I received 9000mAh external battery pack for testing from the manufacturer to write an honest and unbiased review and you will find both pluses and minuses of my experience in this review.
I am attaching a collage of 3 photos labeled with number 1 through 3 under customer photos that I will be referencing in this review.
The first thing I noticed when I opened the package is that brick looks slick and well made. Its dimensions are 2.75" width x 4.5" by 0.88" thick (slightly larger than a deck of cards). It weighs 7.1 oz by itself (without charging cable). A photo of the unit is included in all three photos I posted.
The box contained two USB cords 7" and 27" and adapters to fit different devices (Nokia 2mm round, Playstation Portable 4mm round, mini USB, two micro USB). The adapters are a weak point of the design, they feel a bit flimsy and it is easy to loose all the small pieces. The minimum configuration for my devices is two connectors: one that goes into the AC plug to charge the external battery and the second (mini USB) that goes into the devices for charging.
The blue lights on top of the battery pack indicate the level of power in the battery: 4 lights indicate full charge, 3 lights indicate 75% and so forth. To turn on the device you need to press the button on the side of the unit. To turn off the device you need to press and hold the button for a few seconds (this is not documented, I found it by experimenting).
The power pack also has an LED light, which generates a pretty good bright light and can be used a flashlight.
The 9000mAh PowerGen has two USB outlets: 0.6 Amp and 2 Amp. I tested my four electronic devices using both my own USB cable as well as the manufacture cable+adapter. In the documentation booklet PowerGen states that PowerGen cables provide better performance for non-Apple devices on the 2Amp (Apple port) and I wanted to see the difference between
the cables. In addition I tested charging two devices using both outlets at the same time.
The provided adapters fit Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone, Nexus 7 tablet and Sansa Clip MP3 (as they take regular USB-to-micro USB cable) but none of the provided adapters fit Galaxy Samsung 7.7 Tablet.
I used Battery App by Elvison to determine how each device recognized the charging source. 'AC' status means the charging is at full charging rate. 'USB' status indicates charging at a lower charging rate. 'Discharging' status means that the charging rate is below the power that the device is consuming so it slows down the discharge rate but does not re-charge.
The key findings:
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(1) 2 Amp outlet is aimed at Apple devices but worked fine with Nexus devices, and did not work at all with Samsung Galaxy 7.7 tablet.
(2) 0.6Amp outlet worked for all Android devices, including Samsung Galaxy 7.7 tablet
(3) Using PowerGen cables vs generic cables made a postive difference for the phone but not for the tablet (note that I used a generic charging cable, not a data cable)
Difference between a power cable and a data cable:
Charging cables short the two data connections together (rendering them useless for data transfer), but this fools devices to see them as an AC power connection, and thus accept the higher current of the charging source. Both my generic cable and PowerGen cables used in my tests are charging cables.
Description of my tests:
I tested each devices charging them for 10 minutes with the following permutations:
--- on 2A port and on 0.6A port
--- using PowerGen cable and using my own charging cable
--- charging two devices at the same time
The table below summarizes my findings.
Nexus 7 Tablet (photo #1)
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2Amp outlet ..... generic cable .... AC source .... 2% charge in 10 minutes
2Amp outlet ..... Powergen cable ... AC source .... 2% charge in 10 minutes
.06Amp outlet ... generic cable .... AC source .... 2% charge in 10 minutes
.06Amp outlet ... Powegen cable .... AC source .... 2% charge in 10 minutes
Samsung Galaxy Nexus Phone (photo #2)
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2Amp outlet ..... generic cable .... AC source .... 3% charge in 10 minutes
2Amp outlet ..... Powergen cable ... AC source .... 5% charge in 10 minutes
.06Amp outlet ... generic cable .... AC source .... 4% charge in 10 minutes
.06Amp outlet ... Powegen cable .... AC source .... 4% charge in 10 minutes
Samsung Galaxy Nexus Phone and Nexus 7 Tablet together
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2Amp outlet ..... Powergen cable ... AC source .... 3% charge in 10 minutes
.06Amp outlet ... Powegen cable .... AC source .... 3% charge in 10 minutes
Samsung Galaxy Tablet 7.7 (photo #3)
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2Amp outlet ..... generic cable .... discharging .... 1% discharge in 10 minutes
.06Amp outlet ... generic cable .... AC source ...... 1% charge in 10 minutes
PowerGen cable -- no adapter, Powergen cable cannot be used
SanDisk Sansa Clip+ MP3 Player
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0.6 AMP outlet ... works
2 AMP outlet ..... works
The MP3 player recognized the charger on both outlet, however it behaved differently than charging from the charger it came with.
When I charge Sansa MP3 with a standard AC charger, the MP3 player goes into charging mode, displaying the charging animated icon. When it was plugged into the PowerGen external battery it continued to play the content. I listen to books on my MP3 player so this caused me to move forward in my book and I had to manually reset my position by a few chapters to get back to where I was when I started charging. The positive side of this, is that is possible to continue listening while MP3 is recharging. This is very handy for Sansa MP3 player since it has built-in battery that cannot be swapped for a charged one. I used to have to stop listening to have it recharged and now I can continue to listen while it re-charges. I was very happy to have this feature during hurricane Sandy when I lost power and my books on MP3 player were my only source of entertainment.
To summarize:
I liked:
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1. Good behavior with Nexus devices.
2. Galaxy tablet consistently works at AC rate on 0.6 AMP outlet (best behavior of the four PowerGen external batteries that I have tested)
3. Solution for MP3 player with built-in battery
4. Looks sleek, feels solid, is compact
I did not like:
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1. The multiple piece connectors are flimsy and easy to loose. I prefer a one piece charging cable I bought as a replacement.
2. Labels and documentation are hard to read: 2A and 0.6A labels are white on white and are hard to read. The documentation is in microscopic font.
Overall, I am pleased with this unit and recommend it.
You can find it on Amazon by following this link.
Ali Julia review ★★★★★
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