For the past couple of weekends I have been putting my ProLine Universal Portable Power Bank through some testing to see what devices it will charge and what it's the overall performance is like. I am happy to report that the devices that I charged or powered up worked great on the Power Bank with only one exception which is my Sony E-Reader.
During my testing I was able to power up and charge my iPhone 4, Sansa Mp3 Player, iHome Speaker, GoPro Hero 2 / Battery Backpack, Garmin GPS and a friends Kobo Reader. Because my Garmin E-trex Vista C doesn't have the capability of charging the removable batteries while in the GPS, the Power Bank did perform as an external power source like when the GPS is connected to my laptop. Charging times for each device varied depending on the state of discharge. For example I was able to charge my iPhone from 50% state of discharge 4 times with the Power Bank only dropping to around 80% of capacity remaining.
My Sony E-Reader for some reason only allows the Power Bank to power it up but it won't actually start charging the internal battery. This puzzles me because all of my other devices including the E-Reader can be charged off a computer USB port (5V). For the most part, my Sony E-Reader keeps a good charge so it really isn't a concern but it would be nice to top it up with the Power Bank if on an extended kayak camping trip.
The Power Bank instructions indicate that it gets charged via a USB port on a computer but I decided to see if I could charge it from a 110V adapter. Using my obsolete Blackberry charger which has 5V 700 mA output capability the Power Bank charged up without any issues. The Blackberry charger did get a little warm which I expected but nothing that concerned me.
So my conclusion is that the Proline Universal Portable Power Bank will make a great emergency power source while out on extended kayaking trips or any other outdoor adventure. At a retail price of $49.99 it's a great addition to my "Gear Head" collection.
For more technical specifications please refer my previous blog titled Thanks For Reading. If you have any other experience with a device like this or other charging options please comment below or email me at geckopaddler@gmail.com
Sony has some funny business with the USB charging on their readers. I think it looks for a data connection and won't start charging without one. I've only been able to charge via computer or my blackberry cell phone charger.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review. I think for the BC climate these extended batteries are better choices than solar chargers.