If your family is like mine, you’re regularly traveling with several handheld electronic devices. For us, typically, that’s 3 smart phones, 1 cell phone, 1 iPod Touch, 1 Kindle, at least 2 cameras, 1 GoPro and sometimes 1 Nintendo DS. (Don’t judge.) Inevitably something needs charging along the way, when we’re in a plane or car — usually it’s a phone or an iPod Touch. While we, of course, always travel with our car charges and wall chargers, I love the idea behind a portable unit that can be used in instances when a) we can’t find a coveted wall outlet at an airport or b) we’re on a long plane ride.
Enter the Enercell High-Capacity Universal Portable Power Bank. This handy item, combined with the Duracell Instant Charger we already own, keeps us charged when we’re on the go. It’s a handy little product that is great for those instances when you need emergency power. (And I’d call an iPod Touch going dark on a six-hour transpacific flight an emergency; I’m looking forward to bringing our Enercell with us on our long plane trip to the Big Island this spring!)
The Enercell — smaller than a deck of cards — gets its power when you swing the USB plug out to connect with a USB port (say, in your laptop; we also have a USB port that plugs into a wall outlet). You’ll know its done charging when you press a little button and all four LEDs turn green.
When you need to charge your handheld device, simply connect to it from the Enercell Portable Power Bank using the included USB cable (and micro USB adapter if necessary). If it’s an Apple product you need to charge, a USB cable is included for that, as well (or use the one that came with your iPhone or iPod Touch. Voila! Your device is charging and/or ready to use.
Marketing materials say the Enercell Portable Power Bank can provide up to 8 hours of “extra talk time.” I haven’t quite put my devices to the test, but I do know that when I plugged in my Droid phone (when its power had been depleted to 10 percent), the Enercell Portable Power Bank charged it full of power in just over one hour (and the Enercell was depleted of juice, so I had to charge that up again).
I have a small, zippered cosmetic case in which I store the Enercell and the two cables (and mini USB adapter) for travel. Otherwise, those cables would go missing in a heartbeat! For future versions made by Enercell, I’d recommend selling a small pouch to store the product and cables — then again, an additional piece would jack up the price a bit. I suppose I don’t mind supplying my own travel case.
The Enercell Portable Power Bank retails for $49.99 and is sold at Radio Shack.
I received a complimentary product for purposes of review.
I’m sure the Enercell pack is nice, but you can do MUCH better at that price – the New Trent IMP70D (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002D4IHYM) has 3 times the capacity and can charge two devices simultaneously. I’ve had one for a few months and it works great! Perfect when travelling with the family and several iDevices that need charging on the road. I can hook up my Asus WL-330N3G travel router to this (it’s USB-powered) and share Go-Go inflight with the other devices if needed, for instance
Thanks for the great tip!
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I just got one, love the idea is great.. But 8 hours? No way. From full power on charger if im activley using the phone, it will keep it from dropping any further for about an hour. Rip off for the price (got mine in sale for 39.99.
Dear enercell, 1 hour is NOT 8 Hours.
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Hi guy,
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Rgds
LISA LEE
Shenzhen Shangxing Industrial Design Co., Ltd
TEL：+86-15920425825
FAX：+86-0755-83025337
Website:www.sxdesign.net
I am from a power bank factory and I can provide portable power bank with high quality and high capacity . Of course, the price is low.The capacity is from 4400mAh to 12800mAh and they can charge any mobile devices such as iphone,ipad, samsung, sony, nokia, camera, psp,etc . so can you tell me what you want ,then send an email to me, maybe I can satisfy you !
The enercell products are nice in an emergency if you need a quick bump to get your GPS back online for a little bit, but for the price its a rip off. A quick search on amazon will show chargers for the same price with more then double the capicity. I used this unit for the first time today with my iphone and got around 45 minutes of use. The iTorch is able to keep an iPhone 4s running for over 24 hours while streaming movies the entire time. Not sure where they got off selling this at such a high price, but by far the bottom of the list when it comes to these devices!
do you want play piano in travel ? we can supply USB electronic piano ,pls visit http://www.mleternal.com ,tks!
Asion Shaw
Kinderl International Limited
Tel: +852 6913 0843
Fax: +852 3069 7243
Email: asion@kinderl.com
Official Website: http://www.kinderl.com
MFRs of Portable Power Bank, Bluetooth Bracelet, Universal Charging Station.
Address: 11/F.,Front Blcok Hang Lok Building, 130 Wing Lok Street, Sheung Wan, HongKong
we are Power Stations Ltd, we have Portable Power Bank within good quality
Best Regard
Lilian
Power Stations Ltd
lilianbatteries@hotmail.com
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