New Trent PowerPak Xtreme 12000mAh Rugged Water/Dirt/Shockproof Dual USB Port External Battery Charger/Power Pack for Smartphones, Tablets and more

This rocks - a hikers best friend for electronic gear. Only downside is that it's a bit heavy, but the 12000mAh are worth it. Who wants a charger that has less charging capacity, less durability, and isn't waterproof on a hiking trip just to save a few oz of weight.

Powerful, but as an idiot, I did not realize my tablet required 20v until too late. Sure kept my Bose headset and cellphone well charged!

Have used this to recharge phone and ipad while at the baseball diamonds during tournament weekends.Item is rugged and seems to be very well built.Have only used for one weekend with no issues. I will update the review as the season goes.So far I have no cons.

I've used this to charge my cell phone every day since I got it, and Istill haven't had to recharge the PowerPak, so that's a pretty impressive sign. Ilike how it is rugged and water proof, but I'm just an office user of acell phone so that doesn't provide me any value. In fact, given that it ismore rugged than a cell phone typically is, I think the phone would failbefore this would. I'm sure someone outdoors would appreciate it more.I'm a real estate agent so I have to have my phone on me all the time.That becomes a problem when I'm down to 5% battery and have to get to awall outlet and sit there plugged in. The nice thing about a portablebattery like this is I can plug my iPhone 5 into it and tote it around withme. Sure, a smaller battery pack would be a better match for me, but Ilike not having to worry about whether it has enough charge to give myphone a quick juice.I don't use the 1A port at all because I find the 2.1 charges faster, so Iprefer quick juice up and go. I didn't really see a lot of value to havingtwo different sizes but I can see how some phones should only be charged bythe lower amperage. It was pretty hard to tell which port was which because it isn't legible.The gray blends in so I had to always look at it at an angle to read whichport. I also could never tell which was the top so I found myself turningit over and over looking for the button and the blue lights.It seems to me that the pack goes to sleep after a while. It will chargemy phone pretty fast, but then I'll notice it not charging as fast. I haveto press the button on the side and then my iPhone sounds the toneindicating that it is charging. In fact, that's the part I like the leastabout this: I didn't like that I had to click the button on the side tobegin charging. Every other charging device you just plug it in. Sofrequently I was plugging this in and then wondering why it didn't chargeat all until I realized I hadn't pressed the button. That makes littlesense to me. The button should only light up the charge indicator.It took me a while to figure out how to charge the thing but that's becauseI didn't think it was necessary to read the manual. I figured it would beself explanatory so my first thought was "why this cable?". After a bit Irealized I better read the manual and then the decision to not include acharger made sense.I like that the charge side seals tight but I do worry if constantlyopening and closing it will wear out the clip enough that it won't staysealed when it really matters. My thinking is to just leave it open allthe time unless I'm actually going somewhere else with it.The best part about this charger is set it and forget it. I pretty muchplan to charge it once a week or two and then leave it in my box (basicallya man purse) if I ever need it. I have chargers in my car, home andoffice, but this is a good thing to throw in a laptop bag. When I want touse my cell phone for internet access on my laptop, plugging in the phoneto the laptop drains the laptop battery, so using this device keeps mylaptop battery lasting longer.Huge battery life, rugged, heavy, but not as intuitive as I would have expected.

I bought my very first portable battery from NewTrent about 3 years ago (the 8900mAh IMP880 (discontinued)), and this new 12000mAh beast was a more than worthy upgrade in terms of capacity, quality, and features, though there are still a few areas for improvement (see the CONS below).***** PROS *****:-- 12000mAh puts it near the top of the energy density pack. It's got enough juice to recharge my Galaxy Note 3's 3200mAh battery almost 4 times.-- Ruggedized solid build quality and a nice texture. Unlike some of my other devices, I had no trepidation letting my toddler play with this "new toy" when it arrived, and it survived his "drop tests". :)-- You can recharge the battery WHILE charging connected devices(!). This feature wasn't actually stated anywhere in the included docs, but I had to test to find out if it could do it, and it could! My old IMP880 battery could NOT do this and was the primary reason I rated it lower on Amazon. It’s very nice to be able to leave it plugged into A/C, charging itself, while also passing thru power to connected devices, so you don't need to have another AC charger with you to be able to charge both at the same time.-- The 1amp port charges just as fast as the 2.1amp port(!). Again, this fact wasn't mentioned in the product docs (it should be), but I tested it anyway. Under the same conditions (screen off; not being used), my Galaxy Note 3 was fully charged from 80% to 100% in 48 minutes using the 2.1amp port, and in 51 minutes on the 1amp port. For reference, my Note 3's A/C charger accomplishes the same recharge in 43 minutes, which is in the same margin of error ballpark. So, it smart-charges. Presumably if more than one device is connected at the same time the 2.1amp port get priority, but I didn't test this.-- Battery recharges in just under 8 hours by A/C, instead of the 10 hours listed in the docs. I timed it from when 1 out of 4 LEDs was blinking (and would refuse to charge my phone), to 4 solidly lit LEDs. Charging in 8 hours might be a con for some, but because it can recharge WHILE charging, it's not an issue for me.***** CONS / THINGS TO IMPROVE ON *****:-- It comes with a single USB cable, and it needs better cable management. It would be very nice if the battery itself provided some cable routing channels and retention clips such that the supplied USB cable could be wrapped around the perimeter, tucked away and stored WITH the battery (like some other batteries I've seen). What I do now is wrap the cable around the battery and hold it in place with a rubber band.-- The USB ports are only labeled on the OUTSIDE of the battery door. The ports inside should also be labeled more clearly and/or color coded. e.g. 1amp is blue, and 2.1amp is orange.-- Needs an "always on" mode. When my phone is done charging, but still connected via cable, the battery turns off, and then my phone proceeds to discharge at about 1% per hour. It would be very nice if there was an advanced “always on” mode, where it wasn’t necessary to manually press the power button again, so that while I’m away or sleeping and my phone reached 100%, it would STILL be at 100% when I returned several hours later.***** MISC NOTES *****:- Newly unboxed, the battery SMELLS like citrus. Pineapple specifically. Odd, I know, but it's better than smelling like nasty chemicals.- My battery had an out-of-box charge level of 4-bars (between 76% and 100%), and it took about an hour to fully charge to 100% (4 solid LED lights) before first use.- The latch door hinge may or may not stand up to abuse. It's a weak point.Overall a great battery for throwing in your bag or glove compartment, but not so much pocket-sized, if that's what you're looking for.