Preview: JAVOedge Portable Battery Charger

Marketed towards iPhone users, JAVOedge’s Portable Battery Charger ($50) is actually a generic but surprisingly high capacity battery option for users of various portable devices. The battery is specified as a 3400mAh external battery pack with 5.5V output — 18.7 Watt-Hours — which puts it at a distinct capacity advantage relative to similarly generic offerings from APC (10 Watt-Hours) and Kensington (7 Watt-Hours). However, unlike the APC and Kensington designs, JAVOedge’s battery doesn’t supply enough current (700mA max) to guarantee that it can fully power the iPhone under its most intense usage scenarios, or quickly bring it back from a state of complete discharge, and also takes a long time (6 hours) to fully recharge off of USB or wall power. The Portable Battery Charger also lacks for its competitors’ more sophisticated power indicator lights, and only has a single red and green lamp for power and status. iPod fans won’t find that it lacks for current, however, and JAVOedge’s more aggressive “Starter Kit” price point of $50, which includes twin cables, a Dock Connector charging head, a wall adapter and travel bag, is another offset. An $85 bundle with a car charger and multiple device charging heads is also available.