Review: myCharge Peak 6000

If you were to gather one of each of the battery recharger packs out there, you could probably fill an Olympic-size swimming pool. They're all designed for the same single purpose: Juice up your cellphones, tablets, and other power-hungry mobile devices. Aside from the obvious stuff like size and weight, what separates one from the next is how much power each one has to share, and how each connects to its supported devices.

So if there's one feature on this myCharge Peak 6000 unit I've been testing that stands out more than any other, it's that it talks to me. You read that right. On most juice packs, you check how full the battery is by pushing a button. By counting the number of LED lights that blink or light up, you can see whether you've got full tank or you're running on empty. The Peak 6000, however, just tells you. It has a female voice that speaks the battery's status in your choice of four languages. Press the button for an update and she'll tell you how far along you are: 25, 50, 75 percent, or full. When you recharge the Peak 6000 itself, the little lady (let's call her Nancy), delivers a confirmation that "recharging is activated" in a lilting contralto.

It has a female voice that speaks the battery's status in your choice of four languages.The 9-ounce brick has three conveniently built-in cables. There's one for iOS devices – iPhones, iPods and iPads – a mini-USB cable for non-Apple cellphones and smaller Android tablets, and a full-size USB cable for charging up the Peak 6000 itself. Using the USB cable to charge it is pretty slow, so there's also a set of wall prongs that fold out for speed-charging it in just over 3 hours. Finally, there's a full-size USB port for charging other devices using your own USB cable.

About that iOS connector: As you'd suspect, it has a 30-pin terminal at the end of the cable, which Apple has effectively killed off with the introduction of the new iPhone. So, if you're considering using the Peak 6000 to charge an iPhone 5, you'll need to use Apple's adapter plug to hook the phone's 8-pin socket to the charger's 30-pin cable. Of course, older iOS devices will connect just fine.

The capacity of the Peak's lithium polymer cell is 6,000mAh, and its maximum output current is 5V and 3.1 amps. That's enough to charge up to three separate devices at once. Also, a 6,000mAh battery is truly huge compared to most portable chargers (the bulk of which are under 3,000), and the company claims it has enough power to fully charge "the average smartphone" four times.

To test this, I let my iPhone 4 drain to 20 percent capacity, then plugged it into a fully charged Peak 6000. Once my phone was fully charged, the Peak had gone from full to 50 percent remaining. At least that's what Nancy told me. So, while my test couldn't verify the manufacturer's claim of up to four charges, a pair of charges to my iPhone isn't too shabby. It's enough to get me through a weekend on the road. With my iPad 3, I got one full recharge out of the Peak before Nancy told me she was plum tuckered out.

I also found one other use for the Peak 6000 that myCharge probably didn't think about: I was able to power an external hard drive. This came in handy because the drive requires two USB ports for power and data transmission, but my notebook didn't have two adjacent USB ports. So one side of the Y-cable went into the notebook and the other into the Peak 6000. Nancy had nothing to say about that.

WIRED Powerful mobile device charger comes with necessary connecting cables built in. Voice confirmations indicate power levels. Flip-out wall plug proves convenient for re-filling it, and thankfully keeps it an all-in-one unit.

TIRED Recharging cycles didn't match manufacturer's claims. At 9 ounces, it's pretty heavy. It's also large, and works better in a backpack than a back pocket.