We all need more juice, which is why we need the best portable chargers. If you want to say that the name of this battery backup — i.Sound Portable Power Max 16,000 mAH Backup Battery — is never going to make it on a business card, no contest.
But with battery backups having become a cottage industry of sorts, there’s two things that one must do to stand out from among the crowded field. The first is to provide a USB-driven power-hungry mobile device with electrical energy on demand, and the second is to not be stingy when the device comes back for seconds.
Related: Read our GETIHU Portable charger review to learn more about this low-priced charger
Knowing what a milliamperes/hour is isn’t any more necessary than knowing the mechanics of how a touch screen translates a tap into a computer action. But since there exists all sorts of xxx-amount mAH battery backups for smartphones, you’d think that 16,000 mAH would be overkill. Pleasant overkill, but overkill nonetheless. But you’d be wrong.
The reason you’d be wrong is that mobile devices aren’t exclusively smartphones as they were just 5 years or so ago. Tablets and other devices now proliferate the scene and they’re just as power hungry when there levels run low. Plus a tablet, for example, needs a lot more “juice” than a smartphone does to get up to speed. Not to mention being a bigger drain on the battery.
Related: Check out our INIU Portable charger review
So while the nearly two pounds of the i.Sound Portable Power Max 16,000 mAH Backup Battery might seem a bit annoying, lets see just what it’s got when it gets into the ring with my iPhone, iPad, Android tablet, an iPod and another USB power drinking device tag-teaming on the other side. Think they can take the i.Sound Portable Power Max 16,000 mAH Backup Battery?
Like Doogie Howser taking the Hulk, maybe. For one thing, the i.Sound has five USB outputs so every guy gets its own teat to suck on (as it were). Obviously I’ve first charged up the i.Sound with the included power plug for a couple of hours (the LED battery checker showed me when to stop). So now I exhaust the power on everything, and then plug it all back in. And wait as everything starts charging up at the same time. Once all has been charged, I disconnect the USB plugs (one is included, as is a Blackberry adapter) and run everything back down. And the I try charging the iPhone and yep, there’s still el enough juice to do that again. I expect I could do it again but why go crazy? The specs say you can get up to 480 hours of charging/playback time — but that’s sort of like “how high is up?” I do know there’s a lot of “juice” working.
Editor’s Rating:
[rating:4/5] Great
Bottom line: At $129 retail, it’s hard to argue against the cost versus value of the i.Sound Portable Power Max 16,000 mAH Backup Battery. And that’s without even taking the built-in LED flashlight into account. Or its nicely glossy black finish. One battery backup to rule them all, eh?
Pros
- LED charge meter
- Soft carrying case
Cons
- Won’t be going into any jean pocket
