Battery packs are a dime a dozen these days. Size, weight and capacity are the only distinguishing factors that differentiates them from each other. Even so, U.S. based BoostCase is not afraid to jump into the already ludicrously saturated portable charger market with their own take on the mobile power accessory called the BackPack Battery.
If you own an iPhone 5, read our BoostCase Hybrid Snap Case review first before continuing.
Inside the box: The BoostCase BackPack Battery, a short micro USB cable and a velcro cable winder
At the bottom; micro USB port, standard USB port and power button
Battery power meter
The BoostCase BackPack Battery is a universal charger that uses a micro USB port to charge itself and has a standard USB port to charge other gadgets. It’s basically a bring-your-own-cable portable charger. It’s equipped with a 2,000 mAh battery that can fully charge an iPhone 5 in roughly an hour an half and still have a few milli-amps of juice left to partially charge other gadgets. The BackPack Battery is quite handy and the thinness of it makes it easy to fit inside a lady’s purse or the front pocket of a guy’s straight-cut jeans. And although the BackPack’s 2,000 mAh is relatively small, it has enough output power to partially charge an iPad.
The BackPack Battery attached to an iPhone 5 via the BoostCase Snap Case
The BackPack Battery is actually one of BoostCase new add-on accessories for their line of iPhone 5 Snap Cases and as the name implies, the BackPack Battery can be securely attached to the back of the iPhone 5 Snap Case. Rather than have the iPhone 5 dangling from a generic battery pack, the BoostCase BackPack Battery offers a more convenient and less messy portable charging solution by allowing the BackPack to piggy-back on the iPhone 5 while charging on-the-go. There are a couple of ways to charge an iPhone using the Hybrid Snap Case and BackPack Battery combo; first is by using the included cord winder to bundle up Apple’s Lightning-to-USB cable, not exactly as neat as I would like, but it works. The second method, which I actually prefer, is to use the short micro USB cable that’s included with the BackPack Battery and use it in conjunction with Apple’s micro USB to Lightning adapter. This method would incur additional expense (roughly Php 990 for the micro USB to Lightning adapter), but the trade-off is that it looks very neat and uncluttered.
Using the standard Apple Lightning USB cable on the BackPack Battery (the bundled velcro cable winder is used to organise the cable)
Using the bundled short micro USB cable and an Apple micro USB to Lightning adapter (sold separately) on the BackPack Battery
Bottomline:
The BoostCase BackPack Battery is pretty smart in design, both a battery pack that can be used universally as well as an iPhone 5 specific accessory that is basically an add-on for the BoostCase Hybrid SnapCase. The price range is on par with competing battery chargers currently available and so is the core functionality. But the overall design is so much nicer than the competition plus it get points for being an attachable iPhone 5 extended battery.
Price:
Php 2,150
Availability:
All Digital Walker, Digital Hub and Beyond the Box outlets
