Whether you’re an iPhone, Android or BlackBerry guy, you know how much it smarts when your phone runs out of juice. If you’re out and about on a work trip or a weekend getaway, and nowhere near a wall outlet, what do you do? The best addition to any road warrior’s briefcase, messenger bag, or gym tote is an external battery source. One of the more intriguing options we’ve found is EcoSol’s PowerTrip, which kills two birds with one stone.
In addition to a 6,000mAh Li-Poly battery, the PowerTrip is stocked with a hard drive. That’s right. Beyond charging your smartphone, you can keep and carry up to 16GB of movies, music, or paperwork backed-up wherever you go. The box weighs 0.44 pounds and is extremely pocketable; it’s roughly the size of two iPhones (4.1×2.4×1 inches). It has both micro-USB and USB slots, meaning that if you misplace a cable while traveling, finding a replacement won’t be tough.
The PowerTrip has one other benefit: It can be re-charged three different ways: 1) via a standard two-prong plug that pops out; 2) the aforementioned USB/micro-USB slots; or 3) a tiny 50mA solar panel. In practice, the charger worked well. When we connected the PowerTip to an iPhone 3GS with 50 percent battery life remaining, it took 70 minutes to get the phone back up to a full charge. At that point, the PowerTrip still had more than 85 percent of its battery left. And after charging in the sun for less than 25 minutes, the PowerTrip showed a full charge.
Our only gripes with the PowerTrip are that it doesn’t come with a case, a bummer since you must carry at least one cable for data transfers/charging (two cables, if you’re using an iPhone, since they require a special dock connector cord). Furthermore, the PowerTrip’s white plastic casing doesn’t look or feel terribly elegant; and the company’s branding is rather large. Lastly, there are four options for the hard drive: 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB (we tested a 4GB model). For whatever reason, there’s only a $10 and $20 price difference between the $109 4GB version and 8GB and 16GB drives, respectively. Considering you can buy a 16GB thumb drive for $25 and a phone battery extenders for $50, you really have to decide whether a two-in-one is worth another $50. In our book, carrying one less gizmo—that can re-charge—via the sun is a pretty decent investment. ($109 4GB, $119 (8GB), $129 (16GB), powerstick.com
