Smartphones and tablets tend to have battery life that’s measured in hours rather than days… so a cottage industry has popped up with companies providing external batteries you can use to recharge your devices on the go.
There’s a much smaller cottage industry of 2-in-1 portable batteries that can also replace your wall charger. The Tylt Energi 2K is one of the few devices to do that… and Tylt is hoping to raise $50 thousand through a Kickstarter campaign to begin producing the Energi 2K.
At first glance, the device looks like yet-another adapter that you can plug into an outlet to charge your phone, tablet, or other devices with a USB cable. But it also has a 2,200mAh battery built in.
When you plug in the Energi 2K on its own, the built-in battery will start to charge. Plug in your mobile device and both your phone and the built-in battery will charge. Take the Energi 2K out of the wall jack, and it’ll continue to charge your phone until the portable battery runs out of juice.
It takes about 3 to 4 hours to fully charge the Energi 2K battery, and it should be able to recharge a typical phone in about 90 minutes.
Eventually the team plans to sell the Energi 2K for $40, but Kickstarter campaign backers can reserve one for as little as $20. If all goes according to plan, the first units should ship in July.
This isn’t the first device of its type we’ve seen. Fluxmob held a Kickstarter campaign for the BOLT 3000mAh battery with a built-in wall charger last year. But now that the campaign has ended, you’ll need to pay $60 to pre-order a BOLT battery. Those devices are expected to ship in June.
I have something that does the same thing that I got for $10 on amazon. I think it is $20 now.
HOW MANY CROWDFUNDED BATTERY PACKS DOES SOCIETY REALLY NEED?
I was planning on buying one of these kinds of things the other day. Good thing I can buy one from Amazon already.
I’ve seen many, many generic external batteries, with a typical
price for 10,000 mAh at $30, and 2000 mAh at $5. Given that,
one could buy 2 (or more) of the 2000 mAh type, have 1 charging and
the other in use, for much less than this crowdfunding project.
So what does this project offer that one can’t do better right now?
The price is a bit excessive compared to what’s available on the market. But I can’t find any Chargers with embedded batteries on the market. The only advantage of Tylt Energi 2K against existing solution, is that you only need one charger, and as once you phone is charged, it will automatically charge the battery.
You can buy wall chargers with a built-in battery on Amazon for cheaper. You buy them from other places too.
There are crowdfunding startups that are really trying to bring innovative products to consumers, and then there are those that just want to make money rebranding stuff from China. This one is the latter.
Don’t get me wrong I appreciate that liliputing is covering kickstarter projects, but it would be funny if you guys (brad) expressed a personal opinion about a device that clearly is just taking advantage of people like this one.
These are with the same ideas?
http://www.ravpower.com/ravpower-icona-2800-external-battery-charger-pack.html