While this review is for the HTC Droid Incredible version, the charger itself will work with any battery provided you purchase the tray for it. So, if you have multiple phones, you only need to buy the charger once.
The charger itself comes in 3 parts. From left to right – wall charger (included), HTC battery tray (included), HTC Touch Pro 2 OEM battery (for review purposes), and universal USB cable (included, bottom).
When fully assembled, the charger can charge both a battery and a phone at the same time.
Not pictured, but on the side there is a toggle for AC Power and USB power. The device will charge a battery off either, but can only charge two devices simultaneously off AC.
The inclusion of the USB cord seems almost pointless to me. For one, since the charger has a USB port, you can just use your phone’s included USB cord to charge it here. Also, the cord has 2 contacts shorted, so it can’t be used as a backup cable for connecting to a PC for data purposes. It will only charge. The benefit of this is a quicker charge off AC. However, the cable feels flimsy, and I’ve heard it tends to fail within a few weeks. Definitely not necessary for this product.
Otherwise, the charger does as advertised. It charges a battery and your device at the same time. Since I keep two batteries, I keep one in the charger, and one int he phone, and just swap out as needed. Thanks to this device, I haven’t had to plug my phone in to anything for the sake of charging. Forum Discussion.
You can purchase this charger for around $25 from Amazon.
21 Comments
melloncollie128 on December 23, 2010 12:57 AM
This seems like a reasonable product at a reasonable price. I question the longevity of it though. It seems like fairly cheap materials.
Tommy on December 23, 2010 3:17 AM
That’s a pretty ugly charger in my opinion. What’s with those silly ridges. + That price is quite shocking, but not bad, considering OEM chargers are around the same price. It’s a good thing that it has a USB Port because you can practically charge anything that requires the USB hub.
Brian on December 23, 2010 3:29 AM
I think it’s an interesting concept, but even smartphone chargers can be found dirt cheap (droid chargers are five bucks on amazon). If you have two batteries, I guess it makes sense to buy this – note that individual battery chargers can be found at about 10 bucks on amazon – so if you have one smartphone, you can just get a $5 charger and a $10 battery charger and save yourself $10.
Yazad on December 24, 2010 5:23 PM
i agree with Brian, still this is interesting and still not a high price to pay :)
Matthew B. on December 24, 2010 9:21 PM
Brian, you summed it up. If this thing is $10, I would understand that some people might buy this.. otherwise, no thank you :D
César on December 25, 2010 7:01 AM
this is one of those things that if you would use is inmediatly seen as i must buy, but if not, only semms as a interesting idea
Tommy on December 25, 2010 11:11 AM
@César I agree with you, it’s not a necessity. But what is a necessity these days? The concept is not really that amazing though, but as they always say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
Yazad on December 25, 2010 11:20 AM
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
Let’s hope Santa brings us cheaper battery chargers :)
David Nodave on December 25, 2010 12:40 PM
Nice review ;)
I wish i had one.
Nicholas Battaglia on December 25, 2010 3:43 PM
Seems a little pointless to buy one, especially since its $25.
Tommy on December 26, 2010 2:13 AM
After some thinking, I think this will best suit people who are in the field of Business and need the extra juice in their phones, because if we think about it; most of us here on anythingbutiphone.com are consumers, right?! Wouldn’t it be good to charge up the phone at the end of the day before you go to sleep, then wake up a few hours later with a full charge? There’s no need for this because then extra Batteries would be supplementary to it’s function. If you take out the battery when you charge it, you can’t use it unless you have extras where you can put the USB port to usage, right?!
Yazad on December 26, 2010 11:18 AM
i think the chargeable batteries with changeable tips that can charge your phone/mp3 player/tablet/pmp/psp/nintendo etc are much more useful, i got one as a present and it is very useful
Yazad on December 27, 2010 10:59 AM
plus this is a little too expensive for a battery
firsthand on December 28, 2010 3:55 AM
I like its’ function, but is it cost too much?
Brian on December 30, 2010 1:54 AM
@firsthand yeah, it’s definitely a little expensive. As a charger, I mean. Do one amazon or ebay search and you can get chargers for a few bucks.
Yazad on January 2, 2011 8:11 AM
*charger
JayB on January 11, 2011 5:30 AM
Haha, this actually looks pretty good to me. It’s a great idea, I would definitely buy it. My only concern would be the durability and efficiency of the charger.
Yazad on January 11, 2011 3:04 PM
It’s great if u have two or more batteries to charge at the same time
Sebastian Granstrand on January 13, 2011 7:49 AM
I’ve got a variant of this intended for camera batteries, and it works very well. This variant is a little expensive, as others have said, but it (or variants) can be gotten cheaper.
Joga on January 13, 2011 1:04 PM
ugly.
Yazad on January 13, 2011 1:29 PM
@Joga
+1