Unless you’re lucky enough to have a forever charged gadget or always be near your charger you know that it’s almost a necessity to have an external charger or usb cord/cable handle at all times.
As much as I love my iPhone 5, having it as my main device and always on the go leaves me with a phone that’s constantly flashing me a reminder that I’m about 10 minutes away from being unreachable. The people over at Zagg were nice enough to send me over a Zagg Sparq 3100 Portable Battery/Wall Adapter to review.
First thing I noticed about the Sparq is that it has a very unique look. It’s made with a silver polycarbonate shell on one side that has been thus far fingerprint proof. The underside is made of black soft rubber that has a matte feel and appearance and does tend to attract a few prints. The plus side is the rubber helps it feel secure in your hand. Also on the rubber side you will find an on/off switch to help conserve power and a button for you to simply touch to check remaining power level.
The polycarbonate side sports 5 LED indicator lights to how you how much power is available for usage. Since this external battery doubles as a wall adapter it has built-in prongs so you can plug it in without any additional cords.
The Sparq is designed to charge iOS devices and most Android devices and tablets. The review unit I was sent is the 3100 which is able to give up to two full charges before needing to be plugged in again. The 2.1A output expedites your gadget charging. This has been the fastest device I’ve used to recharge my iPhone 5. I’ve also been able to use this on my iPad 3, HTC One and Samsung Galaxy Note 8. I didn’t attempt to charge my iPad 3 to 100% so I can’t say for certain this can handle that. It did get me to 65% at which point I stopped because that’s all I needed at the time and wanted to save some juice to charge my other devices.
Although the Sparq 3100 looks a little strange to some my only complaint is that it only charges on device at a time. However, there is a 6000 model available that allows you to charge 2 devices at one and give 4 full charges. It is very lightweight and convenient and actually fit in all my purses nicely as I was out and about. Without having to pack and extra cord to charge this is slowly becoming my main external battery.
The Zagg Sparq is available in 3 versions 1220, 3100 and 6000 all corresponding with battery capacity and range in price from $39.99 – $99.99. on their site.
