Powerocks Portable Charger – Super Magicstick Rechargeable Battery Review

November 25, 2013

Frequently, the origin of a pertinent quote escapes us. We struggle to remember who first coined a phrase…but when it comes to battery power and technology devices, I have a favorite quote and remember full well who said it.

The phrase is “ABC = Always Be Charging”, and the guy who said it is craft-beer expert Mike Langford.

I share that story because a box arrived at my office the other day from the kind folks at Powerocks. Inside I found their latest charging device, the Super Magicstick. And since I’m on the verge of another month of crazy travel, speaking engagements and technology conferences, I thought I’d see how much magic this little rechargeable battery had in store for my iPhone 5.

To show this in a real-world environment, I charged up the Magicstick (which comes with a USB to Micro USB cable and a soft carrying pouch) and waited for the light to turn blue. Once it was blue, I knew the Magicstick was charged and I plugged in my phone.

By the way, the color coding on this device is a lot better than some other devices because the light is larger. You might think this doesn’t matter, but with a HUGE percentage of the male, tech-buying population having some sort of color-blindness, the larger you can make your lights the easier it is to see the status of a device.

Seriously, with a tiny green or red LED, it’s nearly impossible for someone with slight color-blindness issues to tell the status of a charge. The Magicstick has a large round end that lights up in Blue, Green and Red (70-100%, 30-70% and 0-30% charge respectively) and these colors are relatively easy to tell apart. *I would love it if companies would start embedding a numeric readout into the charge status, but that might not be cost effective.

So, without more ranting, here’s the process I went through to charge my iPhone 5 with the Super Magicstick (see the time and percent charge in the corner of each photo)…

And then I did the experiment again to see if it was consistent. Turned out to be pretty close. AND according to the literature online, Powerocks doesn’t overpromise like some technology companies do. They said the stick would charge my iPhone 5 about 1.5 times and that’s what it worked out to. Some other devices and phone models can get 2x charges out of the Magicstick, just depends what you have. The 2800 mAh is also pretty standard now. I remember when rechargeable batteries hovered around 2000 mAh.

Here’s that second set of photos of my charging process…

So, that’s about it. For the Powerocks Super Magicstick, I believe I have a new charger that’s pocket-sized and perfect for an evening at a social or business event, or even for a day of running around a tradeshow floor (like CES, NAB or Gilbane) and keeping my phone charged.

This little charger costs $49 and is available on the Powerocks USA site.

What’s your favorite device for staying charged?