Some time ago we announced this review already. Now I finally found time to write about it! It follow the previous quite successful hardware review about the
Solar Charger for BlackBerry.
While the solar charger was a small solar panel powered charging device this battery is massive! You can juice it up with that much to be able to charge a flattened BlackBerry 8700 device 5 times to 100% (see real life test results below). And this along with a considerably small size and low weight which makes it easy to take it on a camping trip. I remember about a year ago I was having a safari-like kind of trip to Fraser Island in Australia. I was tracking our route with my BlackBerry Pearl and Skylabxxx8217;s first version of the MobileTracker. After the first day of tracking my BlackBerry Pearlxxx8217;s battery was empty. Well, using Bluetooth and tracking for about 10 hours of driving around in such sand dunes uses some power. Anyway, I wasnxxx8217;t able to track the last two days on the island while we were discovering some hidden lagunes and crocodile places xxx8230; This was the place I could have needed the Battery Pack for! By the way: it would have also charged my external Bluetooth GPS receiver.
Real Life Test Results- Test No. 1
- Device charged: BlackBerry 8700v
- Battery state on start: Flat
- Charging start time: 4:45 pm
- Charging end time: 6:30 pm
- Charging duration: 1:45 h
- Charging consumption of battery pack: 20% (1 LED)
- Test No. 2;
- Device charged: BlackBerry 8700v
- Battery state on start: Flat
- Charging start time: 3:30 pm
- Charging end time: 5:10 pm
- Charging duration: 1:40 h
- Charging consumption of battery pack: 20% (1 LED)
- Test No. 3
- Device charged: BlackBerry 8800
- Battery state on start: Flat
- Charging start time: 4:09 pm
- Charging end time: 6:20 pm
- Charging duration: 2:11 h
- Charging consumption of battery pack: 40% (2 LED)
- Test No. 4
- Device charged: Holux GR-231 Bluetooth GPS (while the device is connected to a BlackBerry and delivers a GPS location every second)
- Battery state on start: Flat
- Charging start time: 7:00 pm
- Charging end time: 12:00 am
- Charging duration: 15:00 h
- Charging consumption of battery pack: 80% (4 LED)
So from my point of view those results are pretty impressive. Like the solar charger this Battery Pack comes with several adapters which can be used to connect it to nearly any kind of mobile device including Bluetooth GPS receivers, other phones (iPhone, Nokia, etc.) and technically all mini and normal USB powered devices. The device has 5 small red colored LED indicators and a button. Once you press the button the LEDs will show you the battery packxxx8217;s charging state (5 LEDs: fully charged; 1 LED: 20% charged). There is another LED at the bottom of the circle you can see on the device which indicates that the Battery Pack is being charged or it is charging another device.
The full package looks like this:
Official Battery Pack for BlackBerry Features:- Circuit protection design against over-charge and over discharge
- Sleek Design
- LED lights show different power status
- LED Torchlight function
- Two kinds of output voltage with automatic recognition
- Reliably charges most digital cameras, MP3, PDA, PSP, PMP, and many other digital items
- Ideal for long flights or outdoor adventure trips
- Keep as spare battery for your phone - economical and extremely effective
- Quick charging
- DC in 13.8V DC out 5.3/8.4V
- Dimensions L106*W40*H24(mm)
- Weight 148g
Conclusion: the Battery Pack for BlackBerry Wireless Handheld is a very handy and neat pack. It is essential if you are travelling around and need to have some power at hand in case your BlackBerry runs out of power. The only disadvantage I see is that the Battery Pack itself needs to be charged with the power adapter that is part of the package (see image above). It would make sense to charge this device by USB as well, right? Anyway, besides this small issue the device awesome!
5 Stars - Recommendation!
This is pretty much the
full review on BlackBerryInsight; content used with permission.