Final Thoughts
The Power Fort is really aimed at the smartphone crowd, as they charge via USB. The unit does not include any tips for other “dumbphones” or the like. This is a drawback, but other devices fill this market gap just fine.
The Power Fort is definitely something I’ll find useful on a frequent basis. I’ve been traveling a lot recently, and I’ve already find useful situations for it. It’s nice to go out at night having a full charged battery, even though I wasn’t near any power source but the Power Fort.
ThinkComputers gives the Choiix Power Fort Portable Battery Pack a 9 out of 10 score and our Editor’s Choice Award.
- Pros:
- Flashlight
- Sufficient capacity to merit keeping it around
- Comes with micro-USB cable
- Comes with international adapters
- Cons:
- Lacks cable/tips for other phones
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.