HALO Portable Smartphone Charger

Concept: 4 out of 5
Execution: 4 out of 5
Yeah, but: Not Just For Boy Scouts

The Long Version: This device is a rechargeable battery that will charge your phone when you're in a situation where AC outlets aren't available, with a fairly comprehensive connection system.
Back in November or December 2012 we became aware of this product when it sold the most units in QVC's "Today's Special Value" history. Sold-out within hours and then kept on selling to a computer glitch causing a scramble to obtain more from the manufacturer ASAP. A huge success and fiasco at the same time. (Don't ask how I know any of this).

Once the situation stabilized we ordered three, in silver, blue, and black. Pink and cheetah print didn't really appeal to us. As shown, there is a USB "Y" cable that has another USB on the other end as well as a proprietary connector for the included adapters. Now that the Android smartphone market has settled on micro-usb life is much simpler since we can all share and stockpile chargers, and an adapter for iPhone 4 and earlier is also included along with that dinosaur mini-USB as used on compact cameras and other devices from the last decade. (Remember when every time you upgraded your cellphone the charging connector was completely new and you had to buy a spare for the office and yet another car charger? No wonder everyone got so angry when the iPhone 5 came out).
The "Y" cord is handy because when connected to your Samsung or Apple USB 5-volt AC adapter you can charge your phone AND the HALO at the same time, provided the adapter delivers sufficient amperage. The short cable length is actually a good thing, because when used to deliver power from the HALO to your device it's easy to drop it into your camera bag, purse, or hold in your hand while continuing business without a big tangle of cable.

This version from HALO will charge most current smartphones just as fast an OEM wall unit, and holds enough juice to bring a Galaxy S3 or S4 and most others from death's door to a full charge with enough left over to get another 50%, more or less. After using ours for all of 2013 thus far, there has been no degradation of results, so I feel like the electronics are solid. There's a multi-colored LED display on one end that works when charging OR discharging the battery. Build quality is rock solid, with very durable finishes and excellent materials and design.

What's funny is that it took months for us to get other people to understand this product in the first place. In March, Sylvia and I went on vacation with three friends to Lake Tahoe. Since we're both informed smartphone users and know that turning off WIFI is important when travelling so your phone isn't burning battery searching for non-existent networks at 35,000 feet, our HALO's didn't come into play until our friends couldn't find an AC outlet at Las Vegas's airport terminals that wasn't being hogged by a college student.
When we fly and/or wait pretty much all day on the way to the Dominican Republic in January, our HALO's are going to be worth every penny.

Sylvia's nephew graduated from US Air Force basic training in July, so I gave him our spare black HALO after finding out that he wouldn't get his cellphone back until the bus ride to the airport on the way to tech school. (He's going to be an air traffic controller).
Not only would his battery be flat after sitting in lockup for 6 weeks, but there wouldn't be an opportunity to get a good charge any other way. He's a young guy who was away from his phone for way too long, so I figured the HALO would save his ass. At first he was: "Oh...uhh...thanks..." but from the intel I got after leaving the party, he figured out what it really meant and started carrying it around and showing it off as the coolest thing ever. Just like I predicted, he was the only one of his buds who was able to charge his phone on the bus and the plane, and connect with the outside world after a long time away.

There are other brands, and HALO has other form factors of portable chargers that are bigger and deliver more juice at a higher price. We like ours for the small size and convenience, but your needs may require something different.
While this particular model is featured in the review, I'm more concerned with advocating the concept of ANY portable rechargeable spare universal battery. Speaking from experience, people will remember you favorably as the guy who whipped-out the slick power thingy long after midnight that got them enough juice to return text messages and GPS their way home from a party or club.
When you recall the stories of folks stranded in blizzards or deserts who could've been saved had their batteries lasted longer, I consider owning something like this to be an essential part of smart people's survival gear.
Mine lives in my camera backpack, and Sylvia's is always in her purse. They get used more often than we thought they would, but mainly they are there when we REALLY need them.

Tekkeon TekCharge MP1580

Concept: 4 out of 5
Execution: 3 out of 5
Yeah, but: It's twenty bucks. Beat that.

The Long Version: Two years ago I looked at a booster battery for travelling with my phone, which is a good idea that was badly done. This new one, the Tekkeon TekCharge MP1580, fixes every complaint that I had and costs one-third as much. I love progress.

The best thing about the TekCharge is that it takes standard USB cables. This isn't all that uncommon these days, but it's incredibly important. It means that there's no need to carry something different to charge from the battery pack versus the standard USB wall charger or computer. The battery pack also charges via USB, using a standard mini port, which is simple and flexible. I was always worried that I'd lose the unique and pointless adapter cables from my previous error; in an ironic twist, I lost the battery pack and still know where its iPhone cable is. Good riddance.

But taking standard cables isn't all that the MP1580 offers. It even comes with a retractable cable that's USB-A on one end and has an adapter to convert the other end to Mini or Micro USB. There's no 30-pin Dock cable option, which would have been worth another 'execution' point, but for $19.99 at B&H Photo (batteries not included) it has already exceeded my expectations.

