Mophie Powerstation Keychain Portable Battery REVIEW

Since smartphones play such an active role in our lives these days, it’s important to have a power solution nearby to make sure you always have your mobile phone at the ready. It’s been a long time since I’ve carried a power bank with me everywhere, but I found that the Mophie Powerstation keychain is the ideal option for a little emergency boost when you are running low on power.

DETAILS

The Powerstation Keychain is a miniature power bank that connects to your keychain, belt loop, or bag with a carabiner. It’s a 1200mAh battery that can give your mobile device hours of power in an emergency situation. This power bank is designed for USB-C devices and has a built-in USB-C cable. The cable is hidden beneath the keychain attachment, which saves space on the device. The charger has priority+ charging to provide power to a connected device before the Powerstation recharges itself when it’s connected to a power source. There is a four-light LED indicator that shows how much life is left on the Powerstation. The power bank is available in one color (black) and retails for $39.95 (MSRP).

SPECS

• BATTERY CAPACITY: 1200mAh
• COMPATIBILITY: Palm, Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel, & other USB-C devices
• DIMENSIONS: 3.15 x 1.5 x 0.6in (80 x 39 x 15mm)
• WEIGHT: 2.1oz (60g)
• WARRANTY: 2-year Warranty
• IN THE BOX: powerstation keychain / carabiner / quick start guide

USER EXPERIENCE

The Mophie Powerstation Keychain comes in simple packaging with Mophie branding and an image of the product on the front. It’s noted on the front that there are 4 hours of battery included in the battery and that it’s a USB-C connector. The 4 hours of battery time is estimated for the Samsung Galaxy S9 (3 hours for the Google Pixel 3, 8 hours for the Palm). While I love that it is utilizing USB-C as its main charging method, I do wish that maybe it came with adapters for Lightning charging devices, too. I just think that would make it more versatile for those who use multiple devices.

During my testing of the Powerstation Keychain, I attempted to charge my iPhone XS Max, 2018 11” iPad Pro, Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless headphones, and a Sony Xperia 10. Each of these devices yielded different results. The iPhone XS Max is compatible with wireless charging or Lightning cables and docks. I did, however, have a USB-C to Lightning cable available so I thought I would attempt to charge the iPhone using the USB-C port located near the eject button. I found that the port is not a two-way power delivery port and can only be used for recharging. So, the USB-C to Lightning cable did not work to charge my iPhone.

Next, I tried to use the Powerstation Keychain to charge the iPad Pro. Because the power output on the Powerstation is listed as 5V/1A on the back of the battery, I didn’t think it would be able to charge the iPad, but since the iPad utilizes USB-C for charging, I thought I would see what would happen if I plugged it into the Powerstation. The battery icon in the menu bar ended up flashing. It would appear to start charging but then blink off of the lightning bolt icon that typically indicates charging. So, I unplugged it rather quickly. Since most tablets require at least 2A in order to charge, this is the response I actually expected to get. To be fair, there are no tablet models listed in the compatibility list from Mophie for the device and the power output listed on the battery doesn’t indicate that it should work.

After attempting to charge the iPad, I moved on to the charging case of the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless headphones. This charging case uses USB-C and only requires 600mAh to have a full charge. I plugged them into the Powerstation and there was no problem getting the case charged up to full. Since my primary phone is an iPhone, I feel like this is the perfect use of the Powerstation for me — recharging my earbuds.

Finally, I plugged the Sony Xperia 10 into the Powerstation. This is a smartphone that is designed to charge using USB-C. There was a small ding that told me that the phone was charging and so I left it to charge. When I plugged the phone in, it was showing 1% battery and the Powerstation was showing 4 LEDs , which meant it was between 75–100% capacity. I did charge the phone after I charged the headphone case so I could assume that approximately 25% of the battery was used up before I plugged in the phone.

I checked the status of the phone and power bank after about 10 minutes and the phone had gained 10% battery while the power bank was now showing only three LEDs lit. I noticed at this point that the power bank was a bit warm, but not hot. After about 10 more minutes, I checked the status again and found that the phone was at 25% and so was the power bank. After a total of 45 minutes, the phone had gained 27% and the power bank was completely depleted. The Sony Xperia 10 has 2870mAh as battery capacity. That’s nearly 2.5 times larger than the Powerstation’s capacity. Given those specs, I actually would expect to get approximately 41% battery life from a fully charged Powerstation Keychain. Since the Powerstation had been used previously, I think gaining 27% battery power was the proper amount for what was available from the power bank.

CONCLUSION

I really enjoy having a solid, reliable emergency power bank to carry with me everywhere. I do want to stress that this particular power bank is designed to be strictly for emergency use only. It’s not meant to be able to recharge a smartphone 100% so if you need that, you should get a higher capacity portable battery. I really love the size of this power bank and how easy it is to carry around. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good emergency battery.

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Originally published at macsources.com on March 28, 2019.