If you want to strike fear into the heart of a smartphone user, put them in a location without an AC outlet nearby with a smartphone that’s about to go dead. You’ll see that they’ll freak out more than Toronto Mayor Rob Ford a crack addict in rehab. Belkin wants to help those in that position by offering up the Travel Power Pack 9000. It’s a 9,000mAh lithium-ion power pack that is about the size of a deck of cards. It’s also light which makes it easy to stow in your bag. It comes with a pair of USB ports on it that you can use to charge two devices at the same time. One is 1A and one 2.5A. The instruction sheet (and it is just a sheet as there are no other instructions that come with it) states that you should use the 2.5A for tablets and the 1A for smartphones. Next to the power button on the side of the power pack are four blue lights that indicate how much charge is available on the pack. Four lights means it’s fully charged. It takes about 5 hours to charge and you can use the supplied micro USB cable to charge it from your computer’s USB port or an AC outlet using an USB to AC adapter that you’ll have to supply. I chose the latter.
I tested the Belkin Travel Power Pack 9000 by using the 2.5A to charge a Motorola Moto G which was only 39% charged. By using the 2.5A port (which you should only use if your device supports it), it went from 39% to 54% in 20 minutes. In 30 minutes it was up to 62%. By the time an hour rolled around, it was 86% charged. It was fully charged after 90 minutes. Thus if your phone can support charging from the 2.5A, you can get your phone fully charged quickly. My next test was to plug my wife’s iPhone 5 (88% charged) and my iPhone 5S (48% charged) at the same time. The former into the 1A USB connector and the latter into the 2.5A USB connector. I didn’t time how long it charged this time as I wanted to see how much charging power the Belkin Travel Power Pack 9000 would have after this test. By the time that both phones were charged, there were two blue dots indicating at least a 50% charge on the Belkin Travel Power Pack 9000. Next I took a fully discharged Transformer Pad that I reviewed recently and charged it with the remaining charge left in the Travel Power Pack 9000. It got to 48% before it finally ran out of juice. Clearly the Belkin Travel Pack 9000 can charge fast and charge often without you having to hit a power outlet.
Downsides? The Belkin Travel Power Pack 9000 only comes with a micro USB cable. There’s nothing else to plug it into your computer or AC power (hint: the Apple 5W USB Power Adapter works well for this purpose) and Belkin would do well to supply something to allow it to be plugged into the wall. Other than that, I think this is a must get if you travel. Simply supply the cables that you need for the devices that you want to charge, and you’ll be good to go without having to worry about the battery in your smartphone or tablet going dead.