GSM phone prep cradle

[Vertigo1]

I told Dandle that I'd post a pic of the cradle that fits the GSM phone prep bracket but of course some others may find this useful.

I have the new style prep where the cradle goes in the armrest but the mounting is the same as the dash version.

As you're no doubt aware, the kit is capable of communicating with the phone via bluetooth without using the cradle so you don't strictly need it. Beforehand I was under the impression that all the cradle did was charge the handset and connect it to the roof-mounted aerial, the connectivity was still done via bluetooth. This turns out not to be the case.

If the phone is inserted into the cradle then the kit uses this for all communications and disables the bluetooth. The main advantage of this appears to be speed. The call lists and phonebook synchronise much faster in the cradle than they do over bluetooth.

The cradle itself seems solidly constructed and fits the phone very well with no rattles. It has a solitary button at the bottom of it which is used to invoke the speech system and functions exactly the same as the right-hand button on the MFSW so this could be handy if you don't have the wheel but of course it's only really of use with the dash mounted version.

Hope this info is of use to someone

 

[Dandle]

Looks very good, wish it was about when we bought ours. I cant even retrofit it as i'll be left with a hole in the dash. Had an A4 as a loaner the other day that had the armrest and I actually quite like it, although it was weird the way they have let it get in the way of the handbrake. Car looks stunning by the way.

 

[JaminBen]

Thanks for the info!

Are there now cradles available for a wider array of phones?

I am still on an ancient T630 with my in-dash cradle... Is there a web page with the latest-released cradles?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Vertigo1]

Dandle had a list of the currently supported phone cradles which he emailed to me. I would forward it over but it's on my home PC and I'm at work at the mo.

There's also the separate issue of how well a given phone will work with the kit as not all of them support all the functions for synchronising the phonebook and call lists. I'm using a 6230i which works flawlessly. I quite like the N80 but unfortunately the N-series phones all have major problems with the kit (Symbian's fault rather than Audi's I believe).

 

[marcfairbrother]

It would be handy if the list of supported phones could be made public. I for one would like to check whether my phone is compatible, and I'm guessing that I'm not alone.

Thanks for the info already posted; very useful.

 

[stevec]

It would be handy if the list of supported phones could be made public. I for one would like to check whether my phone is compatible, and I'm guessing that I'm not alone.

You can get this information if you visit the Audi accessories website. The link below is for the A3, each cradle is listed and details of the phones supported.

http://www.audiaccessories.co.uk/(5gqbmqrxgs0uy1fndk42zx2y)/accessories.aspx?page=Model

 

[Vertigo1]

Fraid not, the cradles listed on the website are for an aftermarket system called "Nemesis" which isn't the same thing as the OEM prep.

Best place to find how compatible your phone is with the kit is this thread over on navplus, courtesy of craigyb (go to the end for the most up to date list): http://www.navplus.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1196

I've also stuck the PDF Dandle sent me a while ago on my webspace here: http://www.iconia.org.uk/files/24198f63-0a70-cedf-0078-bd0a3656be2a.pdf

The PDF gives more detail about cradles as well as compatiblity but may not be as up to date with the latest handsets.

HTH