Altec Lansing inmotion iM600

iPods On The Move

Altec Lansing’s inMotion iM600 is an iPod dock that doubles as a radio and speaker for your PC or any other MP3 player.

The dock itself is stylish and compact, and is a small rectangular block but can be unfolded on a table. All the iPod models can be docked, including the latest iPod Touch. You can charge your iPod or synchronise your music as well.

There are controls for volume adjustment at the base of the dock and the track switching buttons on the top. The volume control buttons are hard and tacky, whereas the smaller track controlling buttons are very soft and tiny. There does not seem to be any button for pausing or stopping tracks. Other than that, the dock is simple to use and comes with an inbuilt display on the front, which shows the source of the track and volume control. There’s also a compact little remote control, like those found on many of their desktop speakers sets.

The iM600 has good music quality, but it lacks bass in the tracks due to its flat design. It is loud though, and there is little or no distortion with the volume set to maximum. The SFX button doesn’t really do a whole lot other than making the sound slightly better.

The dock comes with an auxiliary connector, which means you can connect any other iPod MP3 player to it, or even your computer for that matter. You also can use it as an FM radio, and the antenna comes well tucked into the back of the dock. One of the biggest plus points of this product is the inbuilt chargeable Li-ion battery that charges itself when powered on. This dock is then mobile but docking an iPod in a moving vehicle might not be a good idea—the base plug could damage itself or the iPod connector from the vibrations.

The Altec Lansing iM600 is priced at Rs 7,500. It’s a tad costlier than we’d like it to be, but the functionality, flexibility and performance that it offers is hard to come by in such a product, especially in the Indian market.