Duracell 3 Hour Mobile Phone and MP3 Portable USB Charger

If you're not in the know, a portable charger is basically a long life battery that you can charge up at home and then carry around with you - maybe in a glove box, briefcase or handbag - in case your smartphone or iPod runs out of power. You then plug the portable charger into your gadget and you can charge it up on the go. It's not a new idea, but it's the first time I've seen Duracell offer such a product.

This little Duracell 3 Hour Portable Charger has an 1150 mAh capacity. The mAh rating is basically the size of the battery's gas tank. All things being equal, the higher the mAh rating the more powerful the battery. The battery size of different smartphones and music players is quite variable. For example an iPhone 4 battery has a capacity of 1420 mAh, so this Duracell 3 Hour Portable Charger will charge it up about 80% or at least give you in the region of 3 hours extra usage. An iPod nano has a 750 mAh battery, so this Duracell 3 Hour Portable Charger will give you over one and a half full charges.

The Duracell 3 Hour Portable Charger is very small - smaller than it looks in the images above. It charges up via USB and has two different charging heads supplied - mini USB and micro USB. This doesn't cover a great deal of smartphones and mp3 players, but that's not really a problem - you can just use the USB charging cable that came with your gadget to connect it to the portable charger and then you're away.

I found the Duracell portable charger to be a compact and effective product. The main thing I liked about it was the size - it really is quite small. On the downside, that means it's not as powerful as other portable chargers that are available. For example I already own a Powermonkey Classic portable charger which is a little bulkier but features a 2200 mAh battery inside - almost twice the capacity of the Duracell 3 Hour Portable Charger. It also came with a greater selection of charging tips, a small case and a wall charger and it cost about the same money.

This pocket sized Duracell "3 hour" charger is essentially an 1150mAh ion lithium battery and on the face of it seems like a great solution for those occasions when you are out and about and your USB chargeable phone/mp3 player runs out of juice. The overall size is 3 3/4" by 1 1/2" by 1/4".It is light weight and its connectivity allows you to hook up standard USB charger cables directly into the device or mini/micro USB charging from a combination of the supplied cable and adaptor.

I decided to test the charger on a variety of gadgets. The charger took around 3 hours to fully charge between testing although on some of my testing I got 2 devices charged from a single charge. Most of the gadgets tested had 5-20% of charge left in there battery. Actually charging up the 3 hour charger presented me personally with a problem. I couldn't easily tell whether the single led light that indicates it's charged or not charged was red or green. Ok so have an issue with these colours but the more expensive Duracell 5 Hour Mobile Phone and MP3 Portable USB Charger has a 3 stage light indicator that indicates how much charge the unit has.

From a single 3 hour charge I managed to recharge fully 2 cheap pay as you go phones, each 1 taking around 1 hour 30 minutes each. I then recharged a Blackberry phone from a single charge in the same time. As a side note I was unable to use it on 2 other phones in the house as neither phone's charging socket or charge leads use any of the 3 USB connections on offer. The charging leads I would normally use on them have a fitted plug for the mains and no USB connection. I know that most phones, especially Smartphone's come with a charger plug into which a USB charger lead fits or the phones built in charger socket is USB mini/micro socket, but you will need to check what you have as without this interface you won't be able to charge with this unit.

For the 2nd part of my testing I switched to I pod devices. first up an I-pod touch 3rd generation which I believe has a smaller battery to charge than the 4th generation touch. I juiced it up to full capacity in around 1hour 45 minutes. I then used it on a 4th generation iPod classic followed by a 7th generation I pod Classic, both of which charged up in around an hour, and a half requiring me to recharge the unit after each device for 3 hours as it fully discharged

So what are thoughts about this gadget? The unit works pretty quickly and effectively in charging devices but for the price I would expect more. There is no case for the unit, which although not a major issue is annoying as it means the lead and small mini/micro USB socket adapter has to be left plugged into charger or they will be loose in your pocket or bag. You will need to make sure your phone accepts the USB adapter/lead or you will have to take the charging cables with you. In the case of iPod devices you have to take the charging lead supplied by Apple or a compatible lead with a USB connector. The power source for recharging the actual device is USB only. It charged up happily from a PC's USB socket and my from games console but it isn't supplied with an adapter to plug it into a mains socket, something which you can do with the more expensive Duracell 5 Hour Mobile Phone and MP3 Portable USB Charger 1850mAh,although that model is a slightly larger unit.

All in all I think that it does exactly what it says on the tin and if you find yourself in a jam without a power source from which you can charge your Smartphone, iPod or MP3 player then this maybe for you. I still feel that if I kept this device ready for use for the next 6 months that I probably wouldn't need to use it, so for me it's not a necessity but nice to know I have the option. I also fully acknowledge that my life style is probably quite sedentary and that there will be lots of busy people out there who regularly get caught without a charge.

I like the thinking behind this product. Many of today's portable devices have sealed in batteries and if you are traveling a long way there is little scope to extend the battery life. What this device does is recharge your phone or ipod touch or extend your battery life. It is in essence a portable spare battery pack. You simply charge the battery back via usb and then to use it connect it to the usb charge port of your device. My wife took my daughters away on holiday at half term and it got her through the trip out there by doing just what it was designed to do. Well done Duracell and good thinking.