We’ve become all too familiar with the terrible battery life of our smartphones. As your phone gets older that battery gets even worse, so that’s where gadgets like this come in. This is the Askborg ChargeCube 10400mAh Powerbank. You can get it for £17.99 from Amazon UK or $18.99 from Amazon USA. The company also does some even higher capacity portable batteries too – like this 20800mAh gadget. This, though, is the 10400mAh unit and that – for a regular smartphone with a 3000mAh battery – will mean that you can charge your phone from flat just over 3 times.
It’s a plastic chassis but has a soft feel to the outer skin and a leather-style finish. It measures in at 10.4 x 2.5 x 8 cm and weighs in at 240 g. There are two USB ports on the top – one of which has a “Speed ID” label. This, according to the leaflet in the box, ensures that your phone or tablet is charged as quickly and safely as possible. The other port appears to be a 2.1A output – good for fast charging of phones and tablets.
Above these two ports you’l see four blue LED’s for showing the battery level – 25%, 50% 75% and 100%. You charge the powerbank with a microUSB charger from a wall socket and, when all those LEDs are lit up, you’re good to go. Just plug in the microUSB cable to your Lightning cable to charge your device on the go from the Askborg Powerbank. The power button on the side will also let you turn on an LED light – press and hold for a couple of seconds to activate this. Good for camping or just when you need a light and don’t want to drain your smartphone battery using the rear flashlight.
This product comes with an 18-month warranty and worked very well in our tests.
