Like the majority of smartwatches, the Apple Watch‘s battery lasts just a couple of days before recharging. That’s not too bad if you’re near a charger or have yours with you, but it’s annoying if you’re traveling or forgot to top it up the night before. Accessory manufacturer Kanex may have the solution. It’s called the GoPower, and although at its heart it’s a portable battery pack for the Apple Watch, it also has another trick up its sleeve.
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We’ll come back to that in a moment. The GoPower contains a big 4,000mAh cell, which can recharge your Apple Watch around ten times before it’s entirely out of juice. That’s good for the average holiday, and more than enough for a long weekend. Unlike many other Apple Watch travel chargers, such as Sena’s travel case, the Kanex GoPower has the inductive charging disc built in, so there’s no need to mess around with yours or hide the cable inside the casing.
This makes the whole thing very compact. It’s easily held in the palm of your hand, and isn’t too heavy. If there’s a complaint, then it’s the styling. It’s like Kanex willfully made it dull. The Apple Watch is damn fine looking, and deserves an attractive plinth of which to sit. The Kanex GoPower, sadly, doesn’t have the looks to match the convenience. However, the shape has been properly thought out, and the curved sides make it easy to wrap your Watch strap around, keeping it securely in place while charging. It’s compact enough to slip into a bag, but not quite small enough for a pocket.
Carrying around a charging pack just for the Watch may seem a little over-the-top, and Kanex realizes that, so the company added a USB socket that your Lighting cable can plug into, ready to be charged up. The GoPower’s clever enough to spread its charge across both the phone and the watch at the same time. Used only to charge your phone, the GoPower’s good for one-and-a-bit iPhone 6S charges. Mix n’ match and you’ll get a single charge for the iPhone, and a couple of Apple Watch charges. The flexibility makes it very attractive, even if it looks terribly pedestrian.
Kanex told Digital Trends that the battery inside requires a two-hour charge up, and that the GoPower will be on sale around summer time for $100. It’s one of the neatest solutions to the problem of carrying around multiple charging cables and packs for the iPhone and Apple Watch combo we’ve seen yet.
Highs:
- Charges both the Apple Watch and iPhone
- Conveniently sized
- Ideal for weekends away
Lows:
- Not very pretty
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