What does it do?
If you’re someone that’s always on the go, or have a phone that chews through battery like there’s no tomorrow, or simply forget to charge your devices overnight, then there is a solution. It comes in the form of the High Power Dual USB Emergency Charger.
Unsurprisingly, this product has one purpose: to charge your devices.
As this is the only thing that it does, then you would expect it to do it well. And on the whole, it does just that.
Using the charger with my Nexus 5 phone (2,300mAH battery) and Nexus 7 tablet (4,325mAH battery), it took two full days of continuous charging to bring the emergency charger to empty. To my pleasant surprise, the charger arrived on my doorstep fully charged itself and ready for use.
The unit ships with one cable that is USB on one end and interchangeable at the other. Out of the box, this interchangeable end includes adapters for micro-USB (typically what is used to charge Android and Windows Phone devices), mini-USB (usually used to charge cameras), and the old Apple 30-pin standard (sorry Lighting connector users!). This means the emergency charger is compatible with a very large number of devices, which is a massive selling point.
How well does it work?
After having drained the charger of its initial charge, it took an incredible 28 hours to recharge the unit back up to its full 15,600mAH capacity. To charge it you need to use the micro-USB to plug into the device with the USB end plugged into an AC adapter. I used the one that shipped with my Nexus 5, and so this may have had an impact on the long charging time of the emergency charger itself.
The emergency charger allows you to charge two devices simultaneously by nature of its two USB ports – obviously you need to provide a second cable. This has clear benefits – you can charge your tablet and phone at the same time or, for those that like to share, you can bring it to class or work and charge a friend’s phone as well. It is necessary to note that the USB ports do not have the same level of output – one has an output of 2.1A whilst the other charges at 1A. I’m not expert myself but essentially, the 2.1A port should generally charge your devices faster.
In terms of how well it actually charged my devices, it took 2 hours and 30 minutes to fully charge my Nexus 5 from 4% to 100% with no apps running but with Wi-Fi and mobile data connections on. This is roughly equivalent to charging times using the supplied AC adapter from the manufacturer. By the end, I managed to charge my phone seven times over before the emergency charger ran out of juice. This is more than enough to get you through a week if you are travelling or don’t have access to a power point. The more common and practical scenario I found myself using it was by bringing it to my early-morning classes and catching the train home in the evening or going out at night not with a 15% near-dead battery, but a fully-charged one instead.
Build Quality and Design
This emergency charger is certainly a solid product. Whilst the plastic exterior could be described as ‘slimy’, it is well built and doesn’t seem like it would break easily. There are no outstanding features of the emergency charger, other than the power button used to turn it on once plugged in and four blue indicator lights that show the battery level of the charger itself.
My first impression of it was that it was a heavy product – at least compared to how light our modern phones and other devices have become. That said, it’s about the same size of a standard portable hard drive, which makes it portable enough to carry in a bag or purse and not notice it’s weight.
Overall…
In short: I’d rather have this than not.
On a daily basis, the emergency charger provides me with the comfort of knowing that my phone won’t ever run out of battery on me. In a time when our phones are becoming, if they are not already, more important than our wallets, the ability to have a fully charged phone could prove invaluable in emergency situations.
It’s then really a question of whether that comfort and security is worth the price. Currently at $45.49 – 25% of the regular price of $60.99 – this isn’t the most inexpensive accessory for your phone you’ll purchase. However, the extensive compatibility list of the charger – as it ships with adapters for industry standards such as micro- and mini-USB – mean that this is something you’ll be using for years to come.
The Kit Emergency Charger used in this review was supplied by and is available for purchase alongside other chargers at MobileZap.
