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| MiPow Power bank |
Worried that your power bank
could be a fire hazard? MiPow's Power Tube 3000 syncs with the
JuiceSync iOS app for monitoring temperature and remaining capacity. But
how does it fare as an iPhone power bank? We find out in our MiPow Power Tube 3000 review. Also see: Best power banks 2015.
We received our MiPow Power Tube from GearBest. It is also available in the UK via Amazon,
but it's much cheaper over at GearBest - £34 vs £44.99. If you do
decide to go with the cheaper option, read up on our advice on buying grey-market tech.
Well, we really thought we'd seen it all with power banks.
But the MiPow Power Tube 3000 has something entirely new: built-in
Bluetooth. This enables it to pair with MiPow's free JuiceSync app on
your iPad
or iPhone and allow you to monitor the remaining battery capacity and
power bank's temperature. You can also set an 'Away Alert', which will
warn you if you accidentally leave behind the power bank. Also see: How to improve smartphone battery life.
The ability to monitor the power bank's temperature will
be a nice touch for those concerned by power-bank safety in the wake of
claims that certain EE Power Bar models can be a fire hazard.
By default the alert is set to trigger at 55ºC; when we
first plugged in the MiPow to our iPad it recorded 25ºC and within a few
minutes rose to 29ºC. The hottest it became during our testing when
discharging was 42ºC.
With a 3000mAh capacity, of which you'll likely see not
much more than 2000mAh (some is lost through heat generated and voltage
conversion), you can expect one full charge for your iPhone or iPod and
potentially a little bit more, depending on your model and its battery
capacity.
As with many power banks the MiPow uses a three-LED system
to show you how much power remains. Through the companion app you can
see the exact battery percentage, but to be fair you're only ever going
to get one full charge out of this power bank, so how handy this will
prove to be is debatable. You can set the app to warn you when the
remaining capacity gets down to 30-, 20- or 10 percent remaining.
At
this pocketable size and with only a 5W output the MiPow isn't really
designed for iPad, certified by Apple as 'Made for iPod' and 'Made for
iPhone'. It did work with our second-generation iPad mini (sometimes
iPads can be fussy with slower outputs), although you shouldn't expect a
full charge. Indeed, in our tests with the screen on so we could
monitor the app our battery capacity went up only a few percent. To
begin charging you simply plug it in and press the power button.
It's not possible to simultaneously charge your iPad or
iPhone and the Power Tube - not only would the design make doing so
difficult, but the lack of passthrough charging makes it impossible.
The MiPow Power Tube is exactly what it sounds like: a
compact tube with a rubberised coating that comes in black, grey, blue
or red. It has an end cap that is tethered to the Power Tube via a
built-in Apple certified Lightning connector.
Also under the cap is a
full-size USB connection, which allows the MiPow to refill its own
battery at 5W, either by plugging it into a USB port on your computer or
directly into a USB wall charger. That's not especially fast, but at
this capacity it's not too much of a problem.
The MiPow Power Tube feels very well made and we wouldn't
worry too much about slinging it in a bag (or it's small enough to go in
a pocket). But MiPow does supply a soft carry case in the box.
Note that if your device does not have a Lightning
connection the MiPow Power Tube is not for you - there is no way to
connect your own cable to charge an Android device or an older iPad or
iPhone.
