myCharge Energy Shot, $25 (suggested price) external smartphone battery has a clever package with expected performance from its rechargeable 2000mAh Lithium battery.
The company is selling the packaging here, the sizzle, not the steak. In its packaging (above), the product resembles an energy drink, such as 5-hour ENERGY®. Clever, no? Peel off the cellophane wrapping to reveal a clear plastic bottle, inside of which is a pretty standard and ubiquitous cylindrical “lipstick” rechargeable battery with nominal capacity to fully recharge, say, an iPhone 6 (with its 1850 mAh battery), albeit slowly. Mate it to a device with a more powerful battery and myCharge Energy Shot will at least partially charge the battery. Enclosed documentation indicates it will put about nine hours of talk time into a connected phone.
Atop the two-tone battery are a USB port and a Micro USB port, plus a little multicolor LED to indicate Energy Shot’s battery level. Red indicates 0-40% charged. Yellow tells of 41-70% charged and green shows it’s at a 71-100% charge. During charge, the LED flashed rhythmically. During use, the LED shows the battery state for a few moments until the LED is shut off. A quick snap of a shake turns on the LED for a few seconds to show the battery’s state of charge. While being recharged, the LED slow-flashes green, and then goes solid when fully charged.
Also inside the plastic “bottle” shell is a simple quick start guide and a 3-inch charging cable with Micro USB on one end and standard USB on the other. To use myCharge Energy Shot, use the device’s charging cable with its own USB tip or the supplied cable, if it fits. For iOS devices, use the cable that came with the iOS device for connecting it to anything USB. Use this end to connect myCharge. Very simple.
Energy Shot is less than four inches long and about ¾-inch in diameter. Connecting it to the object of the recharge should start things going. There is no switch. If not, the owner’s manual suggests giving Energy Shot a shake. This was not necessary in my tests. A one-year warranty is included, with receipt.
Simple and effective, like just about every other product of its type in the category. While performance is just as expected from a 2000 mAh rechargeable Lithium battery providing a 1.0A charge rate, the very clever packaging is an attention grabber. Come on, how could you not smile just looking at it, all wrapped up to look like the liquid energy drink? And that’s what you’ll pay for – the packaging. There is nothing to criticize here.
Energy Shot recharges through its supplied cable from a computer, car charger or wall charger (neither are supplied). Again, pretty standard stuff here.
Searching online, I found the actual selling price to be about $20. Looking for plain and simple 2000 mAh rechargeable external batteries to do the same job, I found many from which to choose for as little as $12. $20 will get you a small and slender rectangular 5200 mAh Lithium rechargeable with a higher charge rate (faster recharging of your phone or other device) of 1.5A.
myCharge Energy Shot passed the basic performance test with me, with a bit of a premium price paid for the cuteness factor.
The only downslide noted is myCharge Energy Shot’s output rate of 1.0A. I put my iPhone 4S in my jacket pocket, connected to myCharge Energy Charge. The phone was at 39%. After two hours, my phone was still not at 100% charged. Had this been a battery capable of 2.1A output, my phone would have been charged in under an hour. Had I been using an iPhone 6 or 6+, I would have seen only about 65% charged after a couple of hours, similar to plugging into a USB port on a laptop.
Find yours for $20 online and in many Bed Bath & Beyond stores, Target, and other retailers. It should not cost more.
Be on the lookout for more battery tests and information coming soon
