Those of us that use our iPhone (or iPod, see compatibility below) pretty much constantly throughout the day, without a way to charge midday, know that the battery life just won’t make it through a long day in the field. The Griffin Power Reserve battery is a great way to extend battery life for days of heavy use.
There are 4 packages that you can buy a reserve battery in:
- Reserve Battery: reserve battery with dock connector; sold out www.griffintechnology.com
- Griffin PowerBlock Reserve
: 120 volt AC USB charger + 1 reserve battery; $39.99 www.griffintechnology.com (Amazon ~ $20)
- Griffin PowerJolt Reserve
: 12 volt USB charger + 1 reserve battery; $39.99 www. griffintechnology.com (Amazon ~ $29)
- Griffin Powerduo Reserve
: PowerBlock + PowerJolt + 1 reserve battery; $59.99 www.griffintechnology.com (Amazon ~ $41)
I bought a PowerDuo Reserve before my last vacation. The battery in my iPhone 3gs would hardly last a full day at work and I wasn’t sure how much time I would be spending away from a power supply. I wasn’t sure how much use I would get out of a reserve battery before I bought it, but I tend to use it quite a bit. I often bring it with me when I am using GPS accessing apps to golf, hike, or geocache. It is also great when you are streaming video over 3g.
It’s easy to slip the battery into the charger with magnetic grasp. Let it charge overnight while you use the USB charge port to charge your device. When you wake up your device is charged and your reserve battery is ready to go. The battery is small enough that it easily fits into your pocket. When your battery gets low, I use the ‘20% left’ warning, just plug the reserve battery into the dock connector and it will charge your device. It usually went from 20% to around 40% by the time the battery was empty. There is a button on the battery that you can press when its connected to your device to see how far along the charging process is, with lights indicating how full the battery is. Once there are no lights when you press the button, and your battery indicator on your device does not show ‘charging’, remove the reserve battery. You now have extra battery life for your device.
I have actually purchased 2 of these batteries. The second one I bought only charged my phone once, and then the battery would not charge. I went to the support on the Griffin website and got a reply shortly after. They sent me a replacement that got to me within 5 days of initially contacting them. One of the reasons I like Griffin is because of customer service like this.
Compatibility: iPhone, iPhone 3/3GS, iPod Classic, iPod Video, iPod Photo, iPod mini.
