Portable battery banks are awesome when you’re on the road and need to juice up your smartphone or tablet, but they take too long to recharge. Good news! The new iTron portable power bank from Simpiz will recharge itself faster than it takes to watch a sitcom.
Launched recently as an Indiegogo campaign, the iTron portable charger boasts a 9,000mAh battery, which isn’t the biggest one available today. However, bigger isn’t always better. When it comes to recharging, you want speed and the iTron has it.
Typical 9,000mAh batteries take about nine hours to charge from zero to 100 percent, but the iTron can fully recharge in only 18 minutes. This means that you can get enough power to charge an iPhone 5 (1500mAh) in about three minutes, an iPhone 6S (2500mAh) in five minutes, or an iPad Air 2 (7500mAh) in only 15 minutes.
This kind of speed is achieved with DUBI 1.0 technology, which utilizes 100 watts of output power to charge fast and steady without overheating. This is done by optimizing four channels of electricity flow so the load on each battery cell is no more than it would be with traditional chargers. Simpiz says the battery cells found in the iTron are similar to what you will find on a Tesla automobile.
The package consists of the actual battery bank and a docking station. The battery bank has one USB port that’s compatible with Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0. You can use this port whether your device is Quick Charge compatible or not, but it will obviously charge faster if it is. The docking station is used to recharge the battery bank, but it also includes one Quick Charge 2.0 and two 5V/2A USB ports so that you can charge multiple devices at the same time while your recharging the portable battery bank.
The Indiegogo campaign has already achieved $105,000, which is well above the $30,000 goal. The super early bird price of $60 (40 percent discount) is already sold out, but you can opt for the early bird package which costs $80 (20 percent discount). Or you can also grab two iTron’s for $150 (24 percent discount). There’s even a referral program, which gives you the chance to earn a free iTron if eight of your friends buy one. Simpiz expects to ship the iTron by May.
