Review: Energizer Energi on the Go XP4001 battery pack

Introduction

When it comes to battery life, too much is never enough -- but this pocket battery pack can give you several full recharges for your power-hungry gadgets.

Content

The Energizer XP4001 has two (count 'em!) USB ports on it for charging gizmos.

It's a battery, Dave, but not as you know it...

When it comes to battery life, too much is never enough when you're travelling -- especially with most regular travellers using smarthphones that suck down power like there's a powerpoint round every corner. Apple's iPhone is a particularly bad offender -- if you actually use it, you'll be lucky to get eight hours' battery life out of it. The iPhone 4 improves on this a bit, but it's still pretty hungry.

The Energizer Energi to Go XP4001 battery pack costs $99 and is a terrific design -- it holds 4000mAh  of power and has two USB ports on it for charging your gizmos simultaneously (in comparison, an iPhone 4 has a 1420mAh battery, an HTC Desire has 1400mAh, a first-gen iPod Touch has a 900mAh, and so on -- this battery essentially has two to three recharges in it.)

You don't have to carry around a bundle of USB cables either -- it comes with a USB cable with interchangeable tips at one end, and you get a bunch of tips in the box for iPhones/iPods, Samsung phones, Nokias, LG, mini and micro USB for Blackberry and many other brands of smartphone and more. A surprisingly good part of the deal is that you can get two free tips by mail order for the life of the battery pack (with an $8.95 postage fee.)

We found that the iPhone tip didn't stay connected to an iPhone in a Belkin case very well, so taking your original iPhone cord to plug in to the XP4001's USB port might be a good idea.

To recharge the battery pack, you just connect it to the A/C adaptor that comes with it.

The Australian distributor for Energizer Energi to Go packs is MrMobile -- you can check out the full range of battery packs there -- they range all the way up to an 18,000mAh battery pack that you can plug in to your laptop's power socket on the plane for hours of extra usage. Hey, it's cheaper than buying a premium economy seat for the power point!

[$99, MrMobile]