With Smartphones these days becoming an essential part of our lives, we are faced with the one problem that always occurs at the worst time possible; a dead battery. Some of us carry around spare batteries, or even worse, our chargers in our backpacks. However, what happens if you are at an event like CES, and both your primary and spare battery die? You are then faced with walking through crowd after crowd getting lost in the process trying to find either a charging station, or a wall port that isn’t taken up by someone who is blogging and charging.
This is where portable chargers come in handy. While at CES we had the chance to try out the Powerbag, however, it wasn’t until after CES that I had time to respond to an email from Keystone. Though, after having countless dead batteries on my Galaxy Nexus, I really wish I had the Booster 2.0 for review while at CES.
Keystone Concord has designed a nice little portable charger that has some neat features:
Adhesive Strip to mount to your phone.
Micro-USB.
Micro-USB to iPhone Adapter.
Kickstand.
Retractable charging cable.
A 2000 mAh Li-Polymer Battery.
Can be charged by PC, AC to USB Adapter, or Keystone’s Solar Charger. *Note: Not sure about a power mat, do not have one to test.
Plugging the Booster 2.0 into your phone, your are greeted with a nice charging indicator, on your phone, as well as status LED’s on the side on the battery pack as well. These LED’s not only let you know the unit is charging, but also lets you know how much power remains in the pack.
The battery pack is also small enough to where you can have both your phone and battery pack in your pocket and not feel uncomfortable, which is what I like due to I’ve seen some pretty large portable battery packs that are just to big to have in the same pocket as your phone. Unfortunately, it is just a battery pack, so there’s not to many features that I haven’t already discussed. All in all, no matter what your daily use is; having a portable battery pack like the Booster 2.0 not only gives you an extra battery, it also charges your current battery while you have it plugged in.
Pros:
Extra Power Source.
Micro-USB.
Kickstand.
Status LED.
Adhesive strip for mounting option.
Cons:
Seems to be built for phones with the charging port on top; granted it does have a retractable charging cable.
Long, doesn’t give many options for placement if using the adhesive strip.
Overall Rating: 4/5
Thank you Keystone for allowing us to review the Booster 2.0
If you are interested in picking one of these boosters up yourself, you will have to wait just a little bit longer. Concord Keystone is in production with expected release date of March 2012. You can visit them at their website for purchasing details and more information at ConcordKeystone.
