Cheap Verbatim AA Power Bank Charger 97928

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List Price: $28.00
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I bought the AA battery powered version of this charger after having had to rely on the generosity of a neighbor with a generator to keep my phone charged during the 4 days I was without power after hurricane Sandy. I had a single AA-powered charger that I had picked up as an impulse purchase at TJ Maxx that was pretty much totally useless, but I liked the idea of a battery-powered charger and figured that capacity (number of batteries) was the real issue.

The tricky part of using this device is getting the battery cover back on after you install the batteries. Other reviewers have already mentioned that it's very difficult to determine the correct battery orientation the markings inside the battery compartment are virtually unreadable under any lighting conditions due to reflections from the glossy black plastic case. But what is worse is trying to slide the cover back on, getting it set correctly in its grooves, while keeping the batteries compressed down on their spring connections. It took me so many tries that I almost gave up on ever being able to try out the charging capability the cover either just slid off, or went on crooked, or didn't snap into place completely. I was afraid I was going to break it before I would ever get it put back on correctly.

The picky part is that the unit seems to only work with the newest, freshest batteries you can possibly find. I put in a set of Duracell alkalines that were guaranteed fresh until 2017 and only got a 5% test recharge out of them before the unit's LED turned red indicating that the battery charges were too low to be used then the LED refused to light at all implying that the batteries were drained. However, all of them subsequently tested fine on a battery charge tester and worked fine in a flashlight. I tried another set with the same 2017 date and this time the LED lit up blue, indicating that they were good, but as soon as I plugged in my phone to charge, the LED changed immediately to red and shortly thereafter turned off and charging stopped. However, the batteries again tested fine and worked fine in a flashlight. I finally tried a set of batteries with a fresh through 2022 date and they actually worked I was able to charge my HTCThunderbolt from 46% to 97% over the course of an hour or so (sorry I didn't pay attention to the time). After that, the charger indicated that the batteries were drained but once again, they tested just fine with a battery tester and worked fine in a flashlight.

Bottom line, this charger does actually work and will re-charge a phone, but only if you have super fresh AA batteries to put into it and even then it won't drain them completely, so they'll be usable for other purposes afterwards, but just not to keep charging your phone like you'd want or expect.

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It's what you'd expect. It takes your choice of 4 AA batteries (rechargeable/not included of course) and has a female USB jack to charge your stuff. Has a nice on/off switch that glows blue when on. The + battery labeling could be better but whatever, you'll figure it out. Works great with my iphone 4 when I'm camping without mains for a few days. I'd give it 5 stars if were $9.99 but it's not so, 4 stars.

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So, I thought it would be nice to have something like this. i.e., a device that takes 2 or 4 high capacity AA batteries, and, with the help of a simple circuit board to boost and regulate the voltage, to provide a nice charging current for my smart phone. I noticed there were three price points for this type of device: There's one that's only like $3 or $4, then there's one that's around $10-$12 that I saw on another site, then there's this one by well-respected Verbatim on the top end. It was clear from reviews that the cheap one needed some slight mods to be useful, and the mid priced one seemed to have some reviews saying it was "cheaply constructed". So, I said, WTH, I'll just buy the "good" one.

My thinking on buying a device like this: I play a lot of long poker tournaments, and it's just not really possible to get a charge in on the phone in the middle of the Venetian or other casinos. It would be helpful if I had a backup to charge my phone.

I think if I could do it over, I'd buy the one that costs about half as much as the Verbatim one. The device is all plastic, I sort of expected maybe I would have something a little more sturdy if I got the Verbatim one, but I didn't. It does have a pretty pimp blue and red LED light around the port (indicating a "good" charge remaining, versus a "nearly dead" charge), so maybe I paid an $8 premium for pimp LED.

A lot of people complained that the cheaper devices got hot under load. This one does not--it barely warmed up at all whilst charging. Clearly, the output is steady voltage, even as the batteries discharge, and I popped her up on an oscilloscope under load, and they've clearly made a decent circuit here. I put four 1600 mAh tenergy premium NiMH batteries in here, and I got just about one solid charge on my Samsung Epic. Maybe a little more.

