Droidax PortaCharge -- Review

Droidax PortaCharge — Review

Being connected is important in the current day, proven by how helpless we feel when our phones and other gadgets run out of battery… Fear not, the PortaCharge is perfect to prevent that connectivity being cut!

Review written by Phil Tann on April 2, 2012 - 16:15pm

2 Comments

Like many people, due to employment necessity and personal requirements (ie. Music and Video for entertainment) I carry multiple gadgets to and from work with me every day. Of course they don’t use the same charging plugs! My iPod has the proprietary Apple Connector, My Touchpad and Phone have micro USB. I’ve been caught out before due to heavy use on any given day and had no battery on my phone for the trip home. There’s plenty of Portable Chargers out there, but the PortaCharge is the first one I’ve come across with

Battery storage capacity to support multiple device charges in 1 day
Multiple charging ports and capacity to charge multiple devices simultaneously
A Cable that has all of my desired charging plugs attached

for me to actually be interested in checking it out.

Pros

Cable supports most devices on the market currently
High capacity battery
Simple user interface that is very intuitive – ie. On or Off
1A and 2A output ports for those higher demand devices
Lightweight

Cons

Carry Bag is quite cramped if you don’t pack it “just right”
The last 15% of battery drops at an astonishing rate, if you’re below 35% charge it up!
The cable length on the supplied 10 connection charger is frustratingly short

What we like

It’s got a huge battery capacity of 5400mAh which has completed a full charge on my iPod from dead flat, 3 x charges on my Nexus S a top up charge on my Touchpad and a top up charge on my employers iPhone but still displays that there is 39% battery left to deliver to devices as necessary. The LED display showing how much charge remains is a fantastic feature to give an indicator as to when to charge it. The 2 best things about the PortaCharge is that it’s so simple to use and the price is in budget for pretty much anyone at $49.95

What can be improved

There’s not a lot to fault, for the battery capacity it’s reasonably sized and certainly not a heavy device. The main fault I can really pick from the whole package is the cable length on the supplied 10 port charge cable is frustratinly short if you’re plugged into a phone and it rings! The only other issue, perhaps the carry bag that it comes with could be a little more visually appealing, that’s really picking faults for the sake of picking faults though.

Conclusion

It’s a great price and can charge pretty much any mainstream devices, 2 at a time if necessary. It’s lightweight, versatile and small in size. This is without a doubt one of the best general consumer, portable chargers I’ve seen on the market currently. Particularly if you don’t have mains power available to you throughout the day, I’d say this is a must have. Or a great, relatively inexpensive gift for that special geek in your life.

Wasim Soukieh

Looks. Really cool. Where id it sold, any retailer like JB, Dick Smith etc?. Or only online?. Will probably get one son. Thanks for that!jh
- RayG
  
  I got one of these to charge a 700mAh Garmin Edge 500. Even allowing for 20% loss, I should get 6 charges out of it. I can only get 3.5. Either the charging circuitry is inefficient or the cells don’t have the stated capacity.