HALO Pocket Power StarLight 3000

These are getting better. Beware: Electricity flows both ways. Update: It has now died.

For once I got something useful at the office Christmas gift exchange! Of course I am on the naughty list so anything I get is a blessing. At first I thought I had gotten a stick of lipstick but then I realized that it's actually something useful, so I was overjoyed. 

What comes with the kit: the lipstick-looking thingy is the charger ;)

In action

The charger couldn't be simpler to use: plug it into something to charge the Pocket Power 3000. This is easy since it has a USB and 110v plug adapter included. Then attach the appropriate adapter and plug your gadget in and walk away, or put it in a pocket.

S-O-S or just steady on. Be Careful! It came on accidentally more than once in my pocket. A piece of tape might fix this.

The charger has a flashlight that also flashes S-O-S because everyone is always needing that right? Maybe not, but another flashlight is always handy. There is a charge indicator that tells you semi-accurately how much is left in the thing before you plug it in.

USB Port

The big flaw of this is that power flows into and out of this charger with equal ease so, if you leave it plugged into a device it is likely that, once it nears empty it will use that line to charge itself until the charge in the device and the charger reach equilibrium.

In a perfect world there would be a "check valve" to keep power flowing one direction but, oh well, the price was right. It easily charged an iPod Nano and gave me a 85% charge on my Samsung Galaxy in about an hour. This about doubled my phone battery time so I will be bringing this on future trips in case I need an electronic device (Phone/GPS) and I run low on juice.

2/6/14 Update: It no longer works.  It refuses to take or give a charge. I called their customer service to no avail. I guess I am stuck.

Used about eight times. Works fast. Completely charges my Samsung Galaxy in two hours. No problems so far.

I received this as a Christmas gift. I often forget to charge my phone before leaving home so this is very handy for me. I have used it at least eight times with great results each time. So far, so good.

The only thing I don't like is that the charge light stays on for awhile after you unplug it and that seems like a waste of power.

I have two of these and one does not charge. The other charged my device for about five minutes and then was dead! GARBAGE!

I tried to use it once. Only held charge for 24 hours and could not charge another device. The other must have a bad connection as I could not get it to charge.

Product defective. Replacement defective. Further contact ignored by company.

Product arrived DOA so I emailed support and received a return authorization which I filled out and returned with the defective product at my expense. I received a replacement which was also DOA but with a different failure mode. Subsequent efforts to contact the company were ignored.

So, I paid for the product and paid to return the defective product and was then ignored when I asked for another replacement.

The three I have owned all stopped working. There must be a design flaw in these. One of the three was a replacement for the first one that stopped working. Junk.

Junk.

I used it one time. It would not recharge.