Duracell 5-hour Portable Charger

October 2011

Price: £40
Contact: www.duracell.co.uk

Top up your car gadgets when away from a power source with the Duracell 5-hour Portable Charger. The emergency device slips in your pocket, once you’ve detached the three-pin plug.

We left the Portable Charger plugged into a mains socket overnight, before putting it to the test on an Apple iPhone 4 with a flat battery. The Duracell gave 90 minutes’ charging, before the illuminated icon showed there was no juice left. It took our iPhone to 77 per cent battery capacity – that’s enough for the five hours of talk time the new charger’s name refers to.

After we’d recharged it, we plugged in an iPad and a sat-nav at the same time. The Duracell gave less than an hour’s worth of charging this time, providing only a minor top-up of our gadgets, rather than a real boost.

The price is our biggest bugbear – as the device has a 1,800mAh battery, £40 is a lot to pay. But it’s useful when you need to top up a USB device and 12V or mains power aren’t options.