External Battery 5200mAh Candy bar-Sized Ultra Compact

External Battery 5200mAh Candy bar-Sized Ultra Compact

External Battery 5200mAh Candy bar-Sized Ultra Compact

Anker Astro E1 5200mAh Candy bar-Sized Ultra Compact Portable Charger (External Battery Power Bank) with High-Speed Charging PowerIQ Technology (Black)

External Battery 5200mAh Candy bar-Sized Ultra Compact

• The Anker Advantage: Join the 20 million+ powered by our leading technology.
• Exclusive PowerIQ Technology: Detects your device to deliver its fastest possible charge speed up to 2 amps (four times faster than a computer USB port). Does not support Qualcomm Quick Charge
• High Capacity: Add almost two full charges to an iPhone 7 or 6s or at least one full charge to a 7 Plus, Galaxy S7, Nexus 5 or other smartphone. Or almost a 70% charge to an iPad mini 3.
• Incredibly Compact: The size of a small candy bar (3.8 × 1.7 × 0.9in, 4.2oz) it fits perfectly in your pocket. Recharges in 5 hours with a 1A adapter (not included) and the included Micro USB cable.
• What You Get: Anker Astro E1 Portable Charger ​External Battery Power Bank, Micro USB Cable, travel pouch, welcome guide, our fan-favorite 18-month warranty and friendly customer service. Lightning cable for iPhone / iPad sold separately.

External Battery 5200mAh Candy bar-Sized Ultra Compact

Hi,

This is my review of the Anker Astro E1 5200mAh External Battery. I have evaluated it for a few days to provide my personal review and user experience. For my test, I have used an iPhone 5s and iPad Air.

First Impressions:

This product arrived in a plastic cover wrap that protected the exterior boxing and cover which I appreciated.

Upon first look, there’s the top side which shows the Astro E1 picture. The front side provides a customer service phone number and e-mail to contact Anker if product support or returns are needed. The backside has the serial number for the product. The bottom side has the IQ technology brief summary to learn more about it.

In order to view the Welcome Guide, you have to tear to open the front side to reveal it on the opposite side of the cover. I didn’t personally like this idea because once you tear part of the cover up, it sort of dangles around in which makes it hard to put away. It would’ve been better to have the traditional method of including a small pocket sized Welcome Guide inside the box.

Inside contains the following information:

- 4 LED dots lit on the Astro E1 represent 100% charged capacity, 2 dots is 50% charged capacity, and 1 dot is 25% charged capacity.

- Anker provides a 30 day money back policy and 18 month warranty, which is something that I’m happy about. Most competitive electronic companies these days offer 18 month warranty, so I am glad to see Anker provides that as well. That gives ample time to evaluate the Astro E1 through many recharging cycles to evaluate for defects.

The cardboard construction of the box is sturdy and useful for shipment and travel purposes. First thing I notice when opening up the box is the Astro E1 in a plastic sleeve. The Astro E1, to my surprise, very small. Nearly smaller than any other External Battery that I have ever evaluated to this date in time.

Putting that aside is another layer of cardboard enclosure which has a marketing material advertisement on the Power IQ technology. Power IQ technology allows devices plugged into the External Battery to have the fastest charge possible and will automatically adjust to different input current sources.

Underneath that is the Micro USB cable to charge the Astro E1 that measures about 26 inches across, which is just above 2 feet.

The Astro E1 is small. I measured with my measuring tape roughly 4 x 2 x 0.75 in based on rounding. This is great for portability and fitting into even a pocket in your pants. I have taken some pictures to compare this with a cellular flip phone, iPhone 5s, and my hand attached to this review.

Upon first powering up the Astro E1, I found the charge capacity was at 3 LED lights, which is 75%. I didn’t want to charge it to 100% yet because a rule of thumb is to only charge the External Batteries when 25% or lower for greater lifespan.

Usage: External Battery 5200mAh Candy bar-Sized Ultra Compact
For my first test, I charged an iPhone 5s that was completely drained of its battery at near 0% to charge with the out of the box Astro E1. Using my lightning cable, I plugged it into the USB port on the Astro E1 labeled IQ and the other end to my iPhone 5s and tested.

Once connected, without even pressing any other buttons, I saw the Astro E1 start to light up the 4 LED lights back and forth until finally settling on the 3 LED lights that indicates its current charge capacity.

