Review: RAVPower Battery Stick

[BenDover]

Link to RAVPower Here

I have never been a big fan of external battery packs for my phone. However this winter's snow has brought some of the best snowmobiling in years to MA. Not knowing the trails too well, I downloaded the app from sledmass.com which shows all the trails in the state. Naturally, it uses GPS for navigation and "bread crumbs" feature. This drains the battery quickly especially in the cold.

Some snowmobiles have 12V power adapters in weathertight compartments...mine does not. My nearly antique sled does not produce power clean enough that I would trust it for phone charging. So I went looking for a small portable battery pack.

There are many to choose from but I picked this model for the following reasons:

1) Its small
2) It has an excellent flashlight built in
3) It has the ability to show you how much capacity is left
4) It can charge my iPhone from zero to about 90% or keep it topped off
5) It was 17 bucks...I've wasted money on dumber things

Flashlight
It's roughly an 80-100 lumen output based on my calibrated eyeball. It has 2 output modes high and low. I left it on high overnight and it was still burning bright (maybe a bit dimmer). On the low setting I can imagine days of continuous use. The beam has a lens over it which makes for a fairly narrow spot compared to other flashlights I have used. OTOH the tight beam is really nice for working on something under the hood.

Size & Weight
Its a tad bigger than a AA powered LED flashlight. It fits alongside my cellphone in the inside pocket of my Carhartt style jacket. It weighs very little.

Charging
The unit only charges at 1 amp which means it takes at least 3.2 hours to fully charge. In practice it took about 4 hours to fully charge the thing (4 trips to and from work @ 1 hour per). It charged my empty phone to about 90%. It was a little hard to tell the exact value as the iPhone goes into a charge/discharge mode when it gets full.

Discharging
The standard USB port can be connected to anything that plugs into one. The output seems to be limited to 1 amp (check owners manual for your devices needs). I leave it plugged into my iPhone in my pocket so it constantly tops off my phones battery. It can also be used to top off a partially or fully discharged phone too.

Environmental
The construction is reasonably rugged aluminum but its not waterproof in any way. The button and end cap is plastic and seems ok but not terribly rugged...if anything breaks it will be the button and connectors IMO.

Conclusion
It works to keep my phones GPS from draining the battery too much. The built in flashlight makes it a dual use item which is something I like. For $17 it seems to be worth the money. It is a Chinese made thing so I would test it in a non critical setting to weed out any "infant mortality" issues. Cannot speak to any long term reliability since I just got it.

 

[dnepro-mike]

newegg is running a deal on RAVPower battery backup 14000mAh
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...5-Index-_-AllBatteries-_-0SC-000Y-00060-S2A1A
for newegg subscribers price is $27 with code EMCANKN36
just FYI for anyone who's on the market
reviews are good on this one as well

 

[natf]

I've got three of those little RAVPower USB battery flashlights and one large pack. Bought one for my wife, worked so well I bought two more little ones for the kids. Around the same time I bought myself a large pack (Anker brand). They are fantastic for what they provide, that being a small flashlight and a way to keep your phone alive. There are tons of ways to improve this thing, especially the switch but as GomerPile noted, it's cheap and it does it's job.

 

[P-14]

If you have an Android-based phone, download "2 battery" from the Google Play Store here. Free and will double your daily battery life. I've tried many and this is the one. When you shut down your phone, it shuts down everything running in the background except phone and texts to save your daily battery life. It checks the internet every 15 minutes for 1 minute to bring in emails, etc.

As far as reserve power goes, I prefer 15600mA LimeFuel here. It weighs about a pound, but will charge my Samsung G4 4 times using the high-speed 2A port. It has 4 ports (2 high speed and 2 regular), a charge capacity indicator, and a flashlight.

The other thing it has is electronic circuitry to keep the batteries from losing charge over time. I've kept it 2 months off the charger and it was still fully charged when I plugged it into the phone. Had it for a year and charge my friends' iPhones with it all the time. iPhones seem to always kill a daily battery charge. And, battery savers don't work on the iPhones.