The MiLi Power Crystal is a portable battery pack that can charge a myriad of handheld devices. I was able to use it in an opportune time when we went in an unfamiliar place way out of town and our iPhone ran out of charge while using its GPS.
The Power Crystal is a nice-looking portable power bank that has a capacity of 2000mAh and comes in either black or white. It has the following six tips that makes it usable for popular phones:
- iPod/iPhone Tip (won’t work with the iPad)
- Sony Ericsson Tip
- Mini USB
- micro USB (this one powers a lot of smartphones and is widely used by Samsung)
- LG Tip
- Nokia Tip (the tiny one)
There’s also a USB cable where each of the tip can be connected. Don’t worry, it comes with a nice pouch to carry all of the components including the Power Crystal itself.
Design
It is light and very handy and comes with a stylish lanyard holder. On the face of the Power Crystal is a button surrounded by 4 LED lights. Each light represents 25% of battery. The button is only used to know how much charge is left.
On the underside of the Power Crystal, you will see two ports. A regular USB port that you will use to charge your devices and a Mini USB port that you use to charge the Power Crystal.
Performance
So how long does it take for the 2000mAh Power Crystal to charge itself? On my test while plugged into my desktop, I was able to fully charge it in roughly a little over than 4 hours. You will know it’s fully charged when all 4 LED lights are active and has stopped blinking.
How about the amount of juice it can give you? On my few test, I was able to charge a fully drained iPod Touch in one and half hour. On that same charge, I used it to nurse an HTC phone’s battery back up to 75% before the Power Crystal got drained.
On our battery-hogging iPhone, our Power Crystal was at 75% and it charged the iPhone up to 32% (while continuously using the GPS at the same time) before running out of charge. Served us really well and we were able to get back to the city.
I’ve encountered something unusual with the Power Crystal and I don’t know if it’s only this review unit. When charging my iPod Touch, it got stuck near 100% for a long time before completely being charged.
There was also this one time when after removing the Power Crystal from a power source with 2 lights left, I tried charging a device but it showed that the Power Crystal was drained. I pressed its button and no lights were lighted. I plugged it in a power source again and the LED lights jumped to 3 after a couple of minutes.
I’m going to chalk it up to this piece of unit that I got, but if you find your MiLi product faulty, you’re in luck because it comes with a 1-year warranty unlike other cheap power packs out there.
Conclusion
The MiLi Power Crystal is a nice travel companion for a family having multiple devices or phones made by different manufacturers. You don’t have to bring a separate charger for each of those devices, just the Power Crystal and maybe a USB adapter like the MiLi Pocket Pal so you can plug it into a power outlet to charge.
If there’s one thing missing with the Power Crystal, it’s a separate miniUSB to regular USB cable so it can charge itself and another device at the same time.
The MiLi Power Angel retails for Php1,650 and you can get it at your nearest Power Mac Center, The A.Shop, or Switch. It comes with a one year warranty which is something you would want on a power device.