It’s bad enough watching your phone charge dip into the red, but when you’re miles from a plug and the backup battery is almost gone, it’s probably time to consider either: (a) Chucking all the toys and moving to Kuala Lumpur; or (b) picking up a Gum Plus backup charger from Just Mobile.
What works: The swanky aluminum-case battery, which has a total of one button and five lights, charges your iPhone “up to four times” on one charge of its own. While I didn’t test to see if it really charges a phone to 90 percent in an hour, it did seem to bring mine back to life in short order after a total draining. While built specifically for the iPhone and iPod, it will juice other brands of smart phones and gadgets that can be charged via USB connections. The unit comes with the appropriate cords to charge it from a laptop or other USB slot.
Not so much: Read the directions. You have to hook it up to the phone first, then hit the sole button to begin charging. Also, you have to turn it off when finished or it continues to run down. Don’t be too impressed by the “5 LED indicators” because each green light is the size of a pinprick and, frankly, a little hard to see.
