In advance of this weekend’s Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, Otterbox has announced its new Folding Wireless Power Bank intended for mobile gamers and travelers. In addition to providing up to 25 hours of extra battery life, as tested on a 3,000 milliamp-hour (mAh) smartphone, the pocket-sized albeit pricey Power Bank ($60) features an adjustable stand with an antislip surface and a friction hinge, and also doubles as a battery pack and a manipulable mount for your phone.
The Power Bank has been tested with an iPhone 12 to provide fast charging with a cable in as little as 30 minutes. It also works with Otterbox-branded phone cases, comes with a USB-A to USB-C cable, and outputs power using Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0/3.0. Its wireless charging is done via 10-watt Qi, the bank itself charges at 18W, and its dual coils allow you to charge in either landscape or portrait orientations.
While the Power Bank has plenty of potential uses for watching livestreams or making video calls on the go, Otterbox has explicitly pitched it to mobile gamers in its marketing copy as a way to stay in-game without burning through your battery in a couple of short hours. With mobile games starting to crack into the U.S. livestreaming scene in a bigger way, particularly on Facebook Gaming, it’s hard not to see a lot about the Power Bank (and a couple of other Otterbox products) as being directly aimed toward broadcasters and content creators. Furnishing streamers with the tools to quickly set up a broadcast on the road is a low-key cottage industry, or it was before the pandemic, and Otterbox looks like it’s trying to catch that wave.
Otterbox, headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado, was founded in 1998. It specializes in a variety of mobil phone accessories, including chargers, cables, controller mounts, and screen protectors. This year saw it expand into offering controller shells and battery packs for Xbox Series X|S and One consoles, which isn’t as much of a departure as one would think considering the recent debut of Xbox Cloud Gaming for mobile.
Attendees of this year’s PAX West show, which is open at limited capacity for physical attendees at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle, can stop by Otterbox’s booth to see the new Power Bank for themselves.
Other products that Otterbox plans to display at PAX include an antimicrobial Easy Grip case for the iPhone 11/12/12 Pro, a combined carrying case/screen stand for mobile gaming with a controller, and a privacy guard screen protector for iPhone.
