Portable battery for cellphones

[Memaw2Wm]

I bought this Jackery for my granddaughter to use with her iPhone 5s for our last WDW trip. It's relatively small, charges one phone at a time, but holds two charges. She loves it.

http://www.amazon.com/Jackery-Bar-P...e=UTF8&qid=1428591306&sr=1-2&keywords=jackery

 

[hsmamato2]

I wish I could remember the brand.... but I bought a charger case for my iphone 4s before my last trip, (amazon)since I take lots of pics,etc I knew the battery wouldn't last all day... The case makes the phone larger, but it works great,I just turn it on when the battery gets below 20% and it charged it back up within an hour,while I was still using it! I think you should always carry a charger,even a mini lipstick style one in your pocket for backup

 

[Timshar2]

I bought the Anker e5 on Amazon for about $35 for our trip in March. It is a little bigger and heavier then my daughters Samsung 5 but we put it in our travel-beach bag so no a problem. It came with a cloth case and a usb cable so you need to use your existing usb charger or buy one that was about $10 more if you need one. We had 4 phones with us and charged our phones (it can charge 2 Usb devices at a time) whenever they were getting low each day. It has 4 lights on it to show charge levels and after 5 days the Anker still had a 50% charge left before we decided to recharge it. Great product and my daughter who lets her phone run out of power daily has lswiped my charger now that we are home. I will be buying another one asap for me. Anker has a whole line of chargers from smaller lipstick style to big high end laptop chargers. They say the e5 can fully charge 2 IPads at a time and it had no problem with any of our phones or my camera over 10 days and we used it almost every day.

 

[thisismyusername]

I bought this Jackery for my granddaughter to use with her iPhone 5s for our last WDW trip. It's relatively small, charges one phone at a time, but holds two charges. She loves it.

http://www.amazon.com/Jackery-Bar-P...e=UTF8&qid=1428591306&sr=1-2&keywords=jackery

I have that too, and it works really well. I've preferred using this over a case ever since I got a bigger phone than the iPhone 4s--the cases got to be too big and bulky for the bigger phones and no one in my party could use it to charge their phones when they were running low.

 

[IrishNYC]

I saw some at Five Below, but my bf was concerned that a cheapie one wouldn't work well. I am only using mine for the MDE app and possibly the Lines app.

I can confirm that you will be throwing $5 away if you buy one there. I bought one for Disney and gave it a test run a few weeks ago, and threw it right in the trash. It gives you no more than an emergency phone call if your battery is about to die.

 

[row]

I wouldn't say it's necessary, but it's good to have. I suggest one with two USB ports (to charge two phones, as you mentioned), with one port (or both) being at least 2.1 amps. A 2.1a port gives you the ability to charge other devices with the battery pack (ie: ipad or other tablet). I suggest Anker or RAVpower. This is the one I have: http://www.amazon.com/9600mAh-Porta...ie=UTF8&qid=1428616388&sr=8-30&keywords=anker

 

[tink20]

Thank you everyone, so much great and helpful advice. I know absolutely nothing about these, so this will definitely help me.

It's better to have and not need, than to need and...

This is what I was thinking too

I have a Patriot Fuel+ that I've used for about 2 years now and it works great.

The iPhone6 has an 1810maH (milliamp hour) battery. This means that you'll want a battery pack that has at least 1810mah to get 1 full recharge of your cell phone (basically double the time). Most of your cheaper battery packs will be around 1440mah which was the standard cellphone battery before this current generation of phones).

If you get a battery pack of 4000maH you'd get a little more than 2 full charges out of your phone (triple the life), 9000maH would give you more than 4 charges.

Another thing to look for is the charging rates. The Fuel+ I have has 2 USB ports, a 1.0a port and a 2.5a port. The 2.5a port can deliver more energy (2.5 times more) than the 1.0a port so your phone will charge faster than the 1.0a port. (This is great if you don't want to leave the charger connected to your phone the whole time or if you want to give your buddy a quick charge while you're having lunch.)

