As much as I’m a skeptical creature, I will readily admit when slick advertising works its way with me and makes me more interested in something than I would be otherwise.
The iTron power bank and battery charger is the first Indiegogo campaign by Simpiz. Their pitch? A portable 9000 mAh charger/dock combo that uses proprietary technology to fully charge the iTron in 18 minutes; but can have enough power in just three minutes to fully charge a dead iPhone. At this point you might be yawning and clicking away; but check out the video first:
See what I mean? The charger also has a fast-charging port for Android devices (sorry Apple-faithful, iPhone charging is still vanilla as per its design). I like the chunky industrial look they’re going with and the charger seems large enough to not get swallowed and lost in bags. Plus its name reminds me of one of my favorite movies and it’s got glowing blue LEDs – a geek can only resist so much.
Of course, I have questions. What do you do when you’re traveling away from the dock and the iTron runs out of power? Are there nice, flat cables that come with the dock or will that pretty design be marred by an octopus tangle of charging cables? The campaign timeline is aggressive, with product delivery scheduled for May of this year. It will be interesting to see, for a young company with proprietary technology, if they can hit those goals (now would be a good time to point you to our Crowdfunding Basics page).
Funding has been robust and the campaign is already within 90% of their goal. If you’re ready to give iTron a try, there are still a few Super Early Bird spots available at $60. The next tier jumps the price by $19, so it may be worth it to hop on early, even if you’re on the fence. I should have a full review before the campaign ends, so I can let you know if the hardware is as slick as the campaign video!
Did it ever get released?
Looks like they got hit hard by Chinese manufacturing difficulties and trademark issues. Maybe next month according to their campaign site.