[General Accessories] vectron:
This is a review of UNU SuperPak 10,000 mAh external battery. http://www.myunu.com/unu-superpak-battery-pack-for-smartphones-and-tablets.html , also available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/UNU-Superpak-10000mAh-Lightning-compatible/dp/B00LXL6L9E/

External battery market is saturated, and it’s very sad to see hundreds of different models where the only innovation is a different color casing or shape of buttons or some other cosmetic changes trying to differentiate themselves from the rest. Luckily there are still a few companies that trying to innovate in this sector of electronic gadgets, and I found UNU to be one of them. Their UltraPak Go and Tour, reviewed not too long ago, demonstrated a new fast charