List Price: $79.99
Sale Price: $29.99
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This battery pack is beautifully packaged with a black rubberized coated case. The black rubber coating is slightly textured so it is not a fingerprint magnet and it improves the looks of the case and your grip. It is a powerful battery pack rated at 6000 mAh of capacity and the test results were spectacular! I put together a video of the unit and the test results for your review.
The battery weighs in at 4 3/4 ounces. The battery pack has one USB output port that outputs 5 VDC at 2 Amps. It is a smart USB port whose output current will never exceed the capacity of your smart device's current charging capability. The battery is extremely energy efficient and its performance is 10 percent or more above the standard performance of a normal designed external battery. This is because of the superior quality of the battery cells used and the advanced control circuitry within the battery.
During the testing the temperature of the battery pack never even exceeded ambient room temperature. To start your device charging you connect it with the proper cable and the battery pack charging starts automatically. To check the battery pack charge status you have to shake the battery and the LED ring lights up.
This product is outstanding and I rate it at 5 stars. If you are a business person or a student and have to depend on your tablet or smart phone for long periods of time without the ability to get to an AC power source then this is a good battery to own. This is good for those who travel a lot or camp out. Now you can watch your movies or listen to your music on those long airline flights. While this battery pack can put some charge into your tablets it is more ideal for use in recharging your smart phone. Because of its size it is great to drop into a purse, briefcase or a pocket.
You should note that I did not operate my tablets or phones while I charged it but the WIFI and phone transmitter were left on. When I test a battery I do an extensive set of tests that fully charges the battery and then I use it to charge devices and make sure that it is fully depleted when my tests are done. I time each test and document the results as the test progresses. I then calculate the mAh of capacity that the battery supplied and I then calculate its charging efficiency. This process takes from 3 hours to, in very large batteries, about a day for testing. I don't take any short cuts or guess and every battery has these tests performed on it and documented. This is to assure that the battery is tested and it performs well. If a battery has performed poorly I then run the tests again to verify the results.
Items in the box:
* The Anker 2nd Gen Astro 6000 mAh battery
* The battery pack comes with an instruction manual.
* A USB charging cable that is 12 inches long.
* A nice carrying bag for the battery
* You may have to use the charging cable that comes with many of your own devices.
Anker 2nd Gen Astro 6000 mAh External Battery Pack Features:
* Powerful 6000 mAh capacity
* The unit is compact and weighs in at 4 3/4 ounces.
* Attractive design with a black rubberized external coating. The black rubberized coating is slightly textured so it is not a fingerprint magnet and easy to grip.
* The specifications and ports are nicely labeled on the case.
* It has 10 LED status lights in a ring located on the front that indicates the battery charge level. You have to shake the battery and the LED ring will light up and indicate the battery charge level. Each LED represents 10% of capacity.
* This is an ideal size and power of battery to carry in a purse, briefcase or backpack for your smart phone!
* There is one USB power output. It is a USB port rated at 5 VDC and 2 Amps and it is a smart USB port the uses only the current required by your device to properly charge it as quickly as possible.
* When you plug in a device then the charging process of your device begins automatically.
* The battery pack uses Lithium battery technology.
* The battery pack can be recharged 500+ times
* Warranty is 18 months
* The battery pack does not come with an AC wall charger. It is specified to be charged with 5 VDC at 1 amp. It will charge in 5 to 6 hours at 1 Amp input. You can charge the battery using a USB 2.0 port of your computer that is rated at 500 mA but the charging time will be 11 to 12 hours.
* The battery is extremely energy efficient and its performance is 10 percent or more above the standard performance of a normal designed external battery. This is because of the superior quality of the battery cells used and the advanced control circuitry within the battery.
Test charging devices to measure the output capacity:
I charged the battery pack fully before I started my test. I started with a Kindle Fire at 25% and the Anker 2nd Gen Astro was fully charged with 10 LEDs.
* 30 min Kindle Fire at 48% and the Anker battery had 6 LEDs
* 60 min Kindle Fire at 70% and the Anker battery had 4 LEDs
* 90 min Kindle Fire at 82% and the Anker battery had 4 LEDs
* 120 min Kindle Fire at 87% and the Anker battery had 4 LEDs
* 150 min Kindle Fire at 100% and the Anker battery had 4 LEDs
I started with an iPhone 5S at 22% and the Anker 2nd Gen Astro at 4 LEDs.
* 30 min iPhone 5S at 54% and the Anker battery had 3 LEDs
* 60 min iPhone 5S at 84% and the Anker battery had 2 LEDs
* 90 min iPhone 5S at 95% and the Anker battery had 2 LEDs
* 120 min iPhone 5S at 100% and the Anker battery had 2 LEDs
A second iPhone 5S at 79% and the Anker 2nd Gen Astro at 2 LEDs.
* 30 min iPhone 5S at 97% and the Anker battery had 1 LED
* 60 min iPhone 5S at 100% and the Anker battery had 1 LED flashing
I started charging an iPad 2 at 10% and the Anker 2nd Gen Astro at 1 LED flashing.
* In two minutes the iPad was at 12 % and the Anker battery was dead
Summary of charging tests:
* Charge an Kindle Fire 75% x 4400 = 3300 mAh
* Charge an iPhone 5S 78% x 1560 = 1216.8 mAh
* Charge a second iPhone 5S 21% x 1560 = 327.6 mAh
* Charge and iPad 2 2% x 6944 = 139 mAh
* Test result = 3300 + 1216.8 +327.6 + 139 =4983.4 mAh/6000 mAh = 83% efficiency
* That is an outstanding efficiency result for this battery.
Here are some common devices and the amount of mAh of capacity they have when they are fully charged. This is just to give you an impression of how much energy it takes to charge your smart device:
* iPhone 4 battery 1,420 mAh battery capacity
* iPhone 4S battery 1,432 mAh battery capacity
* iPhone 5 battery 1440 mAh battery capacity
* iPhone 5S battery 1560 mAh battery capacity
* iPad 2 battery 6,944 mAh battery capacity
* iPad 3 battery 11,560 mAh battery capacity
* Kindle Fire battery 4400 mAh capacity
* Kindle Keyboard battery 1750 mAh capacity
* iPad 4 battery is 11,486 mAh 3.7 VDC at 42.5 Wh
* iPad Mini battery is 4490 mAh at 3.72 VDC 16.7 Wh
As you can see the Anker 2nd Gen Astro 6000 will not fully charge a totally dead iPad 2, 3 or 4 because it only contains 6000 mAh of capacity. You have to consider the losses in the charging circuits of both the battery pack and the device you are charging. When using an external battery you have to allow approximately 30 % of the battery capacity will be lost to heat, voltage conversion, powering the batteries electronics and the electronics of your electronics device's charging circuits. In addition you have to consider that your device is not truly off like a cell phone is still connected to the WIFI and phone networks and probably receiving emails, etc.
Real world examples of charging capability with this battery pack:
* iPhone 4 approximately 351% of a full charge out of a fully charged Anker 2nd Gen Astro 6000 mAh battery pack
* iPhone 5S approximately 319.5% of a full charge
* iPad 2 approximately 71.8% of a full charge
* iPad 3 or 4 approximately 43% of a full charge
* iPad Mini approximately 111% of a full charge
* Kindle Fire approximately 113% of a full charge
* A normal estimated usable storage is 70% of capacity or .70 * 6000 mAh = 4200 mAh charging capacity available for your electronic devices.
* In my testing I was able to use approximately 4983.4 mAh of capacity or roughly 83% of the 6000 mAh capacity. This is an outstanding result.
I received a sample product for evaluation and I promised to provide a fair and honest review.
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Product exterior -Main Unit overall the finish has a great feel to it. A very smooth soft plastic that might show some smudges from skin oils if you look really hard but easy to clean off. It has a good weight to it considering it fits in the hand very comfortably. The ends are very glossy and while the end with the usb ports (input and smart) is perfectly clean, the other side with the imprint saying 'Made in China, model number' was a tiny bit scratched up but nothing really noticeable. It does say over here that input is 1A and output is 2A. Ironically the serial number is not listed on this side at all or on the unit. ****The serial number is actually on a the short charging cable. ***Important, for warranty purposes do not remove this sticker..... I admit that I don't like this because usually any large stickers on cables I usually cut off, and also because the serial number should be on the unit itself rather than just the microusb cable.
Microusb Cable The microusb is a very good quality 1ft charging cable. Some people might prefer longer but fortunately it has the high-quality shielded ends that Samsung OEM Cables have. There is a plastic covering over the ends protecting the finish that you can peel off.
Carrying Pouch an interesting sports-like carrying pouch that is double layered and has a closing elastic mechanism. The microusb cable does fit inside with unit while pouch is closed.
Description of use Very easy to install. I simply connected the microusb input on unit to an Anker 2A USB charger (1A or higher is great). I found it was like 80% charged and it charged up to 100% fairly quickly. It works very simply and great. There is no need for a long charging cable and finding an outlet, this solution works even better and is very portable. I still have not yet tested it on iPhones or the newest Samsung Galaxy Tablets but it does it work perfectly with Galaxy S4 and other Android phones. The unit does not need to be shaken to start charging, it simply starts when plugged in. While charging it does constantly blink the light on and out every second which can get annoying but does at least update its amount of battery left. The white ring is divided up into 10 leds. With unit disconnected simply shaking it shows you the charge level.
So far it charges roughly 0.6% per minute on a Galaxy S4. According to 'Galaxy Charging Current' it shows 1900mAh and after a little while drops down to 1200mAh (it does this on stock too). I still need to do more tests though for accuracy and will update later.
UPDATE! 2013-10-19 I have now confirmed that it charges at 0.9% per minute on Galaxy S4 at 2A. So it takes between 90 to 120 minutes to fully charge the phone. The last 10% charges more slowly. I did the test from 1% to 93% in about 96 minutes with minimal usage of screen. Also after using a 100% charged Anker 2nd Gen Astro 6000mAh, I unfortunately was left with 40% battery on that unit so enough for almost two charges on a Galaxy S4.
