1700mah usb powerpack clearance at radio shack $15

[John Redcorn]

I'm going to jury duty next week and wanted a usb powerpack since someone told me it can be mostly just days of sitting around waiting for your name to be called and the jury clerk told me you can have a phone or laptop while wating. Laptop would get stolen, even at a courthouse here and mine only lasts less than 2 hrs. All android for days for me. (internets, movies, games here I come) Best buy wal mart walgreens, target, no one has them except online, I thought they were a popular enough thing.

But I did find one at radio shack, normally $50, clearance for 14.97. I'm sure there might be better online but I couldn't wait for shipping. $15 seems WAY cheap for one of these you can walk up and buy, like dealextreme type price. (without waiting a month for shipping from dealextreme in China.)

$50 original price is ridiculous, and probably why it's clearance now, you can get a 7000mah one from monoprice for that money.


It only charges your phone at 500ma. (I expected), has 2 usb ports, bonus built in flashlight (about like a keychain led) kind of cool looking matte/rubberized coating. About the size of a pack of smokes but a little thinner.

best part (imo) it has an integrated swing-out/hinged 120vac plug, hangs right off an outlet. (but this is the only way to charge it) It can charge a phone or something while plugged in to ac and charging itself.

no usb cables come with.

called an enercell 23-1113

 

[Harry2]

There is a review ...
http://the-gadgeteer.com/2010/08/18/enercell-2-in-1-battery-and-ac-adapter-review/

I see you have not the time to choose a portable charger with a higher battery capacity.
But an add of 1700mAh should be enough for one day to supply you phone.

Harry

 

[John Redcorn]

Yeah I think it will do it. And I never expected to get one that cheap in a store. Especially radio shack.

Battery monitor widget seems to think my phone can last 4 hours of straight movies or game playing, this ought to take me to 8.

Since it will only do 500ma output and the phone can draw more than that playing a movie or game, I guess the way to do it would be use this powerpack in the morning when my phone is already 100% and then when the powerpack is dead I still have a close-to 100% phone battery.

 

[Ingenu]

I would check out if the courthouse has wifi as well. If so putting your phone in airplane mode and allowing wireless signal only should significantly increase your battery life since it wont be endlessly trying to update your signal.

I feel for ya man, I got picked to serve a jury and am just waiting for them to call me. Not sure what I am going to do trapped in that ancient building during the downtime but, my Dinc2 should help!

 

[JnEricsonx]

Hmm, that Enercell one is 15 bucks on sale at the one by me, also, the outlet prong is a bit incentive, if, by some chance, when I go down to the city for NY Comic Con, finding a outlet for even a little bit at a time would be handy to keep the thing juiced, and thereby, my phone juiced

 

[John Redcorn]

I think I'm taking it back now after a week of playing with it. I exchanged once but same thing.

It did help a bit while waiting around at jury duty but there are some things wrong.

I tested it out by charging the power pack all the way up and plugging my phone into it (instead of my regular charger) at night a few nights in a row.

It only adds 15% - 20% to the phone battery before the power pack itself is dead. I'm not having any issues with the phone that could be causing this, completely unplugged my phone normally only consumes 1/2% battery every hour. A 1700mah battery can only add 15% to a 1200mah battery, something's wrong.

It also says it charges at 500ma, like usb. Battery monitor widget says it's onyl charging at 100-200ma. BMW reports regular usb on my pc or iphone charger as charging at around 400ma and my htc charger around 900ma, Those sound almost completely right so I don't think there's too much error there.

I'm wanting something like this to take its place but really want microusb charge input instead of mini since all my chargers are micro. http://www.goalzero.com/shop/p/8/Guide-10-Battery-Pack (says $60 there but only $30 on ebay)

 

[Harry2]

I would say, the better way would be to buy a portable charger with a large Li-Ion battery.
I use the JustMobile Gum Pro for two years. It has a Li-Ion battery with 4400mAh and it weights only 130g in my pocket.
So I know for sure I can charge my phone two times with it.
And it charges my phone with the same current (and in the same time) as my HTC wall charger.

Harry

 

[3waygeek]

Another good deal -- Fry's Electronics has a 5000 mAh powerpack for $30.

 

[JnEricsonx]

So, anyone else used that Enercell charger? I'm giving it a shot at 15 bucks, but, its safe for me to charge my Thunderbolt on? Also, I do like how it has the charger prongs on it, granted, if I'm somewhere I could plug that in, why not just have my charger cord with me, but still.

 

[JRich8389]

I bought this bad boy as soon as I got my Xoom New Trent iDual-Port Pack

I use it to charge both my phone and my tablet while I'm out biking on the weekends. I can easily get 1-2 full charges with just my phone plugged in, with the phone and Xoom I get 3/4 charge on the Xoom and full on the phone.

It didn't come with a wall charger though, so I had to pick that up separately. Of course you can just use the one most phone chargers come with nowadays.

The ONLY slight complaint I have with it is sometimes other things in my backpack hit the power button and turn it off while I have things charging. It is a very minor nitpick though.

 

[Stevewitz]

I've been using MyBlueBoost ever since it came out. It even has a replaceable Li-ion battery. Works great, looks very geeky which I like

 

[ttaylor0024]

Or there is this best from monoprice. 7800mAH for $41.16