The following is observations based on using my Battery Doctor App in the iPhone 5s.

Charge start time: 5:28pm, Astro E1 at 3 LEDs

Checkpoint: 6:27pm, iPhone 5s charging at 59%, Astro E1 at 2 LEDs

Checkpoint: 7:29pm, iPhone 5s charging at 99%, Astro E1 at 2 LEDs

Checkpoint : 8:22pm, iPhone 5s charged 100%, Astro E1 at 2 LEDs

Conclusion: Astro E1 charged iPhone 5s from 0% to 100% from out of the box at 3 LED indicators in about 2 hours and 54 minutes with room to spare for another full iPhone 5s charge.

For my second test, I recharged my iPhone 5s for a second time around when it was at 22% battery life with the remaining charge in the Astro E1 from a few days ago.

Charge start time: 10:11am, Astro E1 at 2 LEDs

Checkpoint: 10:53am, iPhone 5s charged up to 65%, Astro E1 fully depleted with no LEDs displayed

Conclusion #1: It took about 42 minutes to charge up 43% of my iPhone 5s on a quick charge using Battery Doctor App for iOS.

Conclusion #2: With the Astro E1 at 3 LEDs to start, which indicate 75%, I was able to charge one and a half times my iPhone 5s before it fully depleted.

For my third test, I evaluated how long it would take to charge a fully depleted Astro E1 to fully charged. Since the input is 1A, I found that my laptop, which is running throughout the day, would be sufficient to charge this device using one of the available USB 3.0 ports on my PC.

Charge start time: 11:05am, Astro E1 at 1 LED blinking

Checkpoint: 12:13pm, Astro E1 at 2nd LED blinking

Checkpoint: 1:20pm, Astro E1 at 3rd LED blinking

Checkpoint: 3:17pm, Astro E1 at 4th LED blinking

Checkpoint: 7:04pm, Astro E1 turned off, fully charged

External Battery 5200mAh Candy bar-Sized Ultra Compact

Conclusion: Although I had to step out after 3:17pm away from the device while charging, I can estimate that it takes between 4-5 hours to fully charge the Astro E1.

For my fourth and final test, I went ahead and checked to see how much of a boost that the Astro E1 gives when fully charged to increase battery life on my iPad Air tablet.

The following are observations based on using my Battery Doctor App in the iPad Air tablet.

Charge start time: iPad battery 17% at 7:05pm, Astro E1 4 LEDs

Checkpoint: 8:11pm, iPad battery 48% charge, Astro E1 1 LED blinking

Checkpoint: 8:26pm, iPad battery 51% charge, Astro E1 fully depleted

Conclusion: iPad Air gets a 34% battery life increase from a fully charged Astro E1 in 1 hour and 21 minutes

In Summary:

Pros:

1) Small portable size with smooth finish to allow easy access for travel needs
2) Charges smartphones at least two full times
3) Power IQ Technology allows save charging for different specs of USB powered devices
4) Simple LED display to indicate a range in battery life remaining

Cons:

1) 4 LED indicators may sometimes be inaccurate when fully depleted or gradually progressively charging towards full based on my tests

Suggestions:

1) Use a digital display screen to indicate actual charge remaining before depleted or fully charged in the Astro E1 rather than use 4 LED dot indicators to specify 25% intervals of ranges

2) Use a small alarm sound built into the device to indicate when device is fully charged, fully depleted, or when device being charged with the Astro E1 has charged completely to 100% and can be removed or disconnected from the Astro E1.

User Scenarios:

1) This product works great for people who go outside of the house and don’t want to carry anything excessive around as the Astro E1 can fit into your pocket of any type of pants or shorts fairly easily.

2) It works well to put away in the glove compartment of a car for emergency reasons.

3) This works will for those who are stationary at some table for a while for instance, those who are dining or eating out, to have this thing charge on the table your smartphone or tablet while you’re using it.

Overall, I enjoyed evaluating this product. The small size and shape of the Astro E1 will fit in well in the long run for better accessibility and handling.

I was provided a sample to evaluate to provide personal feedback of the user experience to help prospective buyers as well as product management teams to continue learning how to improve the product.

Thanks for reading my review.

External Battery 5200mAh Candy bar-Sized Ultra Compact