With battery life continuing to remain one of the main points of concern for smartphone owners worldwide, many entrepreneurial techies are coming up with new, radical ideas of allowing people to recharge their mobile devices on the go, without having to carry around excess baggage, which is exactly what you’d have to do if you are to invest in external battery packs, also known as power banks. Just the other day, a startup called Ion Tech launched its own solution on Kickstarter in the form of a belt (called the Ion Belt) which doubles up as a 3,000 mAh power bank, and now, yet another company is throwing its hat in the ring, offering what seems to be a fairly novel idea for extending the often abysmal and always unsatisfactory battery backup on our mobile devices.
The company is called Nomad Goods Inc. and is based out of Santa Barbara, California. The product in question is called the Nomad Wallet, and is basically a power bank comprising of a 2,400 mAh battery, which is contained within a fairly regular-looking leather wallet. According to the company marketing the product, the device can carry just about everything which would be considered essential in a wallet, like a bunch of currency bills along with up to six credit or debit cards. The accessory has a thickness of 25 mm, a height of 125 mm and a width of 95 mm, meaning it’s not much larger than an average wallet, all things considered. The device also comes with a microUSB female port but the company will only supply a Lightning connector, meaning the device will not work with standard Android devices out of the box, but the company apparently has plans to start shipping standard versions compatible with Android and other mobile platforms, soon.
As for the pricing, the device is currently up for pre-order from the company’s official website at an introductory price of $79.99. The company however, says that the price is promotional only, and will increase to $89.99 once the device starts shipping from the 15th of this month. It will be interesting to see when the device actually launches with standard connectors, if the battery pack on it will remain an anemic 2,400 mAh, or if Nomad will come up with something beefier and more appropriate for today’s power hungry mobile devices.
