High-end charger accessories with a few neat tricks will keep all of your mobile devices charged up and ready to use
There's no shortage of ways to keep your phone and tablet charged up nowadays. Between reverse-charging technologies, battery packs, wireless charging mats and plain old wall chargers, you have more choices than you probably need. At the same time, every single manufacturer you've heard of — and dozens you haven't — make these accessories.
Ventev is one of the companies you probably haven't heard of, but it makes some pretty nice charging accessories to keep your phones, tablets and other accessories charged up and ready to go. Its latest lineup consists of the Powercell 6000+ dual-port battery pack, the Wallport r2200 dual-port 2.1A wall charger and some great no-tangle colored USB cables.
The Powercell 6000+ is your typical large-capacity external battery that has enough juice to keep your devices fueled up over what would normally be multiple charge cycles. It has two USB outputs, one of which gives the higher-power 2.1A (at 10W) output for fast charging phones or more importantly actually charging large tablets. It provided my devices constant power even while both devices were on and in use — not a small feat — and while it's a tad larger than comparable-mAh battery packs (the size of about two and a half 5-inch smartphones by volume) you're getting some neat features.
It has the added bonus of doubling as a wall charger — there's an integrated flip-out wall plug that you can use to of course charge the battery, but it acts as a pass-through for charging devices that are plugged into the USB ports while plugged into the wall.
The only downside we can find right now with the Powercell 6000+ is how it tries to optimize its output when the device it's charging hits 100%. The battery is smart enough to turn itself off when whatever it's charging is fully charged — cutting down on the amount of power wasted — but is often a little too smart and turns off prematurely when charging some lower-power devices like peripherals and mobile hotspots. We've reached out to Ventev and they tell us the issue is with how little power smaller devices draw, and that they're considering ways to improve the smart power system.
At just shy of $70 this isn't the cheapest battery pack you can find, but for the power-hungry among us that need to keep multiple devices juiced up and want to cut down on the cords, this may be a solid choice.
- More: Buy the Ventev Powercell 6000+ battery pack from ShopAndroid ($69.95)
The less-interesting but entirely necessary accessory is the Wallport r2200. It's a dual-port USB charger that offers 2.1A (10W) output from both ports, giving you the flexibility to charge pretty much any pair of devices at the same time without having to worry about it taking the whole day to top them off. Just like the Powercell 6000+, it has flip-out charging prongs to plug into the wall, with the same soft touch feel of its battery-filled larger brother.
Finding a nice charger that can do high-speed charging on both ports is somewhat of a rarity, and although the Wallport r2200 lists for $29.99, it's easy to find at under $20 from places like Amazon — not a bad deal for what you're getting.
- More: Buy the Ventev Wallport r2200 charger on Amazon ($17.25)
- More: Buy the Ventev Wallport r2200 charger from ShopAndroid ($22.95)
Paring up with either the Powercell 6000+ or Wallport r2200 (or any other device for that matter) are Ventev's tangle-free Chargesync Micro USB cables. They come in a variety of colors (I had a couple that match my favorite soccer team), support 2.1A fast charging and are noticeably high quality. At $15 a piece they aren't super easy on the bank account, but they truly don't get tangled — due to their flat design — and are just the right length for most applications at 3-feet long.
- More: Buy Ventev Chargesync Micro USB cables on Amazon ($14.99 each)
- More: Buy Ventev Chargesync Micro USB cables from ShopAndroid ($9.95 each)
Ventev has a nice suite of charging accessories on its hands here, and it's hard to say anything bad about them after using each of these products to keep our phones, tablets and peripherals charged up at home and on the go.
Be sure to check out more Ventev accessories for your Android phone or tablet at ShopAndroid.com!
