External battery pack

[Penforhire]

I think you have to evaluate your needs before deciding what type works best for you. Maybe they need more than a whole day away from an outlet.

I use a Mophie battery-case for my phone when I travel. Very convenient if you just need more phone time. At work I prefer a spare charger/cable at my desk than even the bulk of a battery-case.

I have a couple of big & heavy (13 & 22 lbs) battery-plus-inverters at home, from both Goal Zero and Duracell, for camping and emergencies.

I haven't had the need for the middle-range of portable power sources (1 to 4 lbs). I find them too bulky for my needs. Your needs may be different.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Teknikal

Going to have to disagree with you, I have both options available to me and slipping in a compact battery and being back to 100% in 30 seconds is much easier than carting around a much bigger external battery and a charging cable then waiting at least 2 hours for a decent charge.

Nobody needs more than one spare battery to get through a day nomatter the phone and you also don't need to charge them in the phone you can get docks that charge your phone and have a place to charge the spare at the same time.

I'm going to have to disagree with you. I bought a battery pack for my then iPhone 3G and now that I have an iPhone 5, the battery pack is useless. An external non-device specific battery charger is better as it will work even when you've swapped phones or with other devices.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Teknikal

Going to have to disagree with you, I have both options available to me and slipping in a compact battery and being back to 100% in 30 seconds is much easier than carting around a much bigger external battery and a charging cable then waiting at least 2 hours for a decent charge.

Nobody needs more than one spare battery to get through a day nomatter the phone and you also don't need to charge them in the phone you can get docks that charge your phone and have a place to charge the spare at the same time.

I have tested both methods and an external battery works much better for me. You do not have to reboot the phone with an external battery. With an extra phone battery it is not possible to charge both batteries during night without going up and swapping them. And having to bring docks on trips seems very inconvenient.

I have had to charge my battery more than once during a day when sight seeing and using GPS and google maps a lot.

[Teknikal]

Here's why your wrong you put an extended battery in your phone and it lasts a couple of days easy and that's without a new back.
Then you have your original battery as a easily pocket able backup, the external batteries are in most cases larger and heavier than your actual phone and it's not convenient at all to have to cable them for hours to get any charge.
This is why I'll never buy a phone that doesn't let me switch batteries it's just to much of a hassle.

[Rev. Bob]

I'm a classic gizmo freak. I almost never leave the house without my smartwatch, e-reader, and phone, and I often add my iPad mini and wireless flash drive* to that list. I also attend a few conventions every year, and I usually add a camera, an old Palm PDA, and a couple of iPods to my kit for those. All of which is to say that I know what it's like to need a recharge on the go...

First, to be honest, I can pretty much scratch the watch and e-reader off of my list. I juice 'em up before I leave on the trip, and they're good for the duration. Similarly, the camera (and my speakers, if I bring those) uses rechargeable AA batteries, and I can usually just toss some of those in the bag and call it good. That leaves the iStuff, flash drive, phone, and PDA as charging concerns. All together, that's five different connectors: USB, micro-USB, 30-pin, Lightning, and Palm.

I still view my FuelTank Duo as my "big" portable battery. It's got some great features, like two charging ports, an easy-to-read charge-remaining meter, and a decent capacity for its generation (4300mAh) - but it's fairly bulky (by 2013 standards) and requires its own custom adapters, which are major minuses. For instance, they still don't have a Lightning tip...but at least they work with the six-port charging station that I can set up in my hotel room.

So, with that in mind, I've mostly switched to a much smaller Power Bank unit. It's about the size of a lipstick tube and is rated at 3300 mAh, so it packs a lot more punch than the Duo for the size and weight. It's only got one charging port, but it's a standard USB port and I've got a nifty 3-in-1 squid connector that turns that into an Apple 30-pin, Lightning, and micro-USB connector...which takes care of most of my needs. (It uses a micro-USB input to recharge, so the squid does double duty.) It lacks a charge meter, but at least it has an on/off button and a charge/discharge light. Plus, it easily fits in my pocket.

When I went to Dragon Con this year, I packed both battery packs with me...and I never needed to break out the Duo. Part of it was simply not using my electronics that much, but the Power Bank just satisfied my needs. I may pick up another one if I see a good deal on it - ideally with a higher capacity or at least a different color - but so far, it looks like I could drop the Duo from my gear without blinking. The only use I had for it was to loan it to a friend in case she needed it...and she didn't. Yes, this means I'll have to pack the Palm cable to replace the Duo's adapter, but that's no big deal.

