The Facts

- 54" cable with ezPower wall charger
- fuse protection with ezCharge car charger
- ezCharge car charger price: $17.98
- ezPower wall charger price: $17.98

Construction and Materials
Both the ezPower and ezCharge devices are made from high quality components. The cables are standard-issue, white, with small black writing on them. The power plugs are nicely molded onto the cables and are assembled well.

The car charger plug is fused for protection. The wall charger transformer is deceptively light, and designed to be a sideways mount so it won't take up extra space on a vertical power strip. The USB plugs are just the right size and feature a textured finish for extra grip.

The cables on the chargers were plenty long for my needs. The cable on the wall charger is smooth and flexible, although visually marred by small black writing down the length of it. The cable on the car charger is very nicely coiled so that it stays out of the way when not in use, but it is easily expanded when needed and doesn't provide too much resistance or spring-effect, which is something that really annoys me.

One issue that I noticed right away is that the individual components of these chargers, while seeming to be of high quality, don't match in color. There is just a slight bit of variation of the white color amongst the plugs, power plugs, and cables. This is most noticeable with the car charger. This is purely a cosmetic issue.

Usage
Both of these chargers worked just fine. The did what they were supposed to do - charge my shuffle. With the wall charger I averaged a charge time of 2 hours, 35 minutes, which might be slightly faster than my iBook takes to recharge my iPod (and certainly faster than Apple's spec time of 3 hours). What's more, neither of the plugs (wall or car) ever got warm when in use.

Both chargers feature an indicator light on the plugs. Unfortunately, these lights stay lit constantly, whether the iPod is attached or not, meaning that they simply indicate the presence of power. Therefore they are not very useful. It would be a nice improvement if these lights changed color to indicate charging status like the light on the iPod does.

The Bottom Line
If you plan to be away from a computer, taking a long road trip, or just want a way to charge your shuffle without attaching to your running computer, these chargers from ezGear for iPod might be in your future. What they lack in aesthetic attributes they make up for in build quality. You'll get used to the indicator light glowing a vibrant green, like the unblinking eye of a tiny robot watching your every move. The bottom line is that, if you've got a need for them, these chargers can be an essential part of your iPod lifestyle.

The good: Works well and does what it's supposed to do, good quality components.
The not so good: indicator light not very useful, color variations amongst components detracts from their appearance.

For more information: ezGear for iPod

Related:
- iPoditude Review: earPod by ezGear for iPod