Thursday, 28 April 2011


review: Scosche goBAT II Portable Charger and Backup Battery iPad etc.

USB battery bricks are quietly becoming a more compelling product category, as users are increasingly finding themselves toting an iPhone or smartphone in their pocket and aniPad in their backpack, with none of these devices offering enough of a built-in battery to function as all-day computing devices. Scosche’s goBAT II attempts to solve all of your mobile charging needs at once by offering a pair of USB ports, thus allowing you to charge your phone and tablet (or a pair of phones, or an iPhone and an iPod, etc.) simultaneously. And it offers a new trick up its sleeve in the process.
For pocket sized devices like the iPhone, we still recommend that users first consider a form-fitting battery case, which allows the device to be recharged while still easily usable as opposed to being tethered to a charging brick. But battery cases for the larger iPad have proven thus far to be overly bulky propositions, and so an all-purpose battery starts to make more sense when an iPad is thrown into the mix. To that end, one of the USB ports on the goBAT II is a 2.1 amp port, meaning that it can recharge a device about twice as fast as the other 1.0 amp port. iPad users who are familiar with just how long it can take to recharge an iPad will be pleased to know that the 2.1 amp port really did juice up the iPad significantly faster in my tests.
The catch is that the iPad is so overwhelmingly power-hungry that the even though the goBAT II and its 5000 mAh of battery life will recharge an iPhone several times before needing to be recharged itself, it only has enough juice to give an iPad about a fifty percent battery boost. Depending on the circumstances, that can either be a godsend or frustratingly little help. But under the right conditions, the goBAT can be a lifesaver.
The goBAT II gets outclassed in some ways by the competing ZAGGsparg II, which offers a superior 6000 mAh of battery life as well as a built-in wall charging option, In contrast, the goBAT II is lacking. But at twenty dollars cheaper, and with a more ergonomic design, the goBAT II stands on its own merits – and that 2.1 amp fast charging port will make all the difference for those users who need to get charged back up in a hurry.
[via beatweek]
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