Impressed.
Lightning Thunderbolt Blackberry connectors customized
When I bought this Astro3E external battery, I was looking basically for two things:
1. High capacity, and
2. A way to quickly charge my Kindle Fire HD 8.9".
I think I found both things in this Astro3E.
The Astro3E has a battery level indicator, in the form of four lights on the front. You press the middle button, and the number of lights that light up correspond to the charge level. You charge the battery by using a micro-USB to USB cable, and plug the USB cable into a USB-AC adapter (or into a charging port on your computer, but this is a much slower way of charging generally speaking). The lights on the Astro3E blink when the battery is charging, to indicate the charge status, and the lights go out completely when the battery is full.
To charge devices with the battery, plug the device into one of the USB ports on the bottom of the battery, then press the middle button to begin charging. The two ports are labeled "Apple" and "Android" respectively. I don't have any Apple devices, so I haven't actually been able to find any difference between the two ports.
Anker sells two different external batteries with the same capacity, 10,000mAh: the Anker� Astro3 and the Anker� Astro3E. Here are the main differences, according to Anker customer support on Amazon:
"1, Astro3 can only be charged via AC adapter,while Astro3E can be charged via USB port of Laptop/PC/wall charger.
2, The maximum current of Astro3 is 2A,while Astro3E is 3A.
3, Astro3 has a DC output(9V~12V) which can charge some cameras,while Astro3E only have USB output(5V)."
So, in my words:
1. The Astro3 can only be charged with the AC adapter they provide you. The plug is proprietary. The Astro3E can be charged with any micro-USB to USB cable and USB-AC adapter, but be sure that your AC adapter has an output current of 1A or higher (check the adapter to make sure).
2. The Astro3 can charge devices that require a 2A current, while the Astro3E can charge faster at 3A. If your device doesn't need that much current though, then the two batteries will probably behave the same way.
3. Astro3 has a DC output, while the 3E doesn't. This may or may not be relevant to you.
4. Astro3 comes with more adapters so that more devices can be plugged into it, while the 3E comes with just 4 adapters, for micro-USB, mini-USB, and two others I don't recognize.
So if you're trying to decide between these two battery packs, hopefully these differences will help you.
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Category Article cell phone
I've used this Anker to charge the following: Droid Razr, iPad 3, PSVita, iPad2, and a Samsung Galaxy Nexus without any problems. Normally get about 3-4 recharges for cell phones and 2 recharges for iPad3 off it.
I took it on a recent trip and purposely used it exclusively to keep my Samsung Galaxy S3 up and running. During the three days I used my android extensively for reading books from my Kindle app, keeping up with Facebook, managing my e-mail and other apps. Each of these days I purposely fully discharged the battery in my android and fully recharged it with the Anker Asro3E 10000mAh battery charger. When returned home, I was able to charge my android once again before having to recharge this battery pack. I must stress that I made a special effort to use my android extensively just to validate the effectiveness of this external battery pack and I was delighted with the results.
I am a pilot and use my iPad throughout the day for everything from navigating, to passenger manifests and customs paperwork. I normal drain the battery around 3pm and our planes do not have cigarette lighter plugs in the cockpit. This battery has been solving this problem, and even saved me when I forgot to plug my iPad in over night. I am very happy, thank you
I had an Energizer battery pack before purchasing this Anker Astro3E. The Energizer charged my iPhone very slow and didn't even have enough Amps to charge my HP Touchpad. It was slow and did it's job but I needed something better since I have more devices to charge now.
I bought the Astro3E after reading many reviews of different devices. I really liked that it had one port specifically for the circuit design of the Apple iPhone and another for the circuit design of Android devices. (Note that if you have neither of these devices, the ports work fine as a standard charger. The iPhone will even charge in the Android port. Don't get to caught up in this... just enjoy the charger) The Astro3E also provides 10000mAh of power, so I could charge devices much longer before having to recharge the Astro3E. My old Energizer 4000mAh battery charged one device at 1A or two devices at .5A each. The Astro3E provides 3A of output max for a single device or 1.5A if you have two devices plugged in at once. This is much faster than my old Energizer. If it took 3 hours for my Energizer to charge a device, I would take about an hour with the Astro3E. The last thing I like is the Blue LED charging lights. There are four that show 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and full charge statuses. I mention Blue because I'm colorblind and my Energizer had a single light that changed from Green to Red and I could never tell the difference. This is a big plus for me.
As for the devices I've charged with the Astro3E, I've used it with an iPhone 5 and the current/last generations of iPod Touch. I haven't paid much attention, but it seems like the charging lights stay on while the device is charging and then turn off when full. A recessed button turns on the battery and starts the charging. I also have an HP Touchpad that also charges fine. I noticed in one review that a user said it didn't work with the Touchpad. I have Cyanogen Android 4.0.4 running on my Touchpad, so that may be the difference. With my old Energizer battery, the Touchpad would say that it didn't provide enough power to charge correctly. As for the real reason I got this battery, I used it to charge my Sony NEX-5R camera while at a concert this past weekend. It works great! I put it in my pocket and had the USB cable run to my camera. When it was fully charged, the light on my camera turned off as well as the charging lights on the Astro3E.
One last thing I really enjoy about the Astro3E is that I can charge it from any USB source. It has a mini-USB connector for this purpose. My Energizer battery needed to be plugged into an AC outlet with a special adapter. Almost everyone has a mini-USB connector cable for their phone or camera, so even if I forget my cable, I can almost be sure that I will be able to charge it wherever I go. Just connect it to a laptop USB port, USB car charger, or USB AC wall adapter. The higher Amp outage of the port, the faster the battery will charge. Some devices list their higher and lower Amp ports, so chose wisely for the fastest charging of your Astro3E. Here is a little secret, it will even charge off the service USB port on most cable boxes. These have power all the time.
So, if you are looking for a external battery pack, I recommend the Anker Astro3E. It comes with a carry case and adapters to charge the most popular devices. I hope this review helps. 8-)
For those readers that are reading this review on the Item page, this review is for the Astro3E 10000mAh charger. Since Amazon mixes reviews with all different "variants" of a product, and this comes in multiple capacities, this makes it hard to separate reviews.
This product does what it advertises, and does it VERY well. It comes with a nice mesh case which I carry it in constantly, and a nice little coiled USB cord with a few tips. While these aren't compatible with every device I own, I use it mainly to charge my phone, which is MicroUSB and included.
Some devices I have tried charging:
- I own a Motorola Droid 4, and I have charged the phone from dead to full over 4 times on a single charge. Android and Apple ports work, but on the Android port, the Droid 4 actually charges FASTER than the stock plug-in charger. My phone does not seem to mind.
- An LG Ally charges on either port, but faster on the Android port.
- A Nintendo DS Lite (with a compatible USB cord) charges on either port.
- An iPod Nano 6th Generation charges on the Apple port. It does not respond on the Android port. I have charged this device from dead to full, and did lose enough capacity on the battery for it to register.
I will update this review with more results as I charge more devices. I'm going on a few flights in the next couple of months, so this charger will gets LOTS of use.