Appletell reviews the iON Universal Mobile Power Bank

by Ed McKell on Oct 5, 2009 at 07:27 AM

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Let’s face it, the iPhone is an awesome device that is very flexible and can fulfill many roles. But this super ability often requires more power than your internal battery can provide. Thanks to Apple’s decision to make the iPhone battery non-removable, there is now a booming market in third-party external battery packs. One of the latest comes from FSP. As one of the top ten power supply manufacturers in the world, they have a lot of experience with powering the world’s devices.

I’ve had a chance to use several different external batteries over the last couple of years, and they usually fall into one of two categories. In the first category are iPhone/iPod dedicated batteries that usually have a built-in dock connector, while the second category includes universal chargers that have a USB port or a series of adaptors for various adapters. The iON Universal Mobile Power Bank falls into the latter category, but attempts to steal some advantages from its dedicated cousins. This sounded like a really good idea to me, since I usually prefer the universal category so I can potentially charge other devices like an iPod Shuffle, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS or Amazon Kindle, as well as the other dock connector wielding Apple devices.

The iON is a nice, compact, credit card sized device. It has a built in USB cable for charging the device, and comes with two different output adaptors for connecting to other devices. One is a two piece dock connector for your iPod/iPhone, and the other is a USB port for plugging in all of those other devices. It’s a 1500mAH Li-Ion Polymer battery with an estimated life of 500 recharges. That’s a little less than other universal batteries I have used, but that’s part of the price of a small footprint.

Hands On

I spent some time traveling this summer, so I had a chance to put it through its paces in place of one of my other packs I usually carry. The battery has a nice rubberized feel to it that makes it easy to hold and use. It also has several status lights built into it so you know when it’s charged and how much juice it has. Other packs I have used will usually have a button you can push so you can check the battery status, but the iON will only light up when it is plugged in to the wall for charging or when it’s charging another device. I like this method because, on these products, I have found the button gets inadvertently pushed when packed against other items in my bag, which seems to affect the useful battery life of those products. However, it does mean you will need to plug the battery in to something to be able to see what the charge status is.

The built-in charging cable is a nice touch. The cable is usually the right length and works well with a USB port on a computer or from a wall adaptor like the ones that come with an iPhone. The built-in cable means one less cable to have to carry around, unlike most of their competitors. The only problem with this cable is when you charge this device from most USB ports, the battery tends to hang or sit upside down, so you have to constantly turn it over to see the status lights. It is my understanding that they will be correcting this in the next few generations of this product, but I don’t know when that will be.

The output side of things is more of a mixed bag. After having such a nice design on the charging side, I’m not quite sure why they chose to give you a small array of adaptors. They give you a small, approximately one inch, adaptor with a dock connector, and a second equally small adaptor with a USB port. On paper, this sounds like a nice idea as you do not need to carry a longer iPod cable with you if all you need to do is charge your iPhone or iPod. But the point of a universal battery is that you want to be able to charge other devices as well, so you still end up carrying the USB adaptor. Plus, I found that I still need my regular iPod cable so I could use it for syncing since the iON cable is for charging only. The other downside is if you try to use the phone while it’s on the charger, you have to hold on to the battery as well since the cable is so short. Also, the dock cable inexplicably comes in two parts, with the dock connector plugging in to another cable that then plugs in to the battery itself. However, the USB plug is all one piece, rather than giving you a smaller USB connector to plug in to the same cable the dock connector uses. I also found that if I did not hold on to the battery, I was taking a chance that the cables would come unplugged from the battery since it is a simple power connector like you would find on many devices without any mechanisms for clamping on to the battery. You get double the chance for it to come undone when using the iPhone since that cable connects in two different places. I like the idea of a shorter cable for the iPhone since I often find myself having a lot of cable cluttering things up when I charge from other devices, but the implementation fell short of my expectations, and I usually found myself more inconvenienced and constantly trying to find the small adaptors.

The battery itself is reliable, but at only 1500mAH, it was only able to get my phone to about 80% from a low charge. That’s less than I am used to, but most other batteries I have used are 1800mAH or higher. That is part of the trade off in size. It recharges quickly and holds it charge well. It’s also capable of charging all sorts of other devices through the USB port, so its universal status is effective as well.

Conclusion

This battery looked really good on paper, and I really wanted to be able to give it 4 stars and a recommended status, but unfortunately it fell short of my expectations. The big thing holding it back is the method of output and the series of adaptors they give you. Because it requires adaptors, it can’t do the job as well as a dedicated iPod/iPhone charger. And because of the implementation of the adaptors, I found myself less likely to use the USB, and was disappointed with the dock connector, making it less useful than my slightly larger universal chargers. However, I really like the size, the feel, and the built-in connector for charging the device; all solid choices. I also liked the decent performance from the battery itself.

If they would ditch the adaptors and go to a built-in USB port, it would probably be my “go to” charger. As it stands, it will sit on the shelf in reserve. A built-in USB port plus a standard iPod/iPhone cable with a shorter length of one to two inches would make it an easy 4 - 4.5 star product. As it is, I give it 3 stars with a plus for a solid performance and a space saver design over most universal chargers. The iON Mobile Power Bank is available today from FSP for $29.99, which is a good price for a decent external battery.

Appletell Rating:

Buy iON Universal Mobile Power Bank

Originally posted on AppleTell by Ed McKell on Oct 5, 2009