The Lumsing Power Bank is a reasonably priced solution to the problem which a lot of people face of not having removable batteries from their phones. If you have an iPhone or a HTC One or something like this something which would suit you down to the ground!
As far as power banks go there's a lot of choice on the market; you can go for super cheap solutions which will give you a slight top up if your phone needs one half-way through the day, or you can go for something slightly more expensive like this Lumsing which promises to give you multiple charges from it's larger battery.
Performance:
Obviously the main thing with this sort of device is how long it lasts and whether or not it actually comes through on the promise of recharging your devices. With an 11,000 mAh capacity theoretically this battery pack could charge my LG G2, with it's 3,000 mAh battery, three times with a little bit of juice to spare. As we know though, theory and practice are not the same things. People normally say you should expect to get about 70% of the total capacity out of the actual battery bank, so you can think of this as a 7700mAh unit, which is actually quite respectable. With that in mind, it's good to know that the actual transferable capacity of this device is probably somewhere close to the target 7700 mAh. We managed to get 2 full charges of the LG G2 and there was enough to top the phone up to 60% again, so the performance was slightly better than we would have expected, which is fantastic given the price!
It's also nice to know that you can simultaneously charge the power bank and charge something else at the same time, so if you only have one charger then you're still good to power your battery pack and phone or tablet at the same time.
Another nice addition is that the five USB ports which you can charge from all offer varying outputs. So you have a 1.3A output for your Galaxy Tab, 2.1A for the iPad line, 1A for your typical mobile phone and then 0.5A for a smaller battery bank or perhaps an MP3 player. It's great because it adds an extra bit of versatility to your power needs and we're sure you could give charging your laptop a go from this if you really needed an extra bit of juice too!
Some people have asked if you can use the power bank while it is charging and you definitely can, it works really nicely!
Build quality:
Some of you out there might have been stung by cheap battery banks before and thankfully with
this one we have no concerns over the quality of it. The bank feels nice and dense, which if nothing else is reassuring. The plastic which Lumsing has used feels nice and sturdy - it reminds us of the plastic which LG employed on their G2 and which Samsung have used on their older generations of the Galaxy S.
Ease of use:
You might be asking yourself why we bothered to talk about ease of use - surely you just plug it in and go. To a certain extent you do, but with some battery banks you have to flick switches for different ports and it can get a bit messy. The Lumsing on the other hand chooses to keep things simple. You get one off and on button. Press it once and it shows you how much charge there is and turns the whole unit on. Press it again and everything will shut off. It's simple and elegant and that's the sort of no thrills performance you want from this sort of accessory.
Extras:
In the box you get a plethora of connection options; there seems to be an adaptor for almost every type of proprietary charging jack which we could think of as you can see to the right.
The little bag which Lumsing threw into the box is a nice touch and although it's undoubtedly cheap and cheerful, it's actually a good extra layer of protection if you throw the unit into your bag. You know that people often say it's the little things which matter, we definitely think helps when it comes to things like this.
It's also worth bearing in mind that this power bank comes with a 12 month warranty and that promise of longevity is also so a sign of Lumsing's confidence in their product which is great to know as a buyer. Especially as most phone companies recommend changing the battery in your mobile phone every six months if that's an option!
The Wrap Up!
So is the Lumsing power bank worth your hard earned cash? In a word, yes. It does exactly what it says on the tin, it's solidly build, Lumsing has convinced us that they're offering a good quality product and as far as we're concerned you shouldn't be disappointed with what you're buying.