Keep Powered Up on the Go! How to keep your tech devices working when you’re away from a wall plug.

I’m sure everyone has been there at one time or another. You’re away from the office or home and have used your tech devices the way they were intended to, and now you’re about to run out of juice and have to stop.  What to do? In your car, just grab a cigarette lighter charger and you could be back in business while your device charges up.  Not in your car? Not near a wall plug? Things get a bit dicey.

Being a power user of the iPhone (having switched to it from a Blackberry Bold 9000 in December 2009) [yes, I am among the top 2% of iPhone users that AT&T says use over 2 GBs of data per month], I’ve run into this situation. Believe me, the prospect of losing power on your mobile device isn’t one I relish.  Often times this occurred when I traveled for business and I was not in a car with a charger.  So here’s what I did.  I searched for all the possible solutions. There are powered cases out there for the iPhone that will give you back up juice as you go along.  However, while I liked the idea, I have a few other tech devices that I need to keep going when I’m the run, so this solution didn’t really work unless I was willing to embrace having multiple charging solutions for all my devices.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t like carry multiple anything when I travel, so I kept looking.

There are many different chargeable battery solutions that can act as a power station on the go.  I read the reviews, read user comments and settled on one that seemed to have the best set of features for the money, the Satechi iCel 4800 mAh (2 Amp) Battery Extender Pack and Charger. I purchased it in early January 2010 and have been using it ever since.  This thing allows me to recharge my iPhone 3G S while on the go about 3 times without having to recharge the battery extender/charger.

Pros:

• Simple
• Charges off a USB plug using a USB mini-plug cable (supplied with unit)
• Indicator lights let you know how much power is left
• Has a USB charging port to plug your device into
• Comes with a nice travel bag which safely holds the USB-to-mini USB cable, an iPhone docking/charging cable and the battery extender/charger unit itself
• Excellent presentation of the device in its packaging (think Apple-like)

Cons:

• Needs a powered USB port to charge

I have only been using it since January, so I can’t speak to how it will hold a charge over time.  As for how it holds a charge so far, it looks like when I charge it and put it in my briefcase it keeps a charge of about 80-85% a week or so later.  Pretty good.

I’ve found that I can easily plug the battery extender/charger into my iPhone 3G S, while it is in my pocket and my iPhone is on a belt clip, though the charging cable does get knocked loose when you sit.

Bottom Line:The Satechi iCel battery extender/charger is a must-have for folks looking to keep powered up on the go. And while at $59 it is not the cheapest battery unit out there, it provides a large charge, has good looks, superior styling, provides for many recharges, and works well in my experience.

Best Uses: Keeping an iPhone or Flip video recorder charged when on the go and away from outlets.

How I’ve Used It:I’ve used this to keep my iPhone charged when traveling for business — no need to wait while my iPhone rechagres at an outlet, can have everything in my pocket and keep going.  Used it to keep my iPhone going for 3 days while camping (note: I turned off bluetooth and WiFi to help get the most life out of my iPhone; phone was only able to get VERY intermittent cell/data signals, so a lot of power was used searching for networks and I kept it turned off when I wasn’t trying to update, which I tried several times a day).