To be able to use my cell phone on extended hikes or at remote campsites for the entire time I recently picked up the EC TECHNOLOGY® New Dual USB 13000mAh External Battery Pack Portable Power Bank Charger. Previously I only had a tiny 500mAh external battery and the reality was that unless my smart phone battery was almost entirely dead my cell phone battery would actually charge the external.
The Samsung SIII that I have uses a 2500mAh battery so even under ideal conditions the 500mAh battery would barely help. My wife and son also use SIII’s so that’s a possible total of 7500mAh required to charge us all back up.
Over a one week period I used the portable battery to charge my phone overnight (I did occasionally charge the phone at the office during the day to make sure I had some charge in the evening). Here are my results:
| Day | Evening charge | Morning Charge |
| Day 1 | 28% | Full |
| Day 2 | 9% | Full |
| Day 3 | 39% | Full |
| Day 4 | 58% | Full |
| Day 5 | 59% | Full |
| Day 6 | 57% | Full |
| Day 7 | 38% | 75% |
I was fairly happy with those results. Another potential way to look at it would be that it could charge three of our phones back to full power for two days.
The portable battery can be charged right from the micro USB charger that normally charges the phone. In fact the EC Tech doesn’t even come with it’s own charger, you need to use one of your own. It sports two USB ports for charging from, and 1 amp and 2 amp port. And it comes with several common connectors for charging other devices (Micro USB, Mini USB, PSP Connector).
There are lights across the top of the portable battery to give some rough indication as to what level of charge renames in the battery. As an added bonus pressing the button on the top of it twice turns on a small LED flashlight. It’s no great shakes as a flashlight, but in a pinch it can be real handy.
It does weight in at about 10 ounces so it will add a fair amount of weight to a pack.
I got the portable battery pack in red, figuring if I dropped it that would make if the easiest to spot on the ground. I would also like to add a portable solar panel to help keep the battery charged while on the trail.
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