Sony’s DK30/DK31 charging dock can be hacked to use the magnetic cable instead

We were somewhat disappointed when we learned that Sony has two separate magnetic charging docks for the Xperia Z1 and Xperia Z Ultra. We would prefer Sony to have one solution for all of its flagship devices. The DK31 and DK30 docks serve the Z1 and Z Ultra respectively and look pretty much identical. However, the dimensions of each dock are different to give a perfect fit for their respective phones.

What is interesting though is that it appears each dock is just a plastic box housing the same “EC21 Charging Cable with Magnetic Connector”. This EC21 cable can be extracted from the dock by simply removing two screws from the bottom of the dock. One can then charge their device using the cable alone, which gives much better flexibility when using with a wide range of cases.

The same EC21 cable can then also be used to charge both the Xperia Z1 and Xperia Z Ultra and perhaps even future Xperia smartphones. Sony is not selling the official EC21 cable anywhere, it wants you to buy the expensive dock instead. However, there are a number of third-party options available on eBay, although we’d always be quite careful of using such cables on an expensive smartphone.

Sony EC21 Charging Cable with Magnetic Connector_1