Specification
• Battery designed for the outdoor enthusiasts
• Built in bright 3-stage LED flashlight
• 2 port charging: 1A and 2.5A output for faster charging
• Integrated USB cable, just plug and go
• Built in protection: Safeguard from over charge, under discharge, over current, over temperature, short circuit
• Ideal for tablets, phone, camera, and other USB powered devices
• Two year limited warranty
The Patriot FUEL Active has been packed in a box with transparent “window” so you can see what the product looks like. It is quite a looking good package for retail stores.
On the package we can also see pictures that suggest to us that this is a product for active people. We can take it with us on a bike trip or into the woods; simply anywhere where we would need spare power for our mobile devices.
On the back of the package we find some additional descriptions of the specifications and features. There is also contact information for Patriot Memory.
In the box we can find the power bank, an owner’s manual and a USB to micro USB cable.
On one side there is a flash light which can be really helpful in some situations. It is really bright and has 3 levels of glow. We can activate it using one of the buttons.
Below we can see two USB connectors. One is the standard USB size and is marked as 2.5V Out and is used to charge mobile devices. The other one is a micro USB 5V In and is used to charge integrated battery.
There is also third option which is a built-in micro USB cable marked as Out 1A which will be best for mobile phones.
Below is one photo with the USB to micro USB cable plugged in. 1 cable , power button and all is working, simple as that.
Performance
I have been testing Patriot FUEL on my not really new, Nokia 610 cell phone and a quite new Toshiba Encore WT8-A-102 8″ tablet based on quad core Atom CPU.
The tested values on charging/output ports are nearly perfect and 5V voltage was between 4.97-5.03V each time I was measuring it:
USB1: 5V / 2.5A
USB2: 5V / 1A
We can charge two devices at once but tests were made on a single device.
This test was performed three times to check consistency of the results.
Test 1 – charging cell phone
A full battery was enough to charge my phone about 4 times.
- First pass: 1 hour 24 minutes
- Second pass: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Third pass: 1 hour 40 minutes
In average we need about 1 hour and 30 minutes to recharge a cell phone. We can still use the phone while recharging the battery.
Test 2 – charging tablet
Full battery was enough to charge 50% of Toshiba tablet which should provide additional 4-5 hours of work. For a tablet I’ve used 2.5A output.
- First pass: 1 hour 48 minutes
- Second pass: 1 hour 56 minutes
- Third pass: 1 hour 52 minutes
We have an average of about 1.5 hours what is not bad result considering about the same time it would take if we used manufacturers charged designed for this tablet.
Test 3 – recharging FUEL Active battery
To use Patriot FUEL Active, we have to charge it first so here are the results of charging the battery itself.
- Standard USB port ( desktop/laptop ) : 5 hours, 28 minutes
- USB port designed for charging mobile devices : 4 hours, 12 minutes
- USB charger 5V/2A : 4 hours 32 minutes
As we see recharging the FUEL Active battery takes some time; so it is best to leave it charging overnight. Many new motherboards already have option to charge mobile devices using USB ports even if computer is turned off. We can use that or USB charger which is already standard for cell phones or tablets so probably anyone has one of these.
Charging could be faster in general, but it is hard to make it much quicker with a high capacity battery. 6000mAh is more than the average power bank can offer and at least if we use it as a backup for cell phone battery then we do not have to charge it so often. With tablets, it will be harder but even then it is good to carry the FUEL Active as it can “save your life” in the most unexpected moment.
