INTRODUCTION

   Can any of you even recall how many times your smartphones have ran out of battery while you're out having drinks far away from a power socket? Having a power socket is not even a solution since i bet many of you had your smartphones ran out of battery while attending a wedding or a meeting since you obviously don't carry the wall charger with you. Portable battery packs are a valid solution to such circumstances but you really can't carry one around with you at all times since although very small they are more than what you can fit in the pockets of your shirt or jeans. A couple of years back certain manufacturers came up with a very smart idea which basically involved using several flat battery cells inside a credit-card like enclosure which you would be able to carry around you at all times whether that would be inside one of your pockets or inside your wallet. However it wasn't until recently that we began to see such solutions that feature enough battery juice to recharge most smartphones up to a full time and so since we wanted to take a look and see how far this "innovation" has progressed today we will be testing the latest Credit Card 850mAh powerbank by Sandberg.

   Sandberg stands for quality and user-friendliness. If it is important for you that accessories are high quality and easy to figure out how to use, then choose Sandberg. Our ideology "IT is for everybody" is part of everything we do. Since its inception in 1985, private consumers, institutions and companies have benefited from this simple philosophy. Distributors and dealers appreciate the availability, range, simple procedures and the exceptionally low failure rate. Every year over half a million Sandberg products find their way to users in more than 30 countries. Choosing Sandberg means choosing a safe and conscientious product that meets all applicable regulatory requirements. A product manufactured by subcontractors who are committed to following Sandberg's Code of Conduct to ensure decent working conditions and reduce the environmental impact of the production and waste disposal.

   With most modern smartphones featuring battery packs in excess of 1500mAh the 850mAh the Credit Card powerbank has to offer may seem small but let's not forget that this is a product purely made for emergency situations and since it should provide well over 60m of talk time in the end it should come in more handy than most people may realize. This particular model makes use of a single 5V/1A microUSB connector to charge portable devices and a 5V/1A microUSB port for charging of its batteries something which can be done either by plugging it into a USB compatible wall charger or with your PC/MAC. Let’s take a closer look however and find out if it’s worth dedicating a spot inside your wallet for the Credit Card 850mAh powerbank by Sandberg.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

You can take a quick look at the product from the front of the clear plastic box.

A few words about the product are placed at the rear in 10 languages right above the bundle contents list, specifications list and 5 year warranty logo.

Inside the box you will find the credit card 850mAh powerbank, a USB to microUSB cable (used for charging the battery) and the user’s manual.

THE CREDIT CARD 850MAH

The Credit Card 850mAh powerbank measures 92mm in length, 62mm in width and is only 4.9mm thick (like 4 cards) and weighs just 41g.

To get a better idea on just how thick this powerbank is we placed right next to the HyperX flash drive by Kingston.

Right next to the microUSB charging port we see a blue LED and a small rubber button. The button is used both to turn on the battery state LED and to begin charging of the device you want to recharge.

At the rear we see the microUSB charging connector and information about the device such as capacity, output, country of manufacture and certifications.

To release the microUSB charging cable you just need to push the connector from the front.

As you can see the microUSB charging cable is not long but it gets the job done.

After trying to store the card in the card spots of three different wallets i came to the conclusion that it can only be stored in the pockets right behind them (it's 1.5mm longer than it should but since you may have a larger wallet this is just an observation).

CONCLUSION

   Having used portable batteries with enough battery juice to even startup a car i have to admit that the 850mAh of the Credit Card powerbank by Sandberg seemed too little at first but after using it 8 times inside a month with all my smartphones i really think that it can be a life saver. Again as expected the battery doesn't offer exactly 850mAh but according to our tests it does roughly 700-750mAh which is almost half the battery of most smartphones in the market currently. Sure I’d like it to have at least 2000mAh since that would obviously mean it could fully charge most smartphones and the battery would last longer when not in use but we can't have it all (although there are models in the market that claim that number). My only concern is with the battery cells used since it's a safe bet we're not talking about Samsung ones but since i didn't want to force open the enclosure (thus rendering the device unusable afterwards) there's really no way of knowing and even if we did chances are the cells would have no visible branding whatsoever.

   Although Sandberg products are still not available inside the USA you can find the Credit Card 850mAh powerbank for just 12Euros (could be a limited offer so if you are interested hurry up and get it) inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) currently and i don't really need to tell you how low this price is. Of course if you prefer something bigger in terms of battery capacity you can find larger portable batteries at around the same price but none of them can match the Sandberg offering in terms of size. Personally i think that the ideal scenario is for someone to have the Credit Card 850mAh powerbank at all times with him and another larger and higher capacity model when space is not an issue (for example in the car or inside a backpack). Battery capacity is perhaps the one thing we'd like to see improved but until that happens the Sandberg Credit Card 850mAh powerbank gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Design
- Size
- Innovation
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- USA Availability
- Battery Capacity (For Some)