Recharging phones with external batteries

[GeorgeRAWR]

Only just started to read through this - What's currently the best value/rated one? I have a HTC One and would probably need to charge once a day, so at least 10000mA is a must.

[baxterboy]

Only just started to read through this - What's currently the best value/rated one? I have a HTC One and would probably need to charge once a day, so at least 10000mA is a must.

Edited June 19, 2014 by baxterboy

[LondonTom]

Gone with the anker astro e5 myself now, as it appears some of my spare batteries for my S2 have given up the ghost

Could have replaced them but this will do nicely for future phones and my Note 3 outside of the festival.

[paddyclark]

Have the EE powerbar... portable and only paid £14 so not awful value -

Also picked up a second Halfords Powerpack 200 20Ah for a tenner of ebay... Heavy but also has a compressor and a light which is handy

Solar chargeable Lantern with Radio and USB out... only a Tenner at Lidl a while ago

seems a lot but phone and ecig to charge for 5 days... Phone will be camera so as its my first time want a lot of pics ...

Roll on Tuesday night....

[st dan]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0063AAIRG/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?ref_=pe_385721_37038051_TE_dp_1

Just bought this. Great price and great reviews. Hopefully should do the job!!!

[captain reido]

Slightly different approach, but after deciding that I absolutely must be contactable while on site and not trusting 3's network quite enough to guarantee that I bought a Nokia 105 on Orange PAYG for £20.99 from Carphone Warehouse.

Came with £20 credit pre loaded which is enough to buy unlimited texts for a month and about 225 minutes.

This was a week last Sunday and amazingly the battery indicator hasn't dropped a single bar.

Plus they go for about a tenner 2nd hand on eBay which brings the net cost of using it at the festival down by half.

I'm still taking my smartphone and battery bank for the camera, Glasto app and GPS tent / car finder but it's a bit if a weight off the mind knowing that I don't have to worry about running it down.

[mrpman]

£30 for the 13,000mAh Anker is expensive. The EC TechNet one is only £20 and is lighter (slightly, but it all counts!):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00D76LQRU

[kaytee...]

Just bought one of these.

I'm impressed with it, it gets up to fully charged pretty quick even using USB from TV, and has happily charged my iphone and ecig multiple times already.

[dexydexy]

Would you recommend that ec tech one then? It looks quite bulky but if it can keep my iPhone 4s charged I'll be happy.

[kaytee...]

i've bought one and it's great. it's really not that big / bulky. about the size of a packet of 20 cigarettes, maybe a little bigger. the size / weight isn't really going to be noticeable in your bags! the benefits far outweigh any size issues. plus i love the way it feels!

[Francisco Vasquez Garcia]

Ok, mine arrived today. First impressions:

Solidly, well built. It feels like a quality product. Has two power out sockets, of 1A and 2.1A, although I'm not sure if you can use them both at once? Anyway, onto the part that was most concerning me - weight. Well, it is heavier than any phone I can remember holding, but it's not that heavy. So, I would be reasonably happy to carry it around in my jacket at night, and have no worries about it going in a bag. I probably could put it in my cargo pants pockets, but would only do that if I'd managed to totally run out of charge. I've plugged it into my Galaxy S5 in the 2.1A charging port and it seems to be doing the business, maybe a percent every couple of minutes or so. Not bad.

So far, I'd recommend it. Of course, I've no idea how many charges I'd get out of it with drastically reduced usage. We shall see!

[mrpman]

Would you recommend that ec tech one then? It looks quite bulky but if it can keep my iPhone 4s charged I'll be happy.

[glastogirl88]

Friends of mine will have a solar / hydrogen powered mobile phone charging stall - free of charge to use. Just by Bread and Roses bar on the main road. If you want to beat the EE queues

[UEF]

How did everyone's mobile phone charging solutions hold out in the end?

I took the ec-tech 22400mah charger from Amazon. It finally gave up the ghost on Sunday having done about 2 charges a day from Weds-Saturday night http://www.amazon.co.uk/EC-TECHNOLOGY%C2%AE-Ultra-high-Thunderbolt-Incredible/dp/B00F5Q4F0U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404212039&sr=8-1&keywords=22400mah

I then had to use my cheaper AA-based charger for the final day.

Did anyone manage to find a product that coped with very heavy use?

[kevbizarre]

I bought this http://www.amazon.co.uk/EC-TECHNOLOGY®-Brushed-metal-Smartphones-Thunderbolt-Dark-Gray/dp/B00EIDWYR2/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1404213092&sr=1-3&keywords=ec+technology

Was great and had % indicator on it as well as torch light. Charged my iphone 5 to 100% from about 10% 6 times with some additional short top ups inbetween

[Sketchead]

How did everyone's mobile phone charging solutions hold out in the end?

I took the ec-tech 22400mah charger from Amazon. It finally gave up the ghost on Sunday having done about 2 charges a day from Weds-Saturday night http://www.amazon.co.uk/EC-TECHNOLOGY%C2%AE-Ultra-high-Thunderbolt-Incredible/dp/B00F5Q4F0U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404212039&sr=8-1&keywords=22400mah

I then had to use my cheaper AA-based charger for the final day.

Did anyone manage to find a product that coped with very heavy use?

[smogo]

Was that EE tent next to Leftfield with the constant massive queues the one where people had to go to swap their power bars?

[Riggins]

I also used that EC Tech one, gave out Sunday evening and my phone died when I got off the bus at my stop.

I used my phone quite heavily so not sure how many charges it actually gave but I suppose it did it's purpose.

I did notice the first two lights seemed to last up until the Sunday and then the last two seemed to die very quickly.

[eFestivals]

Was that EE tent next to Leftfield with the constant massive queues the one where people had to go to swap their power bars?

yep.

It wasn't quite the free lunch that people had been promised, was it?

[Toilet Duck]

How did everyone's mobile phone charging solutions hold out in the end?

I took the ec-tech 22400mah charger from Amazon. It finally gave up the ghost on Sunday having done about 2 charges a day from Weds-Saturday night http://www.amazon.co.uk/EC-TECHNOLOGY%C2%AE-Ultra-high-Thunderbolt-Incredible/dp/B00F5Q4F0U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404212039&sr=8-1&keywords=22400mah

I then had to use my cheaper AA-based charger for the final day.

Did anyone manage to find a product that coped with very heavy use?

[Mouseboy11]

yep.

It wasn't quite the free lunch that people had been promised, was it?

[eFestivals]

My brother seemed to have no trouble at all with this method, he said it worked really well and he hardly queued at all? I can only assume those queues were for the old fashion recharging?

each time I walked pass there were big queues for both, barely moving - tho to be fair it was probably at around the busiest time of the day for people doing that sort of thing.

[UEF]

Used my 13,000maH Anker one…kept my phone fully charged for the entire festival and also charged up some for my mates. Also charged my e-cigs with it. Still 50% charge left in it. Marvellous battery. As an e-cig user I've had many external battery packs and have been swayed by higher maH ratings before. The Anker one is far and away the best I've had.

[tumbles]

I've heard good stuff about Ankers... wonder what their 20,000mah would be like? http://www.amazon.co.uk/20000mAh-Multi-Voltage-Portable-External-Camcorders-Black/dp/B00GSLRKJO/ref=sr_1_15?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1404212733&sr=1-15&keywords=anker+external+charger

[oldbird]

I swapped my power bar 3 times over the festival and never waited longer than 7-8 minutes. It was a very fast queue