What makes the MP1580 – and the MP1550 before it – special is that it runs on replaceable common-as-dirt AA batteries instead of a built-in cell. It can use either two or four; naturally four will provide more power to the device but in a pinch it's nice to have the option. And having options is what this is all about.

Disposable batteries can provide a power source that's completely independent of the nations' power grid, limited only to what you can carry, but the MP1580 also doubles as a AA charger when connected to a USB power source. Using rechargeable AA batteries is a best-of-both-worlds option that gives the no-hassle ease of a built-in battery, but also allows the AA batteries to be swapped out in a time of need.

The TANSTAAFL factor means that the MP1580 is bigger than other units that use more power-dense cells and have more options for their designers, and pulling power from a 5V USB outlet doesn't seem like a fast way to replenish the AA batteries. But using four 2000mAh low-discharge cells is enough to take my iPhone 4S from 20% to full in just a couple of hours, with enough room left over for a tiny little top-up later. The batteries will recharge in four or five hours, and for bonus points it's even possible to daisy-chain the phone and MP1580 and charge them both from a USB adapter at the same time. That's more of an overnight endeavour, but still quite useful.

Physically the TekCharge unit is just a bit wider than the iPhone but not nearly as long, so it's still small enough to be easy to pack and carry. It's made of glossy and matte black plastic panels over a silver plastic body. The battery chamber is accessed through the removable bottom panel, which comes off completely.

I've already dropped mine, which nocked the battery door off and sent the double-a's skittering across the floor, but everything went back together and works perfectly. Now I have a certain level of confidence that this is a durable little device that will work well on the road. (I've never really aspired to destructive product testing, and I'm glad to be writing a review instead of a post-mortem.)

There are plenty of other battery packs on the market these days, including some sleek high-end ones that carry enough power to charge multiple phones multiple times. That's amazing, and the little MP1580 isn't one of those. Instead it's an inexpensive device that does a good job, with the replaceable batteries providing an intriguing combination of dependability and flexibility. It's great to have options, especially when when one of them is exactly what I want.

last updated 10 apr 2012

Callpod Fueltank Uno

Concept: 3 out of 5
Execution: 1 out of 5
Yeah, but: It does work.

The Long Version: The Callpod Fueltank Uno (manf) is the mid-air refueling tanker of the smartphone world. It's a rechargeable battery with a port to charge it and a port to charge something else, with a few LEDs in between. The casing is an uninterrupted translucent grey plastic; the charge light and power level indicators shine through it with plenty of oomph. The point of the device is that it can be relied on to give a boost, or a full-dose recharge, to small devices that can't otherwise make it to a wall outlet, car charger, or other source of power. It can't help out something the size of a laptop, but with care, it can more than double the running time my Blackberry Bold 9000.

Callpod's Fueltank comes in two sizes, the Uno and Duo. The Duo has twice the capacity of the one that's named after the popular card game, but I picked the smaller one that's easier to carry. It will be enough to get me through a couple of days where I won't have guaranteed access to power, and because I'll never be in one place for very long I can't risk being without web access and my trusty GPS. For the past couple of weeks I've been testing the Fueltank, and it works well for what it says it does. It does a full charge without any problem, and if I don't leave it connected overnight, I can usually get a second charge out of it as well. That's plenty for a weekend away.

Naturally, the Fueltank needs to be charged so that it can do its thing. It comes will a wall-wart adapter with a mini-USB cable permanently attached, which plugs into the port on the battery pack. While not all USB-style power supplies put out exactly the same power, I've never experienced any problems when I use them for different devices. (Caution: your milage may vary; your device may catch on fire.) So if I'm able to charge my fueltank, then I'm also able to charge my phone. There is a certain irony there, but being able to keep the booster fed from the same charger that handles everything else is a huge benefit for traveling. Three cables and one little power brick can handle my Blackberry, Penny's Palm Pre, our family of iPods, my portable photo hard drive, and the Callpod Fueltank. I love ubiquity and commonality - it makes life so much easier. And with that thought in mind, the happy part of my review ends right now.

Turning the Fueltank over, we see the port it uses to charge other devices. It's a proprietary 8-pin connector that looks like - but isn't quite - one of those tiny little micro-USB jacks. This means that the common cables that we all already have for our various devices won't work with the Callpod. So now we need to carry the cable to charge the devices directly as well as a second one to use the oh-so-handy backup battery. And if that unique cable gets lost, good luck finding it in stores. Best Buy - the store named after an expiration date - is the big retailer that sells Callpod products, but currently doesn't even list the little adapters on its website. They're only available directly through Callpod's web store. We'll get back to that in a minute, but first let's take a look at the adapter cable itself.

This is one of the two cables that Callpod includes with the Fueltank Uno, with the standard mini-USB connector on the left and its nasty custom plug on the right. You might notice that it's labeled 'TOP' - to make it easier to insert into the nearly-symmetrical charging port - so it's clear that someone in the design team knew that they had a problem, but couldn't think of any other way to fix it. The result is lazy, sloppy, and inadequate. Using a custom and proprietary connection is fine if there's a good reason for it and it's well executed, but this has neither attribute in its favour. The connection itself is unreasonably difficult to use, even worse than the various USB plugs, and since Callpod chose this one all on their own it's completely their fault that it's so badly designed. Using a standard USB-A jack would remove a whole lot of the fine print from Callpod's claim that the Fueltank is "Compatible with 3,000+ Devices".