Ideal users I recommend these Portable External Batteries to anyone with a smartphone with non-removable batteries. With an iPhone I'd expect to the user to get 4 Full Charges with this unit. With a Galaxy S4 about 2 Full Charges. I recommend getting a higher capacity if you are going on a bigger trip and need more than 10 full charges without recharging the unit.
Overall outstanding item and I'm very impressed
I was supplied a sample for test and evaluation, and I promised that my review is fair and honest
Best Deals for Anker® 2nd Gen Astro 6000mAh Portable Charger Rapid-Recharge (2A
After rolling out new 2nd generation versions of Astro 3 (3 outputs) and Astro 2 (2 outputs), now is a turn for Astro with a single charging output. While Astro 3 was very impressive with three outputs and 12000 mAh capacity, it was a relatively large and heavy device, which is expected. Astro 2 shrunk it down to 2 outputs and 9000 mAh capacity with a more pocket friendly footprint. Here with single output Astro and 6000 mAh capacity the size was reduced down to an awesome compact size which you can store even inside of a very small purse. But don't let the small size fool you you still get all new 2nd gen design with every bell'n'whistle of Astro 2 and 3. So let's take a closer look.Continuing with their environmentally friendly packaging, battery came inside of a neatly packaged box which contained a battery itself, a manual (always very detailed), and accessory box with usb to micro-usb cable and a mesh draw-string storage bag for a battery and a cable. Now let me tell you about the size of this battery its is SMALL!!! Weighting around 130g and with a size of 90mm by 45mm and thickness of 25mm it will easily fit in a palm of your hand where you can make a fist hiding it inside. That's how compact it is. With a new rounded design and smooth edges, the hard plastic shell is lined with a soft touch rubbery finish. You get one micro-usb battery charging port (1A speed to charge the battery itself) and one full usb smart output port for any Android or Apple device. The output supports a maximum charging speed of up to 2A. In my quick test with OEM usb cable I confirmed a charging speed of 1.5A using my Note 2. The speed will obviously vary depending on the cable you use, so keep that in mind and use usb cables with thicker wires.
Just like with Astro 2 and 3, this 2nd gen device uses a new 10-segment circle LED indicator to show you the charging progress of the battery or the remaining charge on the battery in increments of 10% thus giving you a higher precision reading. Most of the other batteries usually include 4 LEDs to indicate 25% increments, but with Astro you are getting a better precision. There is no power button anywhere around smooth surface of this battery. To start the charging or to check the remaining capacity you just shake it and display LED comes alive. Also, considering actual capacity of any external battery is typically 30% less then advertised value, in case of 2nd gen Astro a more efficient conversion circuit is used which gives close to 80% efficiency, so you can count on about 4700-4800 mAh of charging power. Considering super compact shape of this battery, this is very impressive and perfect as a portable emergency charge you can take with you anywhere.
Overall, the design, the efficiency, the charging speed, and compact size of this battery makes it a very attractive package. It is also very unique and sets it apart from competition. Add to that Anker's 18-month warranty and great support with introductory price of $29.99 on Amazon this is one fantastic value. I highly recommend it!
Honest reviews on Anker® 2nd Gen Astro 6000mAh Portable Charger Rapid-Recharge (2A
The Anker 2nd Gen Astro 6000mAh External Battery is everything I was looking for in an external battery pack. It's small, comes with a one foot micro-USB cord, and a travel bag that holds everything neatly. It also has a nice heft and a smooth rubberized finish that makes it a beauty to hold in your hand.This pack also holds a large charge. I was able to fully charge my Nexus S phone and top off (30%) my Nexus 7 tablet while only using just over a quarter of the battery pack.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Anker® 2nd Gen Astro 6000mAh Portable Charger Rapid-Recharge (2A
The Anker 2nd Gen Astro 6000mAh Portable Power Bank is made perfectly for those who want to bring power on the go. This battery pack has 6000mAh of power inside which means you can charge your iPhone 5 about 2 twice and a little more possibly. The battery pack has 1 USB port that is rated at 2 amps/5 volts. The USB port is labeled "Smart. The other port is the micro USB port. This port is used to charge the actual battery pack. You can charge the battery pack at 1 amp/5 volts. You can use the wall charger that came with your smartphone. I have charged my iPhone 5 with this battery pack and it worked fantastically.
Box Contents:
-Anker 2nd Gen Astro 6000mAh Portable Power Bank
-Short micro USB cable
-Carry case
-Instruction manual
The battery has a matte feel all around and is glossy on the sides where the USB port is. The battery is a dark charcoal black. The edges are round making it feel like you have a good solid grip while holding it. The sides that are glossy are a fingerprint magnet. This battery uses 10 LED ring to tell you how much power is left for use. This is a neat design and is different than the traditional 4 LED power level gauge. I like that.
Overall, this is an easy to use and excellently designed battery pack. Anker has again made an outstanding product. I recommend this battery pack to someone who needs power on the go for a smartphone like an iPhone.
Watch my video review.
I was supplied a sample for test and evaluation, and I promised that my review is fair and honest.
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