Portable Power from PowerPack Sales
Own a smartphone? Then you'll be familiar with having your phone run out of battery. We look at two innovative products for helping to keep your battery topped up whilst you're on the move.
iPhone 4 Power Pack Review:
If you own an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S, you'll be very familiar with the concept of the daily charge... use your smartphone for surfing, watching video, or any location-based application, and your battery life trickles away until you can get to a mains charger.
We've looked at various portable charging solutions in the past, such as the Power Monkey, Power Reserve Strap and the Mi Suny solar charger, but the Power Pack Case iP4-001 could be the answer.
Power Pack Sales - iPhone 4 Power Pack
It's a thin sleeve that hides a 1450mAh battery, giving you an extra 70%-80% of battery life. Insert the phone, and when you charge via USB, the phone charges, followed by the case. When the phone runs low - press the case button, and the case charges the phone.
Our Pete picked one of these up at the Ideal Home Show, where he also interviewed Jeff from the UK distributor Power Pack Sales. Take a listen to our short interview to find out more.
Interview with PowerPack Sales at Ideal Home Show 2012 (6 minutes) |
The Power Pack Case is designed for the iPhone 4 and 4S (not suitable for the iPhone 3 family). It measures just 18 x 61 x 124mm, and adds very little depth to the iPhone. At 53.5g, there's very little weight too. The package claims that the case can add an additional 300 hours of standby, 7 extra hours of talk time, and an additional 40 hours of music playback.
This is an exceptionally nice product that does exactly what you'd expect. On the back, there's a handy flip-out stand, so that the iPhone can sit on a desk and play back audio and video. The LED lights on the bottom give an indication of the four charge levels, and the case has a comfy feel. The case doesn't add a lot in the way of protection - it's lightly rubberised, so may survive a gentle knock, but it doesn't do much to protect the phone, which to be fair, it's not designed for.
It's hard to fault the Power Pack Case, although on our model, the moulding for the iPhone Mute switch isn't perfect, meaning it's slightly tricky to flick the switch with the case on, but otherwise, it's great.
Highly recommended, and available now from www.powerpacksales.com
Solar PowerStore Review:
Also from the same supplier, a solution for charging other mobile devices. The PowerStore is a similar concept to the Power Monkey - a portable battery with a selection of adapters that can be used to charge a range of devices. This one offers a few enhancements though, making it ideal for road warriors:
Power Pack Sales - Solar Powerstore
The Solar PowerStore contains a 2000mAh 3.7V Lithium-Ion battery, and it's deceptively light at 88 grams. It boasts up to 120 hours of standby for a mobile phone, 4 hours for sat navs, 46 hours of phone talk time and 8 hours of gaming.
The PowerStore comes with five adapters - a micro USB, iPhone/iPod, and three other plugs that we didn't immediately recognise. The good news is, that the PowerStore can actually power pretty much any portable device, camera, smartphone and handheld games console, as it has a standard USB socket - meaning that you can use your existing USB charging lead, without the need for any special adapters.
It charges using a mini-USB connected to a PC, or to any of the various USB mains chargers around, and holds a charge for around a month. It also makes use of a solar cell, and we've found this particularly useful. Our PowerStore has been fully charged via USB, and it gets topped up using ambient light when it's not in use - all very clever.
In the next photo, you'll see the USB port for charging, and the mini USB that's being used to charge the battery. The LED on the left is a small torch, which is turned on from the smaller of the two silver buttons on the top. The larger silver button switches on the Charge Indicator - the blue bar showing the battery's charge. The bar is also used to indicate how much solar energy it's getting, and it glows red according to available light.
We made use of one of these for a recent outside event (transmission from the LV18 Light Vessel), where there was no mains power available, and it was very useful for topping up both a camera and a mobile phone, with power to spare.
The FrequencyCast team is very impressed with this little pack, and our previous favourite, the Power Monkey, has been demoted to the FrequencyCast office drawer.
If you're familiar with the concept of being caught short, power-wise, the PowerStore is a top solution, and hard to fault. Available in the UK now from www.powerpacksales.com
Contacting PowerPack Sales:
The address for PowerPackSales in the UK is as follows:
Powerpack Sales Ltd,
130 Bournemouth Road,
Chandlers Ford,
Eastleigh,
Hants SO53 3AL
Related Content:
- Ideal Home Show 2012 Review - More coverage of the Ideal Home Show
- Gadget Show Live Coverage
- Power Pack Sales Chargers - Featured in Show 74
- Ideal Home Show - Show 74 Transcript
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