The most energizing gadget of 2011 – a review of the New Trent 11000 mAh battery pack

I love gadgets. Gadgets need battery power, and the most cutting-edge gadgets sometimes need a lot of it. As a heavy user of my Samsung Galaxy S II, I’ve often had to recharge my phone in the afternoon, particularly on days where I use it for tracking workouts, listening to music and shooting video.A power outlet isn’t always available, however. Previously, I’ve tried using a Philips 1500 mAh reserve battery unit, outputting 350 milliwatts. I’ve used it  to recharge my Nokia N82 and, later on, a HTC Desire. It worked OK with the N82, but barely delivered enough power to sustain the battery level on the HTC. Also, the total amount of power in practice equated to less than one full charge on the HTC.

I mostly stopped using the Philips device – just not worth it – but I’ve been on the lookout for a replacement. This is it!

The “NEW Trent” battery has a lousy name and isn’t exactly widely marketed, but has a claimed capacity of 11000 mAh (!!), good reviews on Amazon.co.uk and outputs 1000 miliwatts. In practice, I’ve found that it can charge my SGS II about 3 times – ie a real life capacity of somewhere around 1650 * 3 mAh. And it charges fast – about as fast as a wall charger!The Trent itself charges from a wall socket – unfortunately not via a USB interface – and takes about 5-6 hours to reach full capacity. You can see a rough estimate of the current battery level on the main on-button – it has 1-3 LEDs indicating the level. It is not very accurate – one it hits 1 LED left, you’d better recharge the unit.

Operation is easy – plug in a USB cable, press and hold the “on”-button for a second, and power is flowing!

I would have liked to see a more accurate battery level readout and a USB interface for charging the unit itself, but apart from that, I love this big little battery to bits. It’s always with me when I’m out and about, and has enabled me to video/snap photos/surf/whatever innumerable times when the phone battery itself has run dry. And thanks to the USB interface, it can charge plenty of different devices.

It’s worth noting that New Trent has released new models with two USB ports and different power levels (500/1000 mw), so doing some product research here is a good idea. I can vouch for the general concept as well as the brand, that’s for sure.

PS: The phone was out of juice when I needed to take the photo above – thankfully the New Trent was available ;)

Tags: battery, battery pack, New Trent, Review