The market for portable battery packs is literally flooded with a sea of options these days and it’s almost impossible to differentiate between them, lest you possess some loyalty (or prejudice) for a particular brand. Other times, it’s just a case of working out what’s good value and what’s going to do the job it says its going to do. That’s the market that the uNu Enerpak Plus Universal Battery Pack is aiming to fulfil, and it’s trying to do this by stuffing 8,000mAh into a pocket-sized package; let’s see what it can do.
What’s in the box
The uNu Plus comes with the bare essentials: the battery pack and a micro-USB cable to be used for charging your devices; naturally the cable can also be used to charge the battery pack with a computer or USB AC adapter. To be honest, for a battery pack that costs MSRP 79.95 USD, I expected a little more to be included in the box, like a carry bag or additional cables, but it is what it is; at least it isn’t missing anything. In the end, the primary cost adding feature is the battery capacity (8,000mAh).
The overview
Overall, the uNu Plus is a nice looking battery pack. The smooth, black exterior and the general design of the device make for a very sleek looking battery pack. While the smooth plastic does tend to attract lingering fingerprints, the device overall maintains a very streamlined appearance, and is easily cleaned of any grime.
Being of a smaller size than your average battery pack (4X2.5X.08 inches) and with rounded edges, the uNu Plus is very comfortable to hold in one hand. Similarly, being only 6.8 ounces (or about 200 grams) it’s not heavy at all and makes for a really nice bag, or pocket, carried battery pack. This is perfect since it packs more than enough power for your night out, or even for short trips over several days.
Features of the uNu Plus include an input micro-USB port for charging the battery pack as well as two USB outputs, one labeled for smartphones and one for tablets. According to the spec sheet, the smartphone port is only able to output 5V/1A whereas the other port gets 5V/2.1A which is required to charge tablets (and some phablets); we’ll get onto the uNu Plus’ charging performance a bit later. The uNu Plus also features a LED flashlight, which can be switched on and off by pressing the button (located on the side) twice, while pressing that same button once shows the current charge available to the battery pack on the indicator LED.
I’m not a huge fan of the way the indicator LED is designed, though, as guessing how much charge is left on the device at a glance is quite difficult; the blue LEDs seem to bleed colour throughout the LED indicator which can sometimes give misleading reading. Furthermore, when the battery pack is being used to charge another device, the LED will turn off completely, and you must press the side button to get an update of the device’s charge status. I understand that this methodology likely saves more battery than showing the charge status all the time, however it is a bit of a chore when checking whether the battery pack is actually charging requires you to actively find this information.
The performance
To test the uNu Plus’ charging performance, I used the Battery Monitor Widget app (available here for free) as a measuring tool and checked how long the uNu Plus took to fully recharge my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 from 23%. From the 2.1A port, which is required for the Note 2, it took just over 2 hours to fully recharge my Note 2. This isn’t exactly a perfect estimation of the uNu Plus’ abilities as the charging appears to slow as you approach full charge.
If however, we consider just the periods of peak charge rate i.e. 50% to 70%, which took roughly 32 mins, this equates to about 1% every 1.6 minutes. When compared to the 1% every 1.55 minutes the Ventev battery pack is capable of (which is also capable of a 2.1A output; see that review here), the uNu Plus doesn’t come off too badly in its performance and performs pretty much how we’d expect it to. With 8,000mAh, it should be able to charge most smartphones 2-3 times before needing to recharge the unit itself, which in my experience, can take about 6+ hours, which is slow, but unsurprising given the input is limited to 1A.
The verdict
Rating: 3.5/5
Overall, the uNu Enerpak Plus Universal Battery Pack is a solid, likeable entry in the portable battery scene. I like the way it looks and I like that it has solid, consistent charging performance. It does have its pitfalls, but in a portable battery market that is increasingly being flooded with cheap imitations and being able to consistently deliver at least 2.1A to charge higher powered devices becomes more important, the uNu Plus assures you of what you’re getting.
The uNu Enerpak Plus Universal Battery Pack is available for $79.95 USD from uNu’s website which you can visit here.
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