Review: eFreesia Bar – Portable Smartphone Charger

Everyone reading this probably has owned, used or at least ogled over a battery pack at some point in time. Us here at Gadgetsteria can only survive with at least one or two in our arsenal. We can probably go an entire day without one, but that’s usually impossible. And when we are out and about covering a convention, we utilize at least 3-4 packs a day. They come in all shapes and sizes, different features and different battery sizes, so when lugging them around, the biggest battery in the smallest package will win every time, hands down. So when I received the email asking if I wanted to test out one of eFreesia’s battery solutions, I was stoked when I saw the compact design. We put the review unit through the ringer, including a weekend at the Emerald City Comic Con, and we now have some results and thoughts on eFreesia Bar – Portable Smartphone Charger.

Design

eFreesia has done a great job at stuffing a decent sized battery into such a cute little body. When we first pulled it out of the box we immediately loved what we saw. If you follow me on Twitter you would have seen that picture Tweeted. Not much to the design, just a small and extremely portable design. Over the weekend as I trekked through the Washing State Convention Center, I could barely tell this little thing was in my pocket. It’s plastic lightweight build makes for easy portability. At first touch, the plastic build did give me the illusion of a cheap product but after abusing this thing for a couple weeks, that is only an illusion, this charger is very well built.

On the front of the charger you see the power button and 4 small LED lights that indicate the life of the battery. If you hold the power butting in for a couple seconds you’ll have a LED flash light come on at the top of the unit. This comes in very handy drunkenly stumbling around a hotel room, trust me. On the side is the USB in charging port, and on the top next to the flash light is the USB out port and that pretty much does it for the build and design of the charger. Let me mention that the out port being on top is great for keeling this charger in your pocket while in use.

Performance

Yes, design matters to an extent when it comes to a charger for all of your devices, but the main attraction is the battery life. How many charges can you get from the charger before it and all of the things begin to die. The eFreesia Bar is rocking a 4400mAh that really packs quite the punch. With all the tweaks and Push apps I have slamming my iPhone 5, it’s really hard for me to keep a charge past a few hours. I’ve come to accept it over the years, so the hunt for a compact charger have always been in the back of my mind. So over the past couple of weeks I’ve fully charged the Bar up and put it in my back for the time when I my iPhone couldn’t forge on and fight the good social fight I out it in daily.

First use was started when my iPhone dropped to 18%, it charged up fairly quickly to 100%. Only a 1.5 hours granted me the 100% indicator. So I pummeled on slamming the mobile interwebs as much as I could until my iPhone once again dropped under 20%. This time I got down to 12%, went ahead and plugged it in again until it shut off from no more charge. It got my iPhone up to 80% on this second pass. I didn’t find this to be satisfactory so I let the Bar charge once again overnight and started the abuse to my iPhone once again. These results were much more satisfactory. I plugged it in at that 10% – 20% mark and was able to reach 100% three times before I plugged my phone in for the night. The Bar stilled indicated 2 of 4 charge left.

I didn’t have enough time in my day to attempt more than this until my recent time at the Comic Con. I was plugging in at the 20% mark and was able to achieve three 100% charges and the fourth gave me 89%. I got these results 3 times over this past weekend with that fourth giving 89%, 73% and finally a 91%.

Conclusion

You can find mobile battery chargers on every corner of the Internet. It isn’t difficult to do, but finding one that gives the portability you want with the performance you need is something that takes more time. eFreesia really did a nice job with the Bar. Currently only $29.99 on their site, available in both black and white, I highly recommend grabbing at least one now.

It consistently gave me enough charges that with light use I could go for days with one full charged Bar. It’s elegant design is perfect for active mobile use and performs each time you turn it on. Plus, you get a built-in flashlight!!!

Head on over to the eFreesia website to grab your Bar now! I also recommend checking out the eFreesia Mini. Half the battery but in a much cuter and more compact design. I really want to give that one a shot!

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