Powermonkey portable power

[ChunkyMonkey]

It only seemed right to review this right here, right now.

If you've never used a powermonkey, quite simply they give you portable charger for your gadgets while you're away from home (or anywhere that has a plug).

I've been using the original (silver) powermonkey for a year now and it's been a lifesaver on several occasions. I've charged up my dead mobile while in the car and given my ipod a new lease of life on a 12 hour Thai airways flight when the entertainment system went down. It coems with a bag of adaptors for mobiles, ipods and whathave you.

You can pick up the original powermonkey (now called the classic)for less than £20, but - Powertraveller, the company that makes it - haven't been resting on their laurels. They've expanded and reorganised their product line into powerchimp (colours, recharger, also a torch), powermonkey explorer (recharger with solar collector) and soon to be released powergorilla (recharge your laptop 2.5 times from one pg charge).

My god-daughter is coming to the end of a gap year adventure through Singapore, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and the US. She took a powermonkey-explorer with her. I asked her what she thought:

"Quite simply the most useful thing I took with me. It's meant my phone, camera and ipod have always ben there for me. Much more use than a swiss army knife and you won't lose it in a customs/security check if you've forgotten to pop it into your hold luggage. It's been a lifesaver for me - and I've been able to offer a friendly juice blast to people I've met along the way".

Technically, in use, the solar slave has an LED that shows whether it's generating power. The PowerMonkey takes 3.5 hours to charge via mains power, six hours via USB, and a sluggish 18 hours via solar panel. When the two are used together, the solar slave soaks up the sun's rays to charge up the PowerMonkey's battery, which can then charge your gadget whenever you need to charge it - at night, when it's raining, whenever.

The PowerMonkey does have one key drawback- it won't charge another gadget while it's being charged itself. But it's a minor niggle.

The Powertraveller website has full details of all their kit and tech specs and prices. It also has top tips for getting the most out of your devices (ie: the powerchimp can suck power from your laptop via USB and then pump it into your phone or PSP).

I'm about to treat myself to an upgrade to an explorer. You ever can have to much power...