$6 Cheap iPhone Battery Extender to Extend iPhone Battery Life

August 5, 2010 by Chuck Eglinton
Filed under: Technology

Summary: Where to buy a Cheap iPhone Battery Extender to Extend your iPhone’s Battery Life. Restores your iPhone battery power without an electrical outlet. Charge your iPhone in your backpack, purse, bag, or briefcase with this portable iPhone power unit.

The iPhone 4 battery life is 7 hours according to the Apple Website (talk time). The iPhone 3 battery life is 4.5 to 5.5 according to various tests compiled by Gizmodo (talk time). iPhone Standby time can be 40 hours or more. iPhone time for Internet use on WiFi can be 10 hours or more (Sources: See “Resources,” below).

In some situations you may need to extend your iPhone’s battery life. For example:

Extend your iPhone battery life while it is in your pocket or handbag.
Extend your iPhone battery life while in your car.
Extend your iPhone battery life while on a bus or train.
Extend your iPhone battery life while camping or away from a power outlet.

Recently, I traveled to a place where I was using my iPhone more often than usual. I was checking my email somewhat frequently and I was using the Safari browser more than usual. By early evening, I still had several hours in my day, but my iPhone battery was dead. Thankfully, I recently purchased a cheap iPhone battery extender that saved the day. I simply plugged the battery extender into the bottom of my iPhone and my iPhone powered on again. The iPhone’s battery display showed that the iPhone was charging, even though it was an external battery pack connected, not the iphone charger.

Because the iPhone thinks the external battery is a charger, you can connect the battery to your iphone and leave it in your purse, bag, or briefcase. After a short while, you can remove the external iPhone battery and use your iPhone on the charge that was transferred from the external batteryto your iPhone.

Here are some important notes about the iPhone battery extender: The external iPhone battery charges via your iPhone cord and iPhone wall charger. You can charge the external battery on it’s own, or you can charge it while the external battery is connected to your iPhone. If you charge the battery while it’s connected to your iphone, both the battery and your iphone will charge (you don’t have to choose between charging one or the other). You can display the external battery’s charge level by pressing a button on the front of the battery. Very important: the battery is rated for Input: 5V, 800mA, so you can use your iPhone charger or your computer’s USB port; Do NOT use an iPad charger because it is 10-watts and will permanently damage the external battery.

At the time I’m writing this, Surplus Computers and some other online computer sellers are seemingly liquidating the Sharper Image iPhone / iPod Power Pack for only $5.99 plus shipping. My shipping cost via the mail was about 6 dollars, so you may want to consider ordering a couple of these to save on shipping costs.

BUY LINK: http://www.surpluscomputers.com/349957/sharper-image-tsi-4008-1500mah-lithium-ion.html

The iPhone battery extenders for which I paid about $6, arrived in the original sealed Sharper Image packaging, and with $29.95 Bed Bath and Beyond price stickers on them. Presumably, these internet computer sellers have purchased iPhone Battery Extenders from Bed Bath and Beyond and they are selling them for 80% off. This 80% off iPhone battery extender deal is limited to stock on-hand, so don’t delay if you want one. I’ve included the UPC number, below, so that you can search the Internet for a similar deal if they’re no longer available from Computer Surplus.

Below are the specifications of the $6 iPhone battery extender:

The Sharper Image TSI-4008 Lithium-Ion External Battery Pack
Black, Sleek and compact design matches iPhone
UPC: 8 10287 01957 8
Li-ion Battery: Capacity: 1500mAh
Blue LED power level indicators
Charges via standard iPhone charger or USB port.
Input: 5V, 800mA
Output: 5V, 500mA

Resources

Apple discussion about iPhone battery life: http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html
Gizmoto Battery Life Results: http://gizmodo.com/5025309/round-up-nine-iphone-3g-battery-life-test-results
$8 at Geeks: http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=TSI-4008&cat=CON
$6 at Computer Surplus: http://www.surpluscomputers.com/349957/sharper-image-tsi-4008-1500mah-lithium-ion.html
Surplus Computer also sells their own brand iPhone battery exender with a a longer battery life (1900mAh), but it has a somewhat greater $23.00 price tag -> http://www.surpluscomputers.com/products/products.html?search=iphone&x=0&y=0