Guest review: Carl Moffat and Daniel Norris
Carl Moffat
Until now, I have been one of those annoying people who says “Hi all, is there somewhere to plug in my charger?” as soon as I’ve walked through the door of one of my friends homes. Being without my ‘phone is like losing a limb… It happened without warning, I have fully embraced it and I’m not even embarrassed about it anymore.
Anyway, enough about my bad habits, I have something now that has curbed that annoying side, whilst allowing me to continue with my ‘phone use as usual: The Canyon range of portable chargers. I took the Canyon 7800mAh for a test, to see if it stopped my FOBO jitters!
The Canyon battery charger 7800mAh
Upon opening the well designed and informative packaging you get to your Power Bank, a USB cable and an information booklet. The charger boasts an ergonomic design which fits nicely in the palm of your hand; it’s smaller than most phones these days however it is probably about twice as thick. Don’t let this put you off though, as it easily fits into your pocket or handbag (I haven’t tested the handbag theory however most bags are bigger than my pockets. What’s actually IN there?!) Dimensions: 100 x 62.6 x 23.3mm. Net weight: 180g
Out of the box it has 75% charge. You know this by the four LED indicators on the front of the unit, with the lights illuminating according to the charge level:-
1 LED on 25%
2 LED on 50%
3 LED on 75%
4 LED on (you guessed it) 100%
It has a fifth LED on the top for the torch feature which you switch on by pressing the ‘on’ button on the side (I didn’t even have to read the instructions – it’s not rocket science!)
Charging to 100% took about 20 minutes. I plugged the USB into the ‘in’ port and then into a USB plug (not supplied). There are three ports on the top: the ‘in’ as already mentioned and two USB ‘out’ ports. The two ‘out’ ports are DC 5V 1A/2A and the ‘in’ is DC 5V 1.
At this point of the day my ‘phone had slumped to 61%. It has a 3200mAh capacity and I have everything turned on! Time to see what the Power Pack can do… To my surprise in around 30 minutes, there it was – my ‘phone battery back to full capacity. I turned the Canyon off and went on with my day.
That evening, I charged my partner’s phone and my phone simultaneously back to 100%. Mine was on 21%, hers was on 46%. The LED’s showed at least 25% left. I like the peace of mind this gives you, knowing that there is always standby charge available .
2 days later, I still haven’t recharged my phone or the power bank so it is definitely doing its job.
I might treat the Canyon to a little drink of juice tonight and let it have a rest.
One happy customer (although I have waxed lyrical about this great product to my partner & parents and suspect I am going to end up out of pocket!)
Dan Norris
The Canyon Battery Charger 4400mAh.
As a keen cyclist I like to keep track of my cycle routes on my ‘phone. There are many apps that allow me to do it (some better than others but that’s another post) but they all drain the battery on my ‘phone so to combat this I purchased the Canyon battery charger 4400mAh. I selected this over the larger 7800mAh capacity for one reason only: size. My ‘phone has a 2600mAh battery so I hoped that the smaller and lighter 4400mAh capacity battery charger would be able to either charge my ‘phone after a cycle ride or keep the battery topped up as I cycled.
After two weeks of use I can say that it can recharge my ‘phone fully, twice, but I tend to use it to keep the battery at 100% – I have yet to undertake a ride so epic that I arrive with anything other than a full battery!
The only slight downside to this all-round great battery charger is that it only has a 1A output so it is a slow and steady charge (perfect for me), so if you’re looking for a quicker charger I would recommend the higher capacity 7800mAh 2A battery charger; other than that it has the same capabilities, functionality and ease of use of its big brother and comes recommended by me.
If we take away just one thing from today that our tech gurus and professional evaders of FOBO have told us… is if you’re after a power bank charger, this Canyon is certainly a strong contender.
Happy charging!
