Keeping my iPhone battery charged is necessary if I’m to get home after a long ride out; will this portable charger do the job?
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| In its pouch, the charger, plus cables, fit easily into my backpack. |
However, having the screen on all the time drains the battery, especially on longer rides to Battersea Park and Richmond. In fact my first trip to Battersea could have ended in disaster when my battery life was down to 10% in a totally unfamiliar part of east London. Luckily I got to Bethnal Green before the phone died and knew my way home from there.
I still don’t know what I would have done. I might as well have been in the middle of nowhere – no cab offices to be seen and not a chance of finding a black cab. I don’t know my home phone number or The Chap’s mobile number, because they’re safely stored in my phone. And therefore would have been totally unaccessible. I guess the best I could have hoped for was finding a corner shop whose proprietor would let me phone a local taxi service.
It was this near-disaster that made me realise that I needed some way of charging my iPhone while out and about. I needed a portable charger. I wanted something that could fully charge an absolutely dead phone, but was small and light that would easily fit in my rucksack or saddlebag; it also had to look good.
After a bit of research, I went for – to give it its full and somewhat unwieldy name – the Anker Astro Mini 3000mAh Ultra-Compact Lipstick-Sized Portable Power Bank Pack External Battery USB Charger. It comes in a variety of colours, and I chose pink. I make no apology for liking pink; anyone who thinks pink is too girly clearly hasn't watched Grease enough times.
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| Pouch, charger, USB cable and pink iPhone cable (purchased separately). |
The charger is cylinder with USB and micro-USB ports at one end. It comes with a USB-mini-USB cable, but if you want to use it with an iPhone you'll need to buy the relevant iPhone-USB cable. Luckily a pink one is available for iPhone 5S. You can charge the product via the mains if you've got a USB plug, or via a computer. An orange light comes on while charging; this turns green when the battery is full.
I've used this a couple of times now and it does exactly what I want it to. After a longish ride to Battersea Park my iPhone battery was showing more than half gone, so I plugged it into the charger while I had lunch and by the time I was ready to head home the phone was at 100%.
I make no apology for liking pink; anyone who thinks pink is too girly clearly hasn't watched Grease enough timesIt's small and light enough to fit in my small rucksack and will easily slip into a saddle or handlebar bag. But describing it as 'lipstick sized' is something of a stretch, unless your lipsticks are flipping massive.
The only drawback I've found so far is that there's no way of knowing how much charge is left in the battery. A small window with a percentage, as found on phones and laptops, would be really useful. As it is, I have to charge it after every use as I don't know if it'll have enough power left to charge my iPhone next time around. There's no way of telling if the battery has totally run out of juice either – until you actually use it, by which time it could be too late.
Pros
• Small and light enough to fit in saddle or handlebar bag
• Fully charges iPhone from empty
Cons
• No way to gauge how much charge remains
• Not 'lipstick sized' as described
Tech spec |
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Weight: 76g • Size: 9x2x2cm • RRP: £39.99 (currently available from Amazon for £13.99) • Supplied with micro-USB cable and travel pouch • I bought this product myself
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