Review: PowerMobile Advanced Emergency Charger

My friends at MobileFun.co.uk have obviously heard my repeated cries of having run out of battery life on my phone, having forgotten to put it on change in the office, and they sent me the PowerMobile Advanced Emergency Charger to review.

Let me start by saying that with the current set of power-hungry smartphones, with no sign of fuel cell or some other technology coming along that will help them last more than a day, this type of product could well save your skin on a regular basis, especially if you own one of those snazzy phones with no removable battery, so no scope to carry a spare. There are a few product in this category, so how does the PowerMobile shape up?

Well, before we discuss the charging capabilities, I've got to say that this is a remarkably well designed bit of kit! Let's break that down in terms of juice and connectivity...

It comes with a pair of 2000mAh AA batteries that fit snugly into the housing (and arrive with a charge ready to go), but that's not to say you can't use any normal AA batteries you have lying around if you find yourself in a position when you don't have them charged. In fact you can also use the device to charge other rechargable AA batteries. I think that probably checks every box on the AA battery charge/discharge matrix, which is really pleasing - you see too many products that have a set of goals and block any use cases outside of that. With this device it's like they've made it as useful as they can in terms of battery usage, so that's a big plus.

You charge the PowerMobile using its flip-out USB plug, so that does mean that you need a computer of some description, or a mains/USB adapter. It may be that you already have one of those if handset changes over USB (I had a SonyEricsson one gathering dust in a drawer and one that I'd purchased a while back with a variety of worldwide plugs), but if you don't have one they are pretty cheap if you don't want to be tied to using the PowerMobile with a computer.

That's the connectivity in one direction covered, on the other end you should have no complaints at all! You're getting an retractable cable (good for portability), with a variety of tips (seven to be exact) covering the majority of phones from the biggest manufacturers. However, if your device manufacturer insists on producing a proprietory cable, such as the iPod/iPhone dock connector, you're still good due to the fact that the PowerMobile gives you a USB socket into which you can just plug the cable that came with your device.

So that's USB in and USB out. Elegant in its simplicity. If only everything was designed this way. In terms of hardware, that's basically all there is to say, except for the indicator lights on the top which indicate whether the PowerMobile is charging or discharging its batteries, and when it's doing neither you can press the button to see how much charge it's currently holding, on a three LED scale.

All that would be moot if it didn't breath new life into your flat devices when you need them. I did this multiple times (because my HTC Hero is forever eating its way through its battery at inconvenient times), and the PowerMobile did alright. From an empty battery on the Hero, I could get back up to 50% in about 80 minutes with the phone switched off. Charging with the phone on wasn't so successful, but that's because I have it running in "power hungry" mode (simply because I have so many background tasks refreshing over the data connections), so after adding about 30% to the charge the phone would tell me that the power source wasn't providing enough current to charge the battery (or words to that effect). Is that disappointing? Well, only as much as it's disappointing that a standard smartphone battery can barely get you through a working day! This is an *emergency* charger after all.

MobileFun are offering the PowerMobile Advanced Emergency Charger for a couple of bits of shrapnel shy of fifteen and a half pounds, so compared to a 2nd battery for your phone (if you have the option), it's a good deal. Add to that the fact that this device can charge not just your phone, but potentially also a portable media player, portable gaming machine, Bluetooth headset, or anything else that you can think of that charges from USB, and it becomes all the more attractive.