The device is about exactly the shape of a lipstick tube, plus 50% in all dimensions. It comes with a very short (4 inches maybe) microUSB to USB cable, which apparently has the data pins shorted out (this is normal and necessary for high speed charging). I don't know if the device USB jack has the pins shorted, or if the cable did, I didn't check it; if it is the latter, then the cable that comes with this should not be used in a computer USB jack since it will draw more than 500 mA rating.

All in all, I'm happy with it, it does what I expected...I think though that I would have been 90% as happy with the devices out there that cost half as much.

There is an admonition in the instructions that says NOT to use it on an iPad. I am not sure why--maybe you can't get a full charge. But, it will definitely charge your smart phone. The other guy that dropped a 1-star rating on this because of the iPad thing, that's really out of line, since the device otherwise appears well enough constructed, and does its job.

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This charger works with Alkaline and NiMH batteries but is NOT compatible with Energizer Lithium L91's. This is a major bummer as I wanted a charger that I could keep in my car long term for emergencies. Alkalines will leak and NiMH will eventually self discharge over long periods so I thought this would be the perfect solution when loaded with Energizer L91s. Wrong. I think the overall voltage when using 4 Energizer lithiums in series becomes too high and triggers some sort of protection cutoff. I tried with both the Energizer 9x and 4x lithiums and they both failed.

The charger works great with Eneloop 2000 mahs (almost 100%). I can barely get from 0 to 40% on new Duracell alkalines. I guess that's still better than nothing if needed.

No problem with the battery cover as reported in other reviews. Just need to carefully line up and slide in with steady pressure. There are no springs and loose metal parts to bend or damage (which is what I thought.)

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Unlike most people, I shall not use this device to recharge cell phones or tablet computers. Rather, I am using it to extend the playing time of my SanDisk Sansa Clip Zip 4GB Blue MP3 Player SDMX22-004G-A57B Blue.

Though the Clip Zip does have a long playing time with just its internal battery, my wife and I often use it in our car when traveling long distances. We had an auxiliary jack installed in our car which allows a cord from the Clip Zip's headphone output to be plugged into the auxiliary jack; we can then listen to the Clip Zip's music over our car radio.

While driving, we use several other devices which are plugged into a RoadPro RP492 4-in-1 12V Power Outlet with Three 12V Socket and 1 USB Port and which preclude the possibility of using still another 12V adapter to attach to and power the Clip Zip (we already have the maximum number plugged into the RoadPro).

However this Verbatim 97927 Portable Micro-USB Power Pack Charger allows us to listen to music for well over an entire day of driving. We keep the Clip-Zip plugged into it which keeps the Clip-Zip in a full state of charge; at the end of the day, we need only recharge this charger (and that takes just an hour or two).

As a matter of fact, when we stop for lunch or dinner, we leave the Clip-Zip on (with the music paused) and, when we start driving again, we merely "unpause" the Clip-Zip.

So far, we have never run out of power, even over a full day's driving. (Note that if this unit were to discharge completely, the Clip-Zip itself has an inherently long running time. I calculate that using this charger along with the Clip-Zip would give us well over 24 hours of listening without actually needing to recharge. Obviously we never use either device that long without recharging, which we always do overnight.)

It is so small that two or three would fit into a shirt pocket. It comes with a short cable which serves double duty: if one plugs the micro-USB adapter end into the charging port and the other regular size USB port into either a computer or an AC -> USB power adapter, the unit itself is charged. A red LED next to the plug indicates charging and the LED turns green when charging is complete (the first time I charged it via an AC -> USB charger, it took less than four hours from empty to a full charge).

