One thing that you definitely don’t want to be caught without when dealing with a smartphone is lack of power. How often have you been caught in a position where you’ve exhausted almost all the power on your phone with no where to plug it in to and charge? I know it’s happened to me a few times and its definitely something that can be avoided. How? Well, the Cellink 1 is a solution to this problem. It may not be the only solution out there but it surely is a solution. You see, the Cellink 1 is a power backup unit that can provide approximately 90 minutes of additional talk time to your depleted phone by acting as a charger for your phone.
If you take a look at the Cellink 1, you’ll notice that it isn’t exactly what I’d call pretty. In fact, if you just glance at it, you wouldn’t really know what it was as it’s fairly nondescript, boxy, and just looks like a block of plastic when it has the storage cover on it. Take off the cover though, and you’ll see what the Cellink 1 really is. The one we have here is for the iOS devices so on one side, there is Apple’s familiar 20-pin connector. On the other side, you’ll see a standard USB connector.
The Cellink 1 is super easy to use. Plug the USB end to charge the Cellink 1, wait for it to finish, and then throw it in your bag. When you find that you are running low on juice with your iPhone, just take out the Cellink 1 and plug the 20-pin connector end to your iOS device. You’ll notice on the screen that the device is now charging. I tested it on an iPhone 4 and it’s able to almost recharge it fully. The only problem I had with the device is that sometimes, depending on the iPhone case you are using, it will not plug all the way in unless you remove the case. This has to do with the way the connector is. It would have been better if the plug were raised a bit from the main unit so that it would plug into deeper cases better.
Now I know there are other battery backup units out there but the Cellink 1 does have a few unique features. For starters, you can actually use the device to charge both the iOS device and the Cellink 1 at the same time when plugged in, although you’ll need to use an extension cable to do so or charge through your laptop. Second, you can also use it as a a sync bridge between your Mac/PC and the iOS device. Lastly, the Cellink 1 has a built in micro-SD slot so in essence, you can add an SD card to it and also use it as a portable thumb drive.
Overall, the Cellink 1 does a lot for such a small device. Sure it’s not the prettiest thing out there, in fact it’s actually pretty ugly and I kind of wish it looked a bit better. In the end though, function definitely wins over form here as using an external battery backup unit beats using a bulky battery case. This way, I can use many of my much nicer looking cases with my iPhone and carry this in my bag or pocket. When I need it, I use it. When I don’t, it stays stored away and unseen. The Cellink 1 can be purchased here for $54.95.
