Other cell phone chargers

Cellboost
Editor's rating: 7.3
The good: Small and light; delivers more than an hour of talk time; can make calls while the device is attached to your phone.
The bad: Can be recharged once charge is depleted; no remaining battery-life gauge.
The bottom line: Small, light, and reliable, the Cellboost phone charger makes it easy to revive a spent handset in case of an emergency.

Small, lightweight, and even a little stylish, the dependable CPS Cellboost phone charger makes for one of the best emergency cell chargers we've tested. This bargain-priced, disposable charger packs enough juice for more than an hour of talk time--just plug it into your depleted phone and start dialing. We wish we could recharge the Cellboost, and a battery gauge would've been a handy feature, but with a rock-bottom $10 price tag, we're not complaining.

The small (2.6 by 1.6 by 0.75 inches, 1.5 ounces), silver Cellboost looks just like a Zippo lighter, except for the translucent blue cover that sits on the top; several other colors are available for purchase. Pop off the cover and you'll find a power plug for your phone; our review model was designed for Motorola handsets, but you can buy versions that work with LG, Samsung, Nokia, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, and Sanyo cell phones.

Powering your handset with the Cellboost couldn't be easier: Just plug the device's adapter into your phone's AC input. You can leave your phone off and wait a few minutes for your handset to charge, or you can power up your phone and start dialing right away. We found that the Cellboost was light enough to hang securely from our phone's AC input without falling out, even with a good shaking. The Cellboost specs claim that the device packs enough juice for 60 minutes of talk time or 60 hours of standby time. Once its charge is depleted, however, you can't recharge the Cellboost; instead, you'll have to toss it in the trash and pony up for another one. That's not such a bad deal, considering the Cellboost costs a very reasonable $10; however, we wish there was a battery gauge to let us know how much juice was left.

In our tests, the Cellboost performed admirably. We clicked the device into our dead-as-a-doornail Motorola V600, waited a couple of minutes, and hit the power button. The phone lit up immediately, and we dialed and connected to a buddy with no problems. We tested the Cellboost by keeping it attached to our phone and timing the length of our call; after 90 minutes (a good 30 minutes more than the charger's rated battery life), we were still talking.

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Clipper Gear Cell Phone Emergency Battery Recharger
Editor's rating: 6.0
The good: Compact and light; a 20-minute charge yields 25 minutes of talk time; uses replaceable AAA batteries.
The bad: Flimsy design; spotty power connector; too bulky to keep attached to a handset during a phone call.
The bottom line: The battery-powered, bargain-priced Clipper Gear charger will revive your dead cell phone in a pinch, but its shoddy construction leaves something to be desired.

The Clipper Gear Cell Phone Emergency Battery Recharger is reasonably small, measuring just 2.8 by 1.8 by 0.6 inches, and weighs in at about 2.5 ounces with the four AAA batteries installed. While we liked the compact size, we weren't impressed by its flimsy black plastic shell, which doesn't look or feel all that rugged. Indeed, when we dropped the device on our kitchen floor from a distance of about three feet, the back panel popped open and the batteries went flying--not good.

As with the other chargers we tested, setup for the Clipper Gear was simple. Once we installed four AAA batteries and snapped the case shut, we plugged in an adapter for our test Motorola V600 and attached it to our phone's charger port. (The kit comes with adapters for Nokia, Siemens, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson phones.) At first, our phone didn't charge at all. After a little trial and error, we realized the culprit was a loose connection between the phone adapter and the charger's power port--yet another quality-assurance miscue.

In our tests, we first tried charging our dead Motorola V600 for five minutes. Our phone started up fine, and we were able to place a call, but we only got a minute of talk time. When we tried a 20-minute charge, however, the results were much better; we clocked a full 25 minutes of talk time, more than enough for an emergency call or two. That said, we had a tough time using the phone with the charger attached; because of the spotty adapter connection, our Moto V600 kept dying on us.

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