Two photos ago we saw the port that the adapter plugs into, and this is the business end of Callpod's chosen connector. Quick - which way does it go in? Now imagine having to plug it in in a dark hotel room, on a moving bus, or trying to connect it by feel in your carry-on bag at your feet because there's not enough room on the plane to bring it up to your lap. These are exactly the conditions that the Fueltank is useful for, and it falls down badly because of this nasty little cable that solves nobody's problems. The only good thing that I can say about it is that at least it's so short (3.25", 82mm) that it can't tangle up, and doesn't stick out when I strap it to the side of the Fueltank. I keep it there with a velcro cable organizer because if I lose it, the Fueltank is useless until I get a replacement mailed to me - exactly what I want in a travel-ready emergency backup.

I mentioned previously that the Fueltank Uno comes with two adapters: the mini-USB and one for Apple's iPod variants, such as the Mini, Classic, and Telephone. It also includes a voucher for a 'free' (read: cost built into purchase price) adapter cable just in case your device needs a different connection. The Palm Pre that Penny uses has the industry-standard micro-USB charging connection, so that's the one that I ordered. If I had done more research, I would have seen that Callpod does offer a female USB-A adapter - search for style USBA-0001 - that would make the Fuelcell compatible with any standard cable. If nothing else, it proves that there's no practical reason not to have just included the female USB-A port right in the battery pack from the very beginning. That only leaves a non-engineering, non customer-service reason: the absolutely massive profit margins on cables. Callpod sells their custom cables for $10 without needing to discount for wholesalers, and if it costs them more than a dollar each, I'd be staggered.

Fortunately, Callpod includes 'free' USPS International mail for customers who are redeeming a voucher. And it seems like I've finally found a company likes dealing with UPS even less than I do. For the Worldwide Expedited service, which is one of the 'service levels' that includes the massive hidden fees, they want $114.13. That's not a typo - or at least, not my typo - they want ONE HUNDRED and fourteen dollars. To put that in perspective, B&H Photo will ship me a Nikon D3x and 70-200/2.8 mkII, ten thousand dollars worth of heavy camera gear, for an even hundred via the same service. But at least Callpod's UPS prices aren't completely out of whack, since their charge for sending an envelope through the "UPS Express Saver" service is $122.48, which aligns to the $114.75 that shipping my dream camera system would cost. For buying a Callpod cable outright, their cheapest shipping option remains USPS International, but at the time of writing it costs $6.66. And yes, I have a screenshot of that, too. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

There are several things that I consider when I choose a rating. If I like something enough that I can't stop talking about it when someone asks, that's worth a '3'. If I dislike something enough to rant about it when someone asks, that's a '1'. That combination is where I find myself with the Callpod Fueltank Uno: it's a great idea, the product does exactly what it says, and it works for what I want it for. It has some strong features, including a good power reserve at a reasonable size. At the same time, the need to use a badly designed custom and hard-to-get cable ranges from a mild but ongoing nuisance to a critical failure that leaves the Fueltank unusable. I'm happy to have it, but if mine gets lost or stolen tomorrow, I wouldn't buy another one without taking a long, hard look at my other options.

Maha Powerex MH-C801D Charger

Concept: 3 out of 5
Execution: 3 out of 5
Yeah, but: Dinosaur not included.

The Long Version: There are certain things in life that are basic necessities. For photographers, flashlight collectors, and general electronics junkies, those ubiquitous AA batteries are inescapable. Unfortunately, so are cheap chargers - the sort of thing that comes in a set for an extra ten dollars. These chargers aren't terrible, and that's exactly what's wrong with them. They do the job well enough that they take the place of better ones, without being good enough for serious use.

The Maha C801D is the grand-daddy of hard-core chargers. It's been given rave reviews by Imaging Resource, Digital Dingus, and pretty much everyone on Amazon; it's even used by Joe 'Speedlight' McNally. It can fully charge eight AA batteries in an hour, or do a 'soft charge' that's easier on the cells but takes a little longer. There's also a button to do a full discharge-charge cycle to condition the batteries and keep them in their best condition. Each battery is on its own circuit, ensuring that they get their ideal treatment. While I don't have the ability to run any tests, I do get the distinct impression that my flashes are giving me more pops per charge.

Besides having the largest AC power brick in the known universe, the other distinctive feature of the C801D is its two identical buttons on opposite sides of the LCD. One of them will do a two-hour soft charge, and should be pressed whenever there's enough time for a more leisurely pace. The other button is for the conditioning cycle, which can take 12-14 hours to complete. The functions are marked in the plastic, but it's not the most visible or clear. Fortunately, I have a handy pack of stickers that I bought to let me distinguish between my two SB600's. It turned out to be an easy fix.

If only more of life's problems could be solved with the judicious application of dinosaur stickers.