Even if your iPhone is brand new, its battery may not be enough to hold you over for a full day’s worth of music, Internet browsing and the like. For some of us, running out of power is just not an option. HyperMac’s new line of candy inspired batteries come is various shapes, sizes and flavors colors. Surely they have one that fits your style, needs and price range.
Batteries for iDevices are just about as numerous as cases, so it’s hard to stand out in this crowd. This time around, I tested out three different batteries from HyperMac, the Nano, Micro and Mini. Batteries like this are pretty similar, so let’s talk about what they all have in common. These are all aimed at iDevices, but the Micro and Mini batteries will charge almost anything that recharges (or can be made to recharge) over USB. All models come in nine colors, which match the current iPod nano colors. So, if grey or black is not your thing, no worries. And yes ladies, there’s a pink one. That’s about it for similarities, so let’s get to each of these individually.
Model: The HyperMac Nano
Provides: extra battery life
Developer: Hypermac
Price: $69.95
Capacity:1800mAh
Availability: Now
The Nano is the smallest of the bunch. Not only is it smaller, it’s actually quite a bit different. First, the Nano is very small and thin, not unlike Apple’s Nano, and has a cap covering its charging method. You might worry about losing this cap, but it can be made to magnetically hang on to the bottom of the battery, if desired. It’s not strong enough to keep you from worrying, but it is helpful. Underneath the cap, instead of having a standard USB port, it has a built in iPod cable for charging. This is nice because you don’t need to carry an iPod cable around with you everywhere. Sweet, right? Well, yes and no. The cable is quite thin; thin to the point that I worry about it breaking. It’s also quite short, meaning that usage of your iDevice while it’s charging is awkward at best. You might imagine a thin, limp cable dangling a battery below your iDevice. The only way I could get this to work was by holding the battery uncomfortably behind my iPhone. In pocket charging isn’t ideal either; again, I worry about breakage of the cable. The best usage of this battery is probably sitting on a table top, going unused.
Recharging of this battery is less than perfect. You’ll need to use an iDevice cable to plug into the battery instead of a standard USB cable or even a wall charger. This wouldn’t be a problem if the data connection passed through the battery’s cable, but it doesn’t. It will, however, charge your iDevice and HyperMac Nano at the same time. This could have been better, but it’s not unusable. I wish this had a much longer, retractable cable. Perhaps in a future version. Still, I like this battery for its sleek design and portability. While the built-in cable isn’t perfect, it is convenient. Just something you’ll have to think about. It should recharge an iPhone about 1.5 times. For me, that means I can go almost a full day without needing to find another power source; almost. It should be noted I’m addicted to my iPhone. Your mileage may vary.
Model:The HyperMac Micro and Mini
Provides: Extra battery life
Developer: Hypermac
Price: $89.95 – $119.95
Capacity: 3600mAh – 7200mAh
Availability: Now
HyperMac’s two larger batteries, the Micro and Mini, are very similar. Their design is nearly identical, though very different from the Nano. Both of these look similar to solid blocks of battery offset with some ridges. I quite like the design for its simplicity. The only real difference between these two is physical size, which is a result of battery capacities. You can charge these guys with the included AC charger or over USB, so the options here are much more flexible than the Nano, though perhaps less sleek. I should note that these batteries will charge any USB device, not just Apple iDevices.
That said, my iPhone and iPod touch were both quite picky about charging from both of these batteries. For some reason, when I plugged in my iPhone, it was not recognized as a power source. After reinserting the USB cable, it worked flawlessly. This may have something to do with how picky the iPhone is about its power sources (from what I gather).
I also had difficulty charging my iPod touch when it was almost dead. After my MacBook Pro recharged it for a few minutes it charged fine over the Micro. A very strange issue indeed, but it’s not that big of a deal. It should be noted that my test units were preproduction, so I’m hoping this was addressed before shipping. Clearly the batteries are more than capable of charging USB devices, it’s just a matter of getting the iPhone to take power from it. It’s my understanding that the iPhone is quite discriminating on where it will accept power from.
What is nice about these batteries is their capacities. The medium sized battery (Micro) will keep you going for a couple of days by recharging your iPhone about three times. The larger battery is just crazy. It kept me and my fiancee’s iDevices powered for an entire weekend and another day by itself. That’s crazy. It’s quoted at six recharges for a standard iPhone.
The best part is that they aren’t physically big. I probably wouldn’t want to carry either around in my pocket, but they are easily stored in a bag. I guess thin is still in.
Ultimately, I think the HyperMac Micro battery is the sweet spot. It has a ton of battery life, is still very small and comes in a bunch of colors. The larger size will keep you powered for a very long time as well, so if you can justify the extra $30, it’s probably well spent. I do think HyperMac could have done better with the Nano battery here. I like the design, but the cable worries me too much. Still, all of these batteries will keep you powered (in style, might I add), and that’s the point isn’t it?
If you act fast, you can take advantage of an early adapter discount on all three of these batteries. Hypermac has all three of these on sale for $20 off of the normal price. That might be the difference between sizes, or getting one at all, so act quick if you’re thinking about getting one of these.
Batterygeek.net has had these batteries for eons, though only in black, for a lot less. Their 7200mAH battery, for example, is $80 and their 3600mAH battery is $60. Same sizes, same cases shapes and the same batteries.
It is true that batterygeek has similar products to HyperMac. That is because the parent of HyperMac is the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) for batterygeek.
Appearance-wise, they look similar but that is where the similarities end. HyperMac products cost a little more because we use higher (military) grade components and battery cells, which are more reliable than the usual consumer grade products. The IC solution used in HyperMac is also developed only recently in 2009/2010 as opposed to batterygeek's solution which are over 3 years old. Case in point, our HyperMac External MacBook Batteries can detect which MacBook it is currently connected to and automatically adjust its charging voltage. It can automatically switch from 14.5V for MacBook Air to 16.5V for MacBook and 16.5~18.5V for MacBook Pro. This is a patented technology and HyperMac remains the only external battery in the world that can accurately work and provide the right amount of charging power to every single MacBook model, automatically. If you look at batterygeek solution, you have to manually select the charging voltage. Only 2 voltage values (16V and 18V) will work with MacBooks and they are not even the accurate voltages that the MacBooks use.
While there are great feature/specification differences between HyperMac and batterygeek, we agree that the similarities in appearances can be misleading for some users, as such we will, with immediate effect cease supplying HyperMac-like products to batterygeek.
This is the third place I've seen the same things said about HM and BG. Being a Apple employee I can not say certain things about products. I will say that third party batteries do NOT need switching power supplies to work in the different models. The Air has a different connector and voltage and therefore the HM point is lost on me really. If you have both laptops in your office then you will still need a different connector for each. If you need that then making a manual switch go from one to the other voltage is really no-brainer. Again my observation is there are 100s of chinese companies making these LI batteries and they don't put up US based web sales offices. They do sign sales agreements with US sales/marketing companies which they may or may not honor due to the lack of legal recourse in country. So the veiled threat that HM will cut off BG seems like spin or marketing hype to me. Chinese companies only want to grow their business year of year. They really do not care who sells them as long as their unit sales increase.