One other issue to remember is the time it takes to recharge the battery pack itself - The bigger your battery the longer it takes to fully charge it (my 7800mah battery takes about 8 hours to fully charge from empty)

Now - How fast your phone drains at DisneyWorld depends on a lot of things - how many photos/videos you're taking, how often you check MDE or how often you're uploading your photos to facebook (Look, it's me and Gurgi!... Yeah, like THAT ever happens... ). The other issues you run into are the phone trying to maintain its connection with the cell network. With all of the crowds carrying cellphones they're all trying to get onto the same cell towers and this requires the phone to boost its transmitter to try to get a clear connection to the tower. This will cause your battery to drain faster than it normally would.

In my personal experience though a 6000maH battery size seems to be perfect for me. I have a 7800maH battery and I rarely discharge it more than halfway - and that includes helping friends charge up too.

Thanks, super helpful

 

[winthropf]

Much of the drain on the battery isn't the actual phone use, but the phone attempting to find a strong enough WiFi signal to connect to. Also searching for cellular signal when inside many of the indoor attractions. This can really eat the battery life.

 

[dledger]

Another vote here for the Jackery Bar Portable Charger. I had another one that plugged right into my phone that I liked, but, it only worked with my phone and it didn't do a great job at charging fully. It also was more one time and then charge. I LOVE the Jackery. We used it in disney, everyday life, our trip to jamaica.....you charge it once and you can get AT LEAST three charges out of it. It's not overly expensive and it's a nice "Just in case"

 

[MouseMum]

iTrent, not sure how many maH, but it charges 2 devices and it last a long time before needing to be recharged itself. Bought it last summer from Amazon for $50+

 

[JacknSally]

I had a Mophie pack for my 5 and i LOVED it. I'm going to get one for my 6+ if they're available before my October trip.

 

[jmkjr72]

I got a Logitech phone case with extra battery in it for my s5 I use it a lot for work and it has doubled my battery life

 

[Mrs. Max Goof]

I can confirm that you will be throwing $5 away if you buy one there. I bought one for Disney and gave it a test run a few weeks ago, and threw it right in the trash. It gives you no more than an emergency phone call if your battery is about to die.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[volfan1978]

I'm a big fan of Anker products. I have the e5 and it's awesome. It's a 16,000 mAh battery with two usb ports. It takes a while to charge the battery from empty (overnight will do it), but I know from experience that I can charge my phone from empty to full at least 6 times with it without needing a recharge. We're taking it along to Disney in May, and I'm not worried about running out of juice. Also planning to use it as a backup to power the cooling fan on my toddler's stroller.

 

[CAS239]

Mine is "EasyAcc", and this is the exact one I bought

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00H9...&dpID=41cOP3mFX3L&ref=plSrch&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

Works great.

The Mophie phone cases/charger work great too, but only contain enough for about 1 full charge

 

[North of Mouse]

Are portable battery chargers necessary at WDW (at home my battery lasts all day), and any recommendations are welcome. (IPhone 6) Also, do you need one for each phone or can one charge 2 or more phones. TIA

Just back from 2 weeks at Disney, had the phone chargers and never needed to use them once. Our phones easily lasted all day. Would check MDE, FP's, etc. but never needed to 'stay' on the phones so they never fully discharged.

 

[Dani C]

Thanks for the heads up!

And I have had the exact opposite luck. I travel often with work and have purchased a few of these to use. I have never had an issue with any of them. I can go from almost dead to fully charged on my iPhone 5 on a single charge of the backup. You do need to pay attention to the charging directions though and not just leave them plugged after they are fully charged for better results. The only downside I've noticed is that their lifespan is shorter than an Anker, so they need quicker replacing.

 

[grecorj]

I've bought several Anker battery chargers (via Amazon) and they've all been great. Highly recommended.

They go on sale periodically.

Personally I'd stay away from the brands that show up on "deal" sites every now and then. I want something proven for my iPhone.

 

[tcherjen]

Mine will last at home, but at Disney it died a lot. I did download a tour app and I truthfully think that had a lot to do with it. It was constantly updating ride times and waits. Once I deleted the app, the battery life got better. I wished I would've had one of those pocket chargers.

 

[asbyrneva]

I know that I will need something for my I phone 5 when we go in Dec. What does everyone recommend?

Go get a Droid Turbo