Earlier this week, mobile accessory manufacturer ibattz turned a few heads at the Consumer Electronics Show with a new external battery charger called the ASAP Fast Charge Power Bank that the company claims can fully charge an iPhone 6 from 0 to 100 percent in just 15 minutes. (See update at bottom of this article for correction.)
Available in two sizes of 5,600 mAh and 11,200 mAh, the new charging banks are the company's fastest to date. By using lithium polymer batteries and replacing the traditional 5V 1A input with a 20V 2A upgrade, the company says the ASAP charging banks can reach a recharge speed of up to four times faster than traditional external battery packs.
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No specifications have been given on the charge time for any device besides the iPhone 6, and no pricing or tentative launch date has been announced by the company.
Though the company has a decent track record with its existing lineup of other power bank and battery case devices, hands-on time with the device will be needed to test the company's latest claims. Users will also want to weigh potential long-term negative effects from charging their phone batteries so quickly in deciding whether ibattz's new power banks will be a worthwhile investment.
Update: ibattz has clarified to MacRumors that the power bank itself can charge in 15 minutes, with charging of an iPhone from the bank taking about an hour. The company has not yet updated its press release to correct the error.
Top Rated Comments
Imagine I give you an 8oz glass, and keep a 24oz glass for myself. We pour 8oz into both glasses at the same rate.
Are you better off for being "full" while I still have room for 200% more ... ?
We both reached 8oz ... at the same time.
I like the visual analogy, but that is not analogous to how batteries work.
For simplicity and to borrow your numbers, let's say we have two batteries with capacities of 8 and 24. The closer each battery gets to full, the slower it charges (exponentially slower, it has to do with potential and resistance).
The 24 battery will get to 8 much faster than the 8 battery will get to 8. The 8 battery starting at 0 might take 5 minutes to get to 2, 10 more minutes to get to 4, 20 more minutes to get to 6, and 40 more minutes to get to full 8. Meanwhile, the 24 battery starting at 0 might take 5 minutes to get to 6, 10 minutes to get to 12, and so on; it will reach 8 much quicker because at 8 it is only 33% full and there is still a lot of potential with little resistance.
A better water analogy is this: picture two tubes of the same diameter, sealed at the top, one is 8ft tall and one is 24ft tall, both being filled from the bottom with same input nozzles of same flow rates. As the tubes fill, the air at the top gets compressed and pushes back on the water and slows the rate of filling. Because the 24ft tall tube has more air at the top, the rate will slow down less over the first 8ft. When the 8ft tube is nearly full, it has nearly 8ft of air compressed into a tiny bubble at the top. When the 24ft tube has 8ft, it has 24ft of air compressed into a 16ft space.
One often overlooked feature of a smaller battery is the ability to charge the small battery fast.
Imagine I give you an 8oz glass, and keep a 24oz glass for myself. We pour 8oz into both glasses at the same rate.Are you better off for being "full" while I still have room for 200% more ... ?
We both reached 8oz ... at the same time.
Mind you this is coming straight out of the press release. Presumably ibattz will want to shop for a better PR agency next year.