Plenty of features...
OK, so what’s the inMotion iM600 got that makes it stand out from the other docking station/speaker sets on the market? First off, the styling takes a curve from the traditional Apple-like styling of most docks by going for a shiny black casing with matt black metal speaker grilles. The dock itself sports the power and volume controls whilst across the top are the input, tuner/track buttons and the SFX sound button.Next, besides the stereo speakers, easily-losable remote and built-in radio, it has a built-in rechargeable Li-ion battery that Altec Lansing reckons will give you 7 hours of playback. Superbly, if you’ve charged up the inMotion iM600 and your iPod runs out of charge you can drain the inMotion iM600’s battery to refuel your iPod… handy if you’re staying away and forget your charging cable - cynically supplied separately by Apple.
You can use the inMotion iM600 as a complete replacement for your iPod dock should you so wish as there’s a mini-USB jack on the back to hook the inMotion iM600 up to your PC and use it as a pass-through, letting you charge and load your iPod at the same time as listening to it… cool. If you fancied, you could even hook up your PC's sound using the mini-jack and then use it as a pair of powered PC speakers.
Click for larger imageThe inMotion iM600 comes with a range of adapters to fit iPods from the gen 2 Nano upwards, so everyone except us Shuffle owners should be happy. But that’s not being fair as the inMotion iM600 does have an auxiliary input around the back which you can use to plug in any audio device using a 3.5mm mini-jack cable, meaning you connect any MP3 player, CD player or, in fact, anything that has a headphone socket output.
The radio has four presets and is easily tuned from the remote with a step forwards and back as well as auto-seek. There’s a clear, bright LCD display that shows either the frequency or the input depending on how you’re using the system.
Click for larger imageEverything folds away neatly for storage/travel with a nifty ratchet system helping to fold in the rear stand into the back of the unit as you lift up the iPod dock. Setting back up is as simple as pushing the button on the front and everything springs into place… literally. It’s disappointing that Altec Lansing didn’t spend a bit more time dampening the spring action on the stand as it makes the inMotion iM600 feel a bit cheap, which is a bit of a downer considering that, by comparison with similar products, the inMotion iM600 has a reassuringly weighty feel to it.
Another problem is that the stand doesn’t actually lock into position when open, meaning you can fold the inMotion iM600 over on its front with your iPod docked… so either you’re going to bugger your iPod or bugger the dock. This is another oversight that could easily be avoided with a small, sprung clip somewhere… ho hum.
