Smartphone battery life has been somewhat of an issue for many years, and over time this problem has been tackled in various ways. Initially, the majority of smartphones were equipped with removable batteries, which allowed users to swap a depleted unit for a charged one and keep the smartphone up and running for prolonged periods of time before. In more recent times and after smartphone makers began adopting enclosed unibody designs with non-removable batteries, they have worked on improving their power management systems and, in many cases, have increased the capacity of their batteries by considerable amounts. But if that’s not enough, power users can also rely on external power banks, and for this particular group of consumers, Elephone has now unveiled a new battery pack called the ElePower Thunder.
The Elephone ElePower Thunder has a capacity of 16,000 mAh, and on paper, this should be enough stored energy to provide up to 5 full charges for smartphones equipped with 3,000 mah batteries, like the Elephone P9000. But having a high capacity and having the ability to transfer energy at a high rate are two different things, and as such, prospective customers should be happy to learn that the ElePower Thunder benefits from Quick Charge 3.0 technology, allowing for 4 times faster recharge rates compared to conventional charging. In addition to a high capacity and the ability to recharge batteries at fast rates, the Elephone Thunder is also said to offer all the necessary safety features to prevent overheating and damage from power surges. Furthermore, Elephone claims to have tested the ElePower Thunder alongside some of its competitors, and the company determined that competing products retain only about 30-to-50% capacity once they have been subjected to 500 charging cycles. In contrast, the Elephone ElePower Thunder is said to retain roughly 80% of its capacity after being tested in the same conditions, and reportedly these results are largely attributed to the power bank’s chipset, which was apparently supplied by LG Electronics.
All in all, the Elephone ElePower Thunder sounds like a powerful companion for road warriors and for anyone who isn’t satisfied with their smartphone’s battery life by the end of the day. However, as yet pricing and availability details are missing, but given Elephone’s usual philosophy to release products at affordable prices, the ElePower Thunder will hopefully fall in this category.