REVIEWED: Energizer XP2200 charger & stand for smartphones
A must for watching movies on a smartphone, this pocket-sized battery is destined for a tray table near you
The trouble with portable batteries is that using a smartphone or tablet while they’re attached to one is a pain. Where to do you put that mess of cables and a brick-like battery while it discharges into your beloved smartphone or tablet? The Energizer XP2200 knows exactly where it’s going; clear a space behind your smartphone.
Dual-use
For any travel gadget to make it into our portable arsenal, it must have at least two uses. The XP2200 fulfils that desire by also acting as a stand. A 45-degree tilt in this triangular, 10cm-long, 87g gadget supports a smartphone easily – though in our test it only worked with an iPhone in its case. Although it uses soft silicon on its outer layer, some friction from a soft case (in our case, a leather case) is needed for the XP2200 to properly prop-up a phone. Suckers on the bottom keep it in place on plastic and polished wood surfaces, though don’t count on the XP2200 supporting tablets.
Ins and outs
The PS2800 is simple indeed. On one side there’s a microUSB slot for charging it (there’s a microUSB cable in the box) while a standard USB slot is here, too, to take power to a smartphone.
Small battery
For all of its convenience, the battery inside theXP2200 isn’t huge. However, its 2800mAh power, which charges-up in about an hour, put about 55% into our iPhone 5s. It’s actually got more power than most wraparound battery cases for the iPhone. Although it came to us fully charged, we noticed that while charging there are three blue LEDs on the reverse of the XP2200 that light-up, one by one, as it refuels. To discharge it into a phone, simply hook-up via USB and press a button on by the side of the XP2200’s USB slot.
Great value
Able to prop-up a smartphone and recharge it to about 50% (though that entirely depends on the phone it’s used with) this great value, top pocket-sized device is perfect for short trips where the main activity is watching videos.