6 replies to this topic

[PaulOBrien]

If there's one area where modern devices can be a let down, it's in the battery department - they rarely last as long as you'd like and when they run out it can be a real problem. Is Proporta's 'Power Wallet Bundle' the answer?

The bundle, which is priced at £22.95 with free shipping (use code 'MODACO' for 10% off!) and available with either a black or brown wallet, includes...

• A leather wallet either in black with 'Piggy Bank' imagery or brown with 'Greedy Cow' imagery featuring 6 card slots, 2 pockets, 2 note sections and an outside card slot
  
• A 680mah, 90 x 54 x 7mm, slimline mobile emergency charger
  
• A microUSB to Apple dock adaptor
  
• a USB to microUSB cable (for charging battery pack)

The first thing to point out is that, contrary to my expectations, the wallet itself is actually really nice quality. I expected it to be cheap and nasty pseudo-leather (like so many products) but it really does seem like the real deal. I ordered the black wallet and it's nice, the slightly bizarre 'Piggy Bank' image in the middle is quite fun. The 6 card slots, 2 pockets, 2 note sections and the outside card slot give me enough space to transfer everything I have in my existing wallet, even when I allocate one of the internal pockets for the battery pack.

On to the battery pack itself, it packs a 680mah capacity into it's compact frame, enough to give you a 23% boost on a Samsung Galaxy S3, 50% on a Kindle 4, 11% on a Nexus 7 or 34% on an iPhone 4S using the adaptor. The battery pack has a cleverly designed built in micro USB cable, meaning that aside from the pack itself, you don't need to carry anything else. Blue LEDs on the pack indicate the level of charge remaining.

So does it all work as intended? Yes! Carrying round the battery pack does add some bulk to your wallet, but that little bit of extra power really can be a life saver. The other advantage to the setup is that you don't have to carry round the charger every day unless you want to. This is my new wallet.

If you fancy the TurboCharger without the wallet just to keep in your bag, you can pick it up on it's own for £12.95 (again with a potential 10% MoDaCo discount).

Interested? Head on over to Proporta to order or let me know if you have any questions!

Click here to view the item

[dave_a]

Looks great.

Just one problem. I think my girlfriend would find it a lot easier to find an excuse for me to hand over my wallet while out shopping!

[PaulOBrien]

Haha!

P

[tdroza]

This made me think... wouldn't it be handy to have a rechargeable battery pack like this but with QI wireless charging built in? That way I wouldn't need to carry around the usb cable, and if I kept in in a coat pocket or in a pocket of a bag it might be possible to charge my phone just by placing them both in the same pocket.

Anyway, a bit of online research dug up the Panasonic QE-PL301 (there are 3 models of varying capacity eachwith slightly different model numbers). Here's the press release: http://bit.ly/XxIHkO

Only problem is that I'm not 100% sure whether it uses wireless charging to charge your devices, or whether it can be charged wirelessly itself!?

[unrandomsam]

Not enough capacity.

[The Soup Thief]

Gosh - what a demanding lot we are... Great idea but just not enough juice for me I'm afraid
Let me know when they've a fusion reactor / flux capacitor with the energy of 4 suns and the size of a Tic-Tac.  Then I'll bitch about waiting for the price to come down...
(sorry unrandomsam - promise I'm not having a go at you at all - this is just the way my own brain works!)

[stevenixon]

OK, I got one of these based  off your recommendation, and agree the wallet is nice, the battery pack great, the whole thing very professional. However, I have a question; where do you keep the battery? I couldn't get it into any of the internal card slots, the 2 large back pockets didn't seem to accept if nicely either. I've taken to holding it in the centre temporarily, but that's no good either (it falls out if I open the wallet in a hurry). Am I just not pushing hard enough, or am I missing a trick?