Anker 2nd Gen Astro2 9000mAh Backup External Battery

_wky · November 16, 2013

First Impressions

I received it today from Amazon having ordered it a day ago and am impressed.

It was packaged well by Amazon as always

It has a soft touch feel around the outside with glossy black end caps.

A "smart" USB A port and a "Universal" USB A port as well as a female micro USB for charging is on one end.

The LED ring shows remaining power at a shake and it also pulsates whilst charging a device to show remaining charge.

It has a good heft to it which I appreciate whilst not being too heavy.

It took about 2 hours to charge fully since it arrived with about 3/4 full.

Accessories

Included is a

Draw-string carry bag
A short USB male A to micro USB A cable
A micro USB to Apple 30 pin adapter.

The cables seem to be of decent quality and general fit/finish is good

Ending Thoughts

I've yet to test it in the field however I'm optimistic.

I'll update this after a week of use.

If I had to pick one thing about it that I dislike it would be that the USB end cap seems to be upside-down in comparison to the body but it doesn't affect the actual operation.

First Impressions

I received it today from Amazon having ordered it a day ago and am impressed.

It was packaged well by Amazon as always

It has a soft touch feel around the outside with glossy black end caps.

A "smart" USB A port and a "Universal" USB A port as well as a female micro USB for charging is on one end.

The LED ring shows remaining power at a shake and it also pulsates whilst charging a device to show remaining charge.

It has a good heft to it which I appreciate whilst not being too heavy.

It took about 2 hours to charge fully since it arrived with about 3/4 full.

Accessories

Included is a

Draw-string carry bag

A short USB male A to micro USB A cable

A micro USB to Apple 30 pin adapter.

The cables seem to be of decent quality and general fit/finish is good

Ending Thoughts

I've yet to test it in the field however I'm optimistic.

I'll update this after a week of use.

If I had to pick one thing about it that I dislike it would be that the USB end cap seems to be upside-down in comparison to the body but it doesn't affect the actual operation.

*******Updated********

I've made a video Unboxing and Review also, for those that wish to see more of the product. See it here

The Astro2 charged my S4 from about 50% to about 80% every weekday so far. Today is Thursday and it still shows 2 out of 10 bars. So it still has 1800 mAh left in it, enough to charge your iPhone.

I tested charging with 3 USB cables:

USB Cable: Average time to charge SGS4 Battery 1%

Random 3 mins 15 seconds

S4’s Included 1 min 30 seconds

Anker Included 1 min 4 seconds

There are a few options on charging your device since there are two USB outputs:

The universal Port and a Smart Port.

If you're on Android or have an “Other Cell Phone” plug into either port, it doesn't matter.

If you're running iOS plug into the Smart port to charge fastest and if you have a Samsung Galaxy Tablet, use the Smart port.

To charge your device, plug in to the recommended USB port, give the battery a firm shake and the LED display will start to pulse, showing you your device is charging and the remain power left in the Astro2.

Now, how many times can this charge your device? Well, here’s a table.

Device Battery Capacity (mAh): Device charged (times)

SGS4 2600 3.46

HTC One 2300 3.91

iPhone 5s 1560 5.77

iPhone 5c 1507 5.97

iPhone 5 1440 6.25

If you want to find out how many times it can charge your device, take 9000 and divide it by the your device’s battery size.

Summary:

So who is this great for? Well if you're a student or just on the go a lot, going camping or out playing Ingress then this is ideal.

It’s simple to use, not too heavy and packs a lot of charge for it’s size which is about the size of my wallet.