# External Battery for the iPad



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I'm looking at getting an external battery for the iPad. This one seems to be very popular:



Anyone have one that they have tried?

Betsy


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Wow! That's a huge battery!

Oh, I see. It's an iPhone in the picture.     

No recommendations from me, but I'd be interested to hear what others say.
Mike


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I bought one of the above Energizer products last June to be a backup battery for my EVO phone. I've used it quite a bit, and am completely pleased with it. It has a good track record for me. BUT....It is much too small for an iPad, and I am not sure it would even bring a discharged iPad back to life for a moment, let alone power it for any length of time.

Since I was pleased with the brand, I later bought this product when it appeared on Woot.com. I specifically had my iPad in mind when I bought it.



It has enough capacity that it should be useful for my iPad in a pinch (I particularly have in mind long airline flights), though only about 3/4 as much as the product you listed. I have to say that I haven't really put the product to the test by powering the iPad with it for a very long time though. Haven't had the need. But I'm pretty confident it will come through, based on the performance of it's smaller cousin that I have stress-tested pretty well.

Both products have a pretty good system of interchangeable tips that let it power a variety of different types of product with different connectors.

The skeptic in me notes that the New Trent product specifications show 1/3 more battery capacity than the Energizer product I'm using, yet the New Trent product is actually smaller! All based on the specifications given on the Amazon page.

There was some discussion here of an iPad battery from a company called Zagg awhile ago:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php?action=printpage;topic=27552.0

Googling around, it looks like the Zaggsparq has some rather negative reviews on the net.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Thanks for the feedback. (And the link THC, I remembered a prior discussion but couldn't find it.)  I'll let y'all know....  I went ahead and ordered the Trent; the reviews on Amazon were pretty good.  I also want it for plane flights, THC...or just whenever..

I'll give it a review here after I get it.

Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

My battery pack, the New Trent Extreme Pack IMP1000 11000mAh External Battery pack (above) arrived and I've tested it, so here's my review.

SUMMARY: I'm very pleased with the battery. I give it four out of four stars so far.










The battery is 1 3/8 by 4 by 3 3/4 inches. By itself, it weighs 9 3/4 ounces, the cable for the iPad is another 3/4 ounces. (It comes with another cable and connectors, more on that later.) You can get the other technical details from the above link.

The box contains the battery, the cables and connectors, the AC adapter and a pouch that will hold the battery cables and connectors but not the adapter.

It's a shiny black finish which shows a lot of fingerprints. This was something one of the reviewers on Amazon complained about, but I don't much care. It's a battery. It has a on/off button. The three capacity LEDs (low, medium, high) are around the edges of the button. There is a USB out port and the AC adapter port.

The iPad cable is a standard USB to iPad/iPod connector. It also comes with an retractable (or "attractable" as the instructions say) USB cable with a universal connector and three tips for other devices. I think one of the tips will work with my MiFi and one will work with my GPS and the last will work with my mobile phone. Haven't tried it with anything but the iPad so far, though.










The device comes with one page of not very detailed instructions. It could use a bit more information, such as what the flashing lights actually tell you. The picture below shows the three LEDs. The "high" one on the far left was actually blinking but I caught it with the light on. )










The battery arrived with some charge. The instructions tell you that "3 capacity LEDs on IMP1000 start to blink in low to high sequence. IMP1000 is being charged. It will take 5 hours to charge IMP1000 from empty to full." When I received it, only the high capacity LED was blinking. I charged it for three hours and the high capacity LED was still blinking. In the absence of any information in the instructions on whether or not the thing was supposed to not blink when fully charged, I decided to take it for a test run. I was kinda eager to play with it.

I had allowed my iPad to drain down to 9% full. I connected the battery to the iPad, and as directed in the instruction sheet, pressed the power button on the battery. Over the next three hours, the iPad not only continued to work off the battery, but slowly charged, going from 9% to 12% by bedtime. And I was using the WiFi and bluetooth, so it was in heavy continuous use. By morning, about 8 hours later, the battery was dead but the iPad was charged up to 34 percent.

I was pleased that the iPad not only kept running but charged up that much using the battery. It charges up much more slowly than having it plugged into the wall, but it does charge up.

Since the battery was dead, I plugged it in to see how long it would take to fully recharge. Unfortunately, I forgot about it, so I can't report that. I can report that when fully charged, all the LED charging lights stop blinking. That's not in the instructions. Below is the one sheet of instructions with the battery.










Betsy


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## skyblue (Dec 23, 2009)

Betsy, I purchased an external battery at the Apple Store. It's the *mophie juice pack powerstation.* At about $100 it wasn't cheap, but it gets the job done. I see yours came with more 'gizmos' than mine, but it accomplishes it's intended purpose.


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

I have one of the smaller NewTrent's and adore it.  I use it for both the iPad and the iPhone--more on the phone though since the battery life on that is understandably shorter.  Mine will only provide the iPad with about a 50% charge (versus 3 full charges for the phone) but I've never been away from an outlet with that device long enough to require even that much, so no regrets about going with a smaller unit in my particular circumstances.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

skyblue said:


> Betsy, I purchased an external battery at the Apple Store. It's the *mophie juice pack powerstation.* At about $100 it wasn't cheap, but it gets the job done. I see yours came with more 'gizmos' than mine, but it accomplishes it's intended purpose.


Skyblue,

Thanks for sharing your experience. The mophie juce pack at the Apple Store was what had me looking at external batteries again. I liked the looks of it, but the New Trent seemed like a better deal for my use. I liked the idea of being able to use it with several of my other devices too. I think there are several options for people to pick from in looking for an external battery. It's good to hear about members' experiences with different makes.

Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

VictoriaP said:


> I have one of the smaller NewTrent's and adore it. I use it for both the iPad and the iPhone--more on the phone though since the battery life on that is understandably shorter. Mine will only provide the iPad with about a 50% charge (versus 3 full charges for the phone) but I've never been away from an outlet with that device long enough to require even that much, so no regrets about going with a smaller unit in my particular circumstances.


Thanks, Victoria. If I had read the above before buying, I might have gone for the smaller one.  But it's good to hear that you've had a good experience with New Trent.

Betsy


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## skyblue (Dec 23, 2009)

Betsy, your review was quite comprehensive which I really appreciate. . The Mophie can indeed be used for other electronics when used with the proper adaptors.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I wondered about that, good to know, skyblue!  Of course, I also forgot to mention that I'm cheap.  . The price difference worked for me, too!

I'll be going on a trip in a couple of weeks, I'll report back on how it did.

Betsy


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