I've been waiting for someone to come out with this exact product. I got this because I often use my cell phone for music, route tracking, and to make and receive calls while I'm out on long bike rides, skiing, or just away from the house. The thought has often occurred to me, when I've been especially far away from other people, that the battery in my phone is kind of a critical resource to be wasting on Pandora or other applications that drain the battery quickly. I worried that my battery would be near dead on the exact occasion that I had some emergency come up, and would be unable to use my phone when I needed it. This battery is the exact solution I needed to stop this attack on my piece of mind.Versatile. The use of a USB port for power-output and for charging on this device means that it works with pretty much every device I own. Android phones, iPods, portable wifi hotspots, Bluetooth headsets, all can be charged from this battery, and it can either be recharged from the wall, the car, or even from your laptop's battery.
Portable. I love the compact size of this battery. I had considered getting the 4000mAh version, but am glad that I opted for this one. It doesn't provide as much power as the bigger unit, but considering how compact it is, the trade-off is worth it for my purposes.
Durable. Although plastic, this battery seems very well made and is very durable. I don't think there will be any problem with it surviving in my ski coat or Camelback.
Power. I got about half a charge onto my Motorola Triumph Android phone when I charged it from zero as a test. Based on that, and the 1000mAh rating, think that half a charge is about what you can expect for this one on most smartphones. Enough for an emergency, or to prolong your phones life, but not enough to give you a full recharge.
I recommend this battery for its stated purpose. If you need something with more power, consider the 4000 mAh version.
I dislike giving negative reviews, but this product had my dander up. Also, I like to save people Forty Dollars on this poor product. The first time I charged this battery overnight (minimum of eight hours); I waited the next day until my iPhone 4S was at 20% of a charge. I then plugged it in while still using the iPhone occasionally. In three hours it went up to 39% and then began to rapidly reduce the entire battery charge back to 20% until it completely discharged. I thought I would try charging it without using the phone. I charged it again in more than the recommended three hours (four hours) until the blue light verified that it was charged. There is NO simple scale on the Belkin battery to tell you how much charge is left in the battery, which I think is a major failing.
I waited until my iPhone was completely out of energy (1%) and then plugged in the Belkin. The small port on the Belkin came loose and dropped into the Belkin Battery. I never had the chance to see how much of a charge I could get. Next came six calls to Belkin who triple verified everything from my name to my model number and promised to get back to me the next day, which they did. What followed were accidental hang-ups, repeat information and a bevy of frustrations.
After reading how so many reviewers only had limited recharge rates, I did ask technical support an important question. "If my iPhone is at 1% of energy and I attach my Belkin Battery fully charged to the iPhone, how much of a renewal charge should I get?" The response was, "You should get a 100% charge up on your iPhone". I don't think so. Save your money and buy something else more reliable like a "Juice pack air(tm) iPhone 4 & 4S Battery Case" or a New Trent ifuel IMP500 5000mAh External Battery pack and Charger for Apple iPhone 4S 4 3Gs 3G (AT&T and verizon), iPod Touch (1G 2G 3G 4G 5G), Motorola Droid, HTC Android EVO, Blackberry, Samsung EPIC, Samsung Galaxy Tablet, Samsung Galaxy S and much more (although I cannot yet speak for the latter). Good luck. This is a tiny, lightweight external battery that's good for emergencies only. People should NOT confuse this with the larger batteries also sold by Belkin that are used to really charge batteries.
What exactly do I mean? For example, the iPhone 4 and 4S uses a battery with a capacity of about 1500mA while this battery only has a capacity of 1000mA. Thus, from the specs you should expect that this would only be able to charge about 66% of that of the iPhone. In real world application, expect probably around a 50% charge from this battery to your iPhone.
So, this is definitely for smaller dumb phones if you expect it to fully charge your phone. For smartphones I would only rely on it only as an emergency charger to use in a pinch until you can get to a real power source. For that, this external battery fits the bill quite nicely as it's small and light weight.
The only thing missing I think is a battery indicator beyond just one LED light to show how much power is left in the battery. I guess it's not a problem to just charge it all the time but that's not exactly efficient.
Finally, I think this thing is way overpriced for its intended use. I can see it being a good value if it were priced under $20 but not at the current price. I found this to be a very easy to use little device, quite handy and easy to carry. It took about 4 hours to come back up to a full charge when depleted, so it's not hugely fast on the recharge. It will shut itself down if you detach the phone or what-have-you and don't turn it off, so it will conserve power. It was also durable, as I dropped the darned thing a few times and it survived unschathed.
The down side is that while it's small and light, it also doesn't store enopugh charge to fully recharge a cell phone. I tried it on both my Blackberry Curve and my wife's smart phone and it charged a dead phone back to about 50%. Certainly not awful but I would have hoped for a little better. This is the most basic model in the Belkin Power Pack line. Despite the tagline 'for tablets and smartphone', it's really not strong enough to boost those power hungry items. Even with a full charge, it barely gave my phone an extra boost, nowhere near the advertised '5-10 hrs of talk time'. The best thing about this pack is the slim design. It's very small and would be great for travel. I only wish it carried a stronger charge. It might work better for mp3 players etc, though I haven't personally tested that option.
Save 13% Off
0 comments:
Post a Comment