The First Rule of Fight Club is "Never talk about Fight Club"…So I won’t.  Instead, I am going to talk about batteries.  Anyone who uses a mobile device or cell phone has likely found themselves in this position at least once:  you are on the road, nowhere near a power source (heck, maybe you are even in an airplane or camping) and your battery is dead.  What can you do? You switch off your device and hope for the best.  Hopefully, no one important will try to contact you before you get to an outlet.  Hopefully, that last time through your draft document was enough.  Now, Proporta has offered a solution for the "hopefullies" with its new USB Mobile Device Charger, a portable 3400 mAh battery than can be used to restore the battery on any device.

What’s In The Box: The kit contains the 3400 mAh battery, a retractable sync cable which plugs into the battery via a USB connector, a variety of tips for ipod, Nokia, new Sony Ericsson, and mini USB to plug the sync cable into your device, and a second USB cable used to charge the Mobile Device Charger through the USB port on your laptop or desktop.

Portability: One of the best features of this unit is the portability.  One might expect a 3400 mAh battery to be somewhat unwieldy and difficult to carry.  On the contrary, this battery, while larger than my Motorola Razr phone, for example, is much smaller than my Axim.  Additionally, since the sync cable is retractable, the whole thing can easily fit in my briefcase or pocket.  I do wish, however, that it came with a pouch in which the battery, cables, and connectors could all be stored together.

Ease of Use: This battery could not be easier to use to charge any of your portable devices.  Just select the appropriate connector tip, and plug it into the USB sync cable.  Plug that into your device and the USB end of the cable into the battery.  Push the button on top of the battery to begin charging.  In order to conserve the battery’s operational life, it will automatically shut off when your device is fully charged.  The battery even ships charged so you can start using it right out of the box.  Nonetheless, there is no way to determine how much charge is left in the Mobile Device Charger.  Is it completely full?  50% full?  Or nearly empty?  A simple meter would be extremely useful in helping determine when the Mobile Device Charger is in need of a charge itself. 

Additionally, although the Mobile Device Charger kit does come with a limited number of connector tips to fit your devices, there are not currently connector tips for many devices.  If the appropriate tip is not available, however, you can still use the battery with any USB sync cable that fits your device.  There was not, for example, a cable to fit my Dell Axim x50v, however, I had a spare USB sync cable which I was able to use flawlessly.  This does mean, however, that the retractable cable which comes with the battery will not work.  This is unfortunate as the retractable cable adds to the portability of the battery.  Hopefully, Proporta will offer additional device connection tips in the future to make the retractable cable more effective.  Additionally, the ability to charge multiple devices at the same time with two or more USB ports would add a significant improvement to this useful accessory.

Charging the Battery: Charging the battery is no problem.  Included in the package is a USB cable that allows you to connect the battery to your desktop or laptop computer.  The battery charges through that connection.  If you do not plan to be near a desktop or laptop, Proporta also offers a Car Power Supply with USB Socket and an AC Travel Charger (with USB Socket).  Either of these can be connected to the battery via the USB connection to charge the battery for travel.  You can also purchase the battery, car charger, and AC charger together in Proporta’s USB Mobile Device Charger (USB Rechargeable Battery) with Car and World AC Power.

The Results:  Frankly, I am amazed by how well this battery worked.  On a single charge, I was able to keep my notoriously battery hungry Dell Axim and Motorola Razr phone charged and running for 3 days.  As a side note, I did not let the batteries on either device discharge entirely.  Instead, I decided to test the Proporta battery with my devices’ normal use, which meant charging every evening.  Most of the time, I was charging my 2200 mAh Dell Axim battery from 50-70% capacity and my RAZR battery from around 50%.   I would note, however, that due to the Axim’s power consumption, I was not able to charge and use it simultaneously (this is the fault of the Axim, not the Proporta battery.)  The reasons for this have been explained to me, but they are way over my head.  For more on this issue, there is a great discussion at Aximsite.  As long as I left my Axim turned off while charging, however, it charged to full capacity in several hours.  I did find, however, that when the Mobile Device Charger battery lost its charge, it would continue trying to charge the battery on my device, resulting in battery loss and possible damage to the device.  As such, a meter or other indicator to show when the battery’s charge is low is a necessity.  This is great and lightweight solution to keeping your devices operational while you are on the road.  It is certainly much easier to carry this battery kit than a separate charger and/or car charger for each of your devices.  

Conclusion: I’ve said before that there is a power revolution afoot for portable devices.  Everyone is trying to come up with a single, easy solution for charging multiple batteries on a variety of devices.  With the USB Mobile Charger, Proporta has launched itself to the front of this power revolution.   Anyone who travels frequently with one or more mobile device will soon find this to be an indispensable accessory.  Just be sure to carefully monitor the Mobile Device Charger’s battery and ensure that it is kept well charged before each use.  As Proporta adds to its library of connector tips, it will be able to power even more  mobile devices using the retractable sync cable.  It is small and light enough to carry in your briefcase, daybag or purse, yet big enough to protect all of your important information. 

Vital Statistics:

Name: USB Mobile Device Charger

Manufacturer: Proporta

Available From: Proporta

Price: $44.95

Technorati Tags: Proporta – battery – charger – USB – sync