FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
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Fri, 1st Feb 2013
FYI, this story is more than a year old

For many tech “power-users”, running out of battery is one’s biggest nightmare if you'’re in the middle of something important.

The Powerbag by Ful attempts to ease these potential battery woes by creating a bag with a battery pack built into it. The battery pack featuring the 3 most well known charging cables - Apple (original), miniUSB and microUSB and also an extra USB port for extra cables. The battery is detachable from the bag which means you can have more than one and it can be charged both outside and inside of the bag. The on/off button at the front doubles as both a switch and a battery indicator.

Pros:

  • Included battery will charge a single smart phone twice on average.
  • The cables provided cover most popular electronic devices and all 4 cables can be used at the same time.
  • Battery pack can be charged both within the bag and outside as well.
  • Bag has a bit of padding and is also very lightweight and comfortable to carry around.
Cons:
  • The provided cables are permanent e.g. the Apple pin is in the front, it would have been good to be able to move them around.
  • You might find some cables are redundant depending on your needs.
  • Using the original Apple connector means it won’t support any current and new devices e.g. iPhone 5.
The Powerbag by Ful is an awesome concept, having battery power on the go which can be plugged in to charge when you’re running low. It would have been nice to move around the cables so you can utilise all the slots in the bag - maybe a future design would be one with only USB ports. If you’re a traveller or find yourself constantly running out of juice on your devices, this is an awesome bag to have indeed.

Score: 4.5/5