When it comes to batteries on smartphones these days, there aren’t too many that can withstand a day’s heavy use for the average individual. Usually we end up needing to charge before the day is over and before we’re ready to head home where we might have the easiest and most convenient way to charge up our devices, since our equipment is generally kept there. This is where a little bit of battery management can often come in handy, but it only goes so far and you can still be limited by the capacity of your battery. A great solution is to carry around a battery pack so you can give your device some extra juice whenever you need it, but there are so many battery packs that it can be tough to find the right one or the best one for you. It really all depends on what you need or what you’re looking for, whether that be the highest amount of battery capacity or the quickest charging capabilities, or even the ability to charge multiple devices at once. It might be portability, which is where the TravelCard charger fits in.
It’s a small little charging pack that is about the size of a credit card, and about the thickness of three cards stacked on top of each other. It’s major niche is that it can fit into almost anywhere so you can feel comfortable when carrying it around, even if it sits in your coat or pants pocket. It’s small and discrete so it doesn’t feel awkward or take up too much space, and when using out and about during the situations where I most use battery packs, playing Ingress, it was great to have around and I almost forgot I had it on me due to it’s small size.
This is a big plus, especially if you have ever used any other battery packs before. Besides the absolute best portability of any battery pack out on the market thanks to being small, the TravelCard has a capacity of 1500mAh, so although it won’t be enough to charge most smartphone and tablet devices these days to a full battery capacity, it can give you anywhere from 40-75% depending on how large your phone or tablet’s battery is. This was more than enough for using it on my Nexus 4, and it was also just fine when using it with the LG G3.
The TravelCard Charger touts an extra 5 hours of talk time, and although I don’t use the voice call function on my phone much, I did get around an extra 4 hours or so of on screen time with my Nexus 4, and about 3 on the LG G3. This was also with the screen brightness up on the G3 to take advantage of the Quad HD screen. The TravelCard fits into your wallet(provided there isn’t already an insane amount of other things in there)and the charging cord is conveniently tucked inside of the card’s design so that you don’t need a cable like you do with other battery packs, such as the Limefuel or others from Anker or Lumsing. When it comes to charging speed, it seemed to charge just about as fast if not a little faster than a standard wall charger. It isn’t as quick as the Limefuel Blast pack I had previously reviewed a few weeks ago, but this is a great little accessory to have for those times where you’re in a pinch.
There is a handy little button to power on the TravelCard, and a microUSB port to plug it in when it needs a charge itself. For close to the same amount of money you can get something with more battery capacity like a Limefuel, which also has at least two ports so you can charge a second device, but if you’re not worried about a lot of extra battery life and just need something that is small and portable and gets the job done nicely, the TravelCard is what you should shoot for. Even if you have a larger battery pack, the TravelCard is probably a great investment to make. You can grab one of these off of TravelCard’s website for $39 in black, silver, red, or blue.