GeekDad Gadget Review: Duracell Mobile Charger Goes the Distance

As my children get older and bigger, their toys and gadgets are (thankfully) getting smaller.  The large, blow-mold brightly-colored plastic has been replaced by small rigid plastic devices that have an insatiable hunger for battery power.  Over the summer I got a set of Duracell pre-charged rechargeable batteries and a Duracell mobile charger to take for a test run.

I’ll admit, being able to open a pack of rechargeable batteries and plug them right into the device is pretty nice. Duracell has developed a mobile charger that will charge both the batteries and devices that can be charged through a USB cable.

I wanted to put both features to the test, so tried the following:

• I plugged in my iPod to the USB port on the mobile charger.  This was especially handy since my TuneFM had gone on the fritz.  It charged it up no problem. 

• I then charged up my bluetooth headset. It also charged up no problem. (In this test and the iPod test, the mobile charger requires 4 AA batteries in the unit)

• I recharged the batteries and tried them out in the Wii remotes (which have been trouble-free since my call to Nintendo support).  The mobile charger has a flip-out plug so we could keep the batteries charging in the electrical socket right next to the gaming TV.

These tests were easy, but with my oldest child going to Brazil for ten days this summer, I decided to send her with our digital camera, the batteries and the charger, since I’m always putting new batteries in that camera.  When she got back she had taken over one-hundred pictures and used the mobile charger a couple of times.  The charger survived the domestic and international testing cycles.

All in all, the
Duracell
Mobile Charger and their pre-charged rechargeable batteries make a decent set.  The USB charging feature is really useful, and the batteries recharge pretty quickly.  The one minor frustration I had was the flip-out plug – it sometimes folded back in on itself as you pressed it into the electrical outlet.  Other than that, our battery-buying has been significantly decreased, and – in a pinch – we can give a quick burst of juice to our devices charged via USB.  All meaning more money for gasoline and now school supplies.

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