So, my recommendation: get a couple of small yet potent external batteries. The Power Bank/squid combo is just about perfect, in my opinion - and if they changed the design to make the power button into a deliberate switch (harder to toggle by accident), that'd be even better.

* The "wireless flash drive" is exactly that: a combination thumb drive and WiFi hotspot - a LAN on a lanyard, if you will. Very handy for swapping files or streaming media on the go, although you do have to use a computer or the Android/iOS app to add files to it. Even then, you can't rename, delete, or move files around on it via WiFi; you have to access it as a USB drive for that. Decent security feature, I guess...

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Teknikal

Here's why your wrong you put an extended battery in your phone and it lasts a couple of days easy and that's without a new back.
Then you have your original battery as a easily pocket able backup, the external batteries are in most cases larger and heavier than your actual phone and it's not convenient at all to have to cable them for hours to get any charge.
This is why I'll never buy a phone that doesn't let me switch batteries it's just to much of a hassle.

And I will never buy a non-Nexus phone but unfortunately the battery time on them are just OK. And the battery on the Nexus 4 is not replaceable so there really is no choice.

[frahse]

In a pinch, a car battery jump box will do. Just plug in your phone's car charger and away you go.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by frahse

In a pinch, a car battery jump box will do. Just plug in your phone's car charger and away you go.

Do you put it under the seat or in the overhead bin?

[forsooth]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Do you put it under the seat or in the overhead bin?

My friend too polite to say "In saddle bag, you ??$$##!"



I do so as joke == as in-kind answer.

[catchit]

Originally Posted by tompe

I have tested both methods and an external battery works much better for me. You do not have to reboot the phone with an external battery. With an extra phone battery it is not possible to charge both batteries during night without going up and swapping them. And having to bring docks on trips seems very inconvenient.

I have had to charge my battery more than once during a day when sight seeing and using GPS and google maps a lot.

I agree. That's why I prefer external battery packs.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by catchit

I agree. That's why I prefer external battery packs.

A part of the consideration on swapping batteries is that many people don't have a phone or a tablet that allows that, so that a battery booster or battery supply is necessary.

[BadBilly]

Originally Posted by Teknikal

Here's why your wrong you put an extended battery in your phone and it lasts a couple of days easy and that's without a new back.
Then you have your original battery as a easily pocket able backup, the external batteries are in most cases larger and heavier than your actual phone and it's not convenient at all to have to cable them for hours to get any charge.
This is why I'll never buy a phone that doesn't let me switch batteries it's just to much of a hassle.

Here's why you're wrong: These people have assessed their needs and found a solution that works for them. That it might not work for you is irrelevant. It is, in fact, the LEAST important thing in the world, at least to them.

We use different readers, chosen for factors that are relevant to us. We read different books, based on our interests. We live, work, and travel in different geographical locations. There are going to be differing solutions for the issue of running out of power as well and which is best depends on a number of factors.

[frquixote]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Yup, Power Monkey's are brilliant, my son & I have them, and have never (yet) found anything it won't charge ! And they seem to keep their charge for a very long time indeed. (The Power Monkeys I mean, when "dormant"!)

My PowerMonkey arrived fully charged about a year ago. Didn't have time to play with it so I put it on the shelf. Saw this discussion and took it down ... still full charge! Decided to charge my Sony PRS-650 (was at one bar), an HP 210 PDA (was completely dead), a couple of smartphones and my dumb mobile phone ... down only one bar on the display.

Time to add this to my travel kit!

[Rev. Bob]

Just found a deal I couldn't resist on Amazon: buy this 10Ah battery for $37 and get this 4Ah battery/charger free by using promo code PKPCJKFD. Both have dual USB ports (2.1A and 1A), and since the charger plugs right into the wall, I don't have to pack a wall wart.

[BadBilly]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

Just found a deal I couldn't resist on Amazon: buy this 10Ah battery for $37 and get this 4Ah battery/charger free by using promo code PKPCJKFD. Both have dual USB ports (2.1A and 1A), and since the charger plugs right into the wall, I don't have to pack a wall wart.

Wow, that is a great deal. Unfortunately, Amazon.ca doesn't have it. They don't have the 10000mAh one at all. They have a 12000mAH one and that's $63 and it doesn't come with the bonus. That little thing looks sweet but to buy it on Amazon.ca, it's $87. Well, that saved me some money.