First Looks
The Power Fort is itself a black (or white) unit with a glossy top. There’s a set of blue LEDs which show power level, as well as white LEDS on the bottom which function as a pretty decent flashlight.
On the butt is the two USB ports: a mini-USB port for charging the Power Fort and a full-size USB port for charging a device. Choiix provides in both the standard and advanced packages the USB->mini-USB cable used for charging the Power Fort and a USB->micro-USB cable for plugging newer phones into the charger.
I own a power pack similar to this that I purchased from Circuit City during their huge liquidation sale. It's made by Kensington and I've honestly used it more times than I can count. So many times have I used this on LAN party trips or vacations. It doesn't have the flashlight but it's one of the best electronic purchases i've made in a long time.
The reason for purchase is kind of funny. It was at a LAN party and I needed a way to charge my phone because I didn't have a charger and the USB output on my laptop was strong enough to turn the dead phone on to start the charge. So I purchased this device and charged it through my laptop. I then plugged it into my phone and the output was so much that my phone didn't know the difference from the battery to the wall.
Every time I go on a long trip with my laptop I take the battery pack. It's come to the point that I only take the one “USB to USB-mini” cord with me. I charge the battery from my laptop with the cord and then reverse it in the battery pack and hook my phone to it. (my phone uses a mini-USB connection). Very Awesome Product
I own exactly the product reviewed. I used it on me recent trip to Europe and it worked as expected. It kept my phone/gps alive on several occasions where I didn’t have access to car/power for a long time.No six months later I decided to take it with me on another trip and found that it’s dead. Wouldn’t take charge, wouldn’t turn on. Dead. Contacting CoolerMaster for warranty replacement proved to be a nightmare. It’s one of the worst customer service websites you can imagine. I assume it was designed in Chinese and then (badly) translated.
So it took me several weeks to get them to send me a new one.