Turning the cord the other way, turning the unit over and plugging the USB end into the unit, a blue LED (again next to the plug) shines immediately indicating the unit is on. Plugging the micro-USB end into the Clip Zip charges the player, and we can play the Clip Zip while it's charging. That's what we did one time after playing music for several hours with the Clip-Zip alone and the Clip Zip recharged fully pretty fast. I cannot say exactly how long it took (I was driving, after all) but it did not appear to be too long. I did not try recharging the Clip Zip a second time before recharging this Verbatim Power Pack so I do not know how many times it would recharge the Clip Zip before needing recharging itself.

Regarding the short cable, its length is perfect for use in our car and, if it's not long enough for you, extension cords are cheap and readily available.

Obviously, in addition to being used in a car, it can be used anywhere you'd like. (I wonder if it could be recharged with a solar charger? I guess that's a question for another day.)

So, all in all, this is a very satisfying unit, one which does all it claims to do.

In addition, it is constructed beautifully and looks as though it is built to last for a long time.

Is there a fly in the ointment? You bet! The unit is small, the cable is short, but there is no way to keep them together when storing the unit, not a clip, not a holder, nothing. I do not recommend keeping the cord plugged in when the unit is not in use; the connection could be damaged plus the unit is always activated when the cord is plugged in; this would eventually run the unit down. There should be some means for storing the two items together; they're both necessary at all times.

I suppose I can go to a Dollar Store and find some suitable carrying case but I believe that this should be unnecessary. I hope Verbatim (a fine company; I own several of their products) will take what I intend to be constructive criticism into consideration and, in any future model, will incorporate some sort of connection to hold the two items together.

We have never owned a product like this before. We like it and recommend it. It will get plenty of use from us!

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Update: May 5, 2013

We like this unit so much that, after nearly a year's fairly heavy use during which the charger has functioned flawlessly and well, that we decided to buy another one, this one for powering a set of small portable USB-powered amplified speakers (with which our original unit works well). We ordered it from Amazon and it arrived yesterday, Saturday, May 4 (by Fedex: we are members of Amazon Prime). So now we'll be using the original one for our SanDisk Sansa Clip Zip 4GB MP3 Player (Blue) and this new second one for the speakers. We should be able to listen all day, if we wish, without running out of "juice."

There are some differences between last year's unit and this year's.

Last year's had a glossy black plastic case; this year's has a matte black one. This, of course, is unimportant.

What IS important is the following: last year's has a single LED on either end (two in total); when charging, the LED is red and when charging is complete, the LED turns green. On the other end, as soon as the USB connector is plugged into the unit, a blue LED activates, showing that the unit is functioning.

This year's model is different. The two ports remain on opposite ends but there are no LEDs on these ends. Rather, on the front face, near the logo "Verbatim," are a bank of four hidden LEDs. When charging, one of these LEDs blinks; when charging is complete, all four light steadily (no blinking).

When the USB plug is inserted (to charge an external item), you will see a switch which turns on the unit and can also be used to check the state of charge (four LEDs lit means full charge, three, two, one, or none, represent the charge state). Unlike last year's model, the LEDs turn off after a few seconds when the charger is charging an external item; this represents a small savings in power (after all, you do not need to see an LED to know that you're charging something!).

I think that, by a VERY small margin, I prefer this year's model, primarily because of the ability to check the charge capacity remaining and because of the fact that the LEDs turn off when charging something.

I do have to say that I won't be checking the charge state very often; this unit, like most such units, has no battery "memory effect" and thus it can be charged at any time. Using an AC (or DC) power adapter (such as this Maximal Power AC DC USB Universal Dual USB AC/DC Wall and Car Power Adapter Charger for All USB Powered Devices, iPhone, iPod, and iPad), charging takes only four hours or less and that's from a completely discharged unit; if it's partially charged, the charging time is much less. Double the charging time if you're charging via a computer's USB connection.

There is no change in my one "complaint" there is still no means of storing or attaching the cable to the unit. I did buy a small case at our local Dollar Store which is satisfactory.

All in all, my wife and I remain completely pleased with this charger and we give it our highest recommendation.