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A few weeks back, I wrote an article on Tips and Tricks for Videoing Your Fishing Trips. In there, I outlined some of the ways to make sure you don't miss anything while you are fishing...or hunting....or what have you. One of the important points I made was to go ahead and spend the money on extra batteries. I, myself, bought a Wasabi 2 battery and charger kit off of Amazon, which you can find a link to here:
But when I was preparing for our family trip to Tampa for the Outback Bowl, we decided to take our Acura instead of the Yukon in order to save gas money. However, the Acura doesn't have an entertainment system, and 3 kids under 10 need entertainment. Tablet and phone batteries only last so long, and there are only some many USB/cigerette lighters in the car. So, I needed another solution. My mother in law let me bother her external battery pack.
Now, it wasn't the first time I had seen one of these, but not one this big. Typically, the ones I see are small and used to charge a cell phone. This one was fairly large. We used it all week and I was fairly certain that this was something I needed, regardless of the use. I knew I could use it on travel to keep my phone charged, or to charge my GoPro. So, I decided to look it up on Amazon, fully expecting it to be in the $150 range. I was AMAZED that the price was so low, $39.99 to be exact. At that price, I decided to pick one up. While I could get away with a smaller one, the price per mAh made this one the best deal.
Here are the stats.
"RAVPower 3rd Gen Deluxe 15000mAh External Battery Portable Dual USB Charger 4.5A Output Power Bank. iSmart(tm) Broad Compatibility, Fast Charging, High Capacity, Ultra Compact."
Here is the Amazon link to it:
Two days later, I had my battery.
- It says it is fast charging. That doesn't refer to the amount of time to charge the battery itself. In the few times I have charged it from near 0% to Full Charge, it took 24 hours.
- Now, it will charge my Samsung S5 from 0% to Full Charge in under an hour. That's especially true if I use the 2.4A port instead of the 2.1A. However, it creates a lot of heat during the transfer. I believe there are a lot of losses in using the 2.4, but it is very quick.
- While on travel last week, I used it every day for 4 days to keep my phone completely charged. I stayed on my phone constantly. I never charged my phone with a wall charger. The battery died on the way home.
- The case is very hardy. I have dropped it several times.
- I wish it had a digital readout on the battery life remaining. All it has is a series of blinking lights that tell you it's between 100-75%, 75-50%, etc.
- The major downside is the size. The battery is around 6 inches long, 4 inches wide, and an inch thick. It is also fairly heavy.
- I wish it had a mini-USB outlet. Instead, it has 2 regular USB and micro-USB.
Over all, this is a necessity of you spend a significant amount of time on your phone or other media device. It has days worth of power for your devices. For those who fight battery issues when using a GoPro, this is the perfect solution. I frequently use 5 batteries and still miss about an hours worth of data, if I want good resolution and frame rates. For $40, I recommend you get this.
I will update this in a few months when we see what the recharge-ability is like after a lot of cycles.
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