Powertraveller chargers find their way to Australia

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 12 May 2009 07:13

Your IT - Entertainment

Lugging a bunch of power adaptors around to keep all your electronic gear charged while travelling is a pain, and when you're hiking or camping, there might not be a mains supply anyway. Powertraveller has both problems covered.

Newly available in Australia through Simms International, the Powertraveller range of portable power products includes battery, mains and solar models to keep a variety of gear topped up.

All the models include adaptors to suit most brands of mobile phones, digital cameras, GPS units, music/video players and games consoles, and a couple also feature laptop adaptors.

You may need to buy an additional adaptor separately to suit the exact model of device you need to charge.

The range starts with the $A39.99 motomonkey that charges phones, media players and portable game consoles. No power is drawn unless a device is actually connected (so you can leave it in the lighter socket), and it is purportedly the smallest and lightest product of its type.

At the high end there's the $A374.99 powergorilla, which can deliver between 5 and 24 volts, and can charge a notebook and phone simultaneously. If your notebook has an 'unusual' power connector - notably Apple's MagSafe - you may need to use an airline adaptor in conjunction with the powergorilla.

The powergorilla is said to be good for between two and five hours of notebook use (depending on the model) and up to 20 hours for other devices.

In between are five other models, including the powermonkey-eXplorer ($A149.99), which combines a portable solar panel with a charging unit that con deliver enough to run a mobile phone on standby for up to 96 hours, an iPod for 40 hours, a game console for five hours, and a digital camera for up to 1600 photos.

The power unit can also be recharged via the included universal mains charger, or from a USB source.