Kit Power Junkie Twin USB Emergency Charger

3rd March 2011

This was delivered without the advertised USB power lead but, as I have a number of spares, I will overlook that. A nice product, performs just as advertised

21st October 2010

Firstly, I’d like to use this review to clarify something that no website ever mentions; it’s input/output specs! If you have a thirsty smart-phone like me, it DOES matter. (There are some outrageous figures quoted for it on a popular auction website, so I’d like to clear this up!) Input: 5VDC at 1A (from a 1A wall charger of course, from a PC USB output it will be limited at 500mA.) Output: 5.3VDC at 700mA. Despite only having the 700mA output (not the full 1A I was hoping for), it charges my HTC Desire from flat in under 3 hours. When I am charging my girlfriend’s Blackberry 9700 AND my phone from flat at the same time, it takes 4 hours. Not bad at all. It will charge my phone roughly 2.5 times before needing a recharge itself. Bear in mind this is with the phone turned on whilst charging. If I were to turn the phone off before charging it, I’d probably get another whole charge out of it. I would recommend that you use your mains wall charger to charge this battery pack back up, as using a computer’s limited USB output will take a long long time to charge it fully. The battery pack seems very well made and has a nice weighty feel to it. Thankfully the LED charge indicators on it are not so bright that that they waste most of your charge to look pretty. My last battery pack had LEDs so intense they could be seen from space. I turned it on once and I got a text message from a Martian telling me to pack it in. OK I made that last bit up, but they certainly would not have helped the charge capacity! Glad to see form has not come before function here. Another thing to note is like all Lithium Ion batteries, from new they take several charge-cycles to reach their maximum performance. Do not be disappointed if at first, you do not get as many charges out of it as you’d expect. I’d say after 3 or 4 complete discharges and recharges you should start to see the performance I’ve observed. Minor gripes: Unfortunately it does not come with any carry case or any adapter tips, just the USB cable you’ll need to charge the battery pack up. You’ll have to use your own cables to charge your devices, but you’re likely to have those already aren’t you? The other problem is that the centre data pins on the USB outputs are NOT shorted out. “So what?” you say. This will mean that if you plug a smart-phone into it with a standard USB cable, the phone will think it’s plugged into a PC, and limit it’s own charging current to 500mA to prevent damage to the PC motherboard. This will mean your phone will take much longer to charge and not utilise the battery pack’s full 700mA output. It’s a common problem with lots of manufacturers of chargers. All smart-phone mains wall chargers have the data connections shorted out for this reason. Test one if you doubt me. To actually utilise the 700mA output from this device, you’ll have to use a specially modified USB cable with the two data cables (the green and white cores) shorted out at the phone end. Your smart-phone will then realise it’s NOT plugged into a PC, and take as much charge current as is offered. Note: If you modify a cable to do this, NEVER then use that cable in a PC/Mac or you risk damage to the motherboard. Use it ONLY for charging from your battery pack. Overall, a decent battery pack, well made with a large capacity. Just be prepared for slow charging times for a smart-phone if you are not prepared to hack into a standard USB cable.