I’ve seen two types of portable phone chargers: The ones that look like a large lipstick tube and the flat ones. Any experience in how well either of them work and any suggestions on a brand? My iPhone 5s battery just runs out too quickly even leaving home with a full charge.
I bought one of the “tube” type ones for my wife’s phone and it seems to work fine. It holds enough charge to nearly recharge her phone’s battery anyway. The only real gripe is that it’s easy to bump on in her purse and seems to drain the battery when “on” even if not actively plugged into anything. Still, for the $5 I paid for it off some cheapie deals site (it came with delightful “Engrish” instructions), no complaints.
I don’t know if this is exactly what you’re asking about, but I got a recharger gizmo from Rayovac that holds AA batteries and will charge up a smartphone.
It works just fine - it’ll charge up my Samsung Galaxy S5 about 3/4 full in a reasonable amount of time. It’s probably not terribly efficient in converting AA battery power to phone charger power, but considering that I got it with the express intent of having it around in case of an extended power failure (they happen in ice storms here fairly regularly), it’ll do the job since I buy AA batteries in bulk anyway.
A problem many people run into when buying them is that the advertised battery capacity is not the real battery capacity. I once bought one with a 5000 mah capacity (should recharge my phone 6x), it only recharged it 1.5 times. Various other off brands have that problem.
I bought an Anker, and its advertised capacity is honest. I am happy with my purchase, but I think I got an overkill one. I bought a 10,000 mah battery pack, which can recharge my phone 6x. I should’ve gotten a lipstick tube since I don’t need that kind of battery power. My Anker holds a charge well, I can charge it and leave it for months, and when I use it it is still almost fully charged.
That is my advice, but an Anker model. I’ve tried 3 models and the Anker is by far the best. However the other 2 I got were off brand ebay models.
It might be worth trying to fix the battery drain problem with your 5s.
My wife had this issue, and aggressively pruning pointless background tasks helped immensely.
I have one. Works fine. Doesn’t hold charge forever, so if you’re going to be wandering and will be using your phone a lot, make sure both your charger and the power bank are fully charged.
I have a lipstick tube one…somewhere. It’ll turn up.
I do like the one I have that is about the size of a square bar coaster. It works on my phone or Kindle, and has plenty of juice.
I have one that’s larger than a lipstick tube but a similar shape. It advertised a charge that it’s just under twice what my phone holds, and it charges the phone nearly twice. I use it when I travel. It charges more slowly than a power outlet, but I can leave both it and the phone in my pocket, which is handy. I like it. It wasn’t cheap.
I like mine. It’s labeled 2800mAh, but I have no idea how that compares to my phone battery. It will charge it once before needing to recharge itself.
It actually charges the phone more quickly than the wall charger. In the afternoon when the phone is running low, I charge it with the stick. Get home and put the stick on to recharge, and well before bedtime it’s full and I put the phone on the wall charger overnight.
(I Facebook a lot from the phone, and I like it on the brightest screen setting, both of which drain the battery pretty quickly.)
I got an Onn Powerbank for Christmas. I tried using to to charge my Samsung S5. I plugged it in when it the phone had about 48% charge. After an hour, the phone had about 20% charge.
I don’t think the Onn corporation understands the concept of a phone charger.
If you have a Galaxy S5, I don’t understand why you don’t just get an extra battery or two? I have an S4, and that’s what I do. It’s not a big deal to switch batteries, and it’s no more of an inconvenience than carrying around a portable charger (and there’s no waiting for charging). A spare battery is always going to be smaller than a portable charger, and my spare batteries keep their charge for quite a long time.
I always thought that these portable phone chargers were specifically designed only for iphones (which don’t have removable batteries).
I can think of a couple of reasons. First, the OP probably won’t have the S5 forever, and the external battery will work with whatever the next phone might be. Second, the external battery can charge multiple devices. I use mine for my phone, tablet, iPod, and a GPS. It can also charge a friend’s phone.
And another vote for Anker.
Because I haven’t figured out how to do that without turning my phone into a corded phone, tethered to the wall for many hours of the day. Right now I have one phone and two batteries, so to charge both batteries, I have to put battery A in the phone and charge it and then put battery B in the phone and charge it. That’s a lot of time plugged into the wall.
I suppose they probably sell some charging gizmo thingy that I could put the spare battery in to charge it (although a quick google search doesn’t find me anything but DIY “hacks” that warn they may damage the battery), but if I’m going to buy that, why not buy a charging stick instead? Then I don’t have to buy another gizmo and another spare battery when I get another phone with a different battery.
I have several I bought from monoprice.com; they will charge my iPhone 5S at least 2x to full and they are also excellent flashlights.
I see the price has come down from $19 to $11 now too… hmmm… might have to get another one.
Those are indeed good reasons, thanks, but it’s still an advantage to be able to have an instant charge, for the phone, without waiting–in addition to the portable charger (which I rarely use). When I go to conferences I use my phone to record most of the sessions, and there usually isn’t time to wait for the recharging process to happen.
You can use one of these, which comes with the battery. In effect, it’s the same thing as the external phone charger, but you don’t have to wait. I charge the batteries at home in the evening (but even that isn’t really necessary that often–they hold their charges for quite a while).
Sweet! Yes, that’s exactly what I was envisioning, and not finding the right search terms. I found one for my (practically a dinosaur) Note 2 over on Amazon.
Cheaper than I expected too. I will get one, thanks!
Hmm, my external battery, which I like, is also Anker brand. I guess that’s another vote for Anker.
Actually, my plan is to basically do just that when my original battery gets a little long in the tooth. I plan to swap it out for a new one, and periodically switch the old one in, charge it up, and put it back on the shelf.
I didn’t go into the reasons when I originally posted, but at the time I got the Rayovac thing, I had a S5, and my wife had an iPhone 4S, so we needed something that would work for both. Now that we both have Galaxy S5s, the solution would be different.
The other reason is that if we’re out of power for a couple of days, an extra battery or two isn’t going to be as effective as 40-50 (or more) AA batteries might be.
I’m glad that you have found something, however I should say that if you use the stock charger and cable for your S5, it should be almost a non-issue to get both of the batteries charged. Those phones charge FAST with the factory-provided chargers.
I’ll chime in to say I have a couple of these devices. I have a 10,000 mAh Anker one with 2 ports on it, it will charge my iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro with the higher-output port at the same time it is slow-charging my phone, or I can hook the phone up to the high output port and get it a fast charge that way.
I also have one I was given at the PASS Summit by a vendor (SQLSentry for those who are curious) and it works fine as well but it won’t charge a tablet, just a phone.
These things are highly dependent on having good cables, though. I can get a charge through almost any cable (though unfortunately not with the ones that came with the batteries) but for a fast charge I need the cables that came with my device or another of similar quality.
I have a phone case with built in battery pack. I have a Mophie, but I’m sure there are other brands out there too. It has been great.