makes a universal international plug adapter with a USB port. It costs $40 on dell.ca, but you can sometimes get it for $20 on Dell sale days. This is the same price as the Apple wall adapter and this is a travel adapter for different countries. There is no comparison and the unit is also quite small.

choose your station

Simply choose your station, press the Select button and tune your radio. It’s that easy.

not so portable

The only negative point is that the iTrip Auto connects when plugged in. If not, you can’t power the transmitter. So it’s not portable like the previous iTrip.

Where is the backlight?

If it is powered from the cigarette lighter, there is endless power. I don’t know why they didn’t put a backlight on the LCD for the station selector. I know you don’t use it often, but when I’m on road trips I frequently pass through cities where I need to adjust it due to interference. You have to turn on the car interior light to see what the station is set to. This is minor, but would have been nice.

Summary

Overall I’d say it’s a good buy. If you don’t like being so portable and would like a car charger, this is a great two in one. Don’t buy it from the store though, look for one on eBay or an online discount electronics dealer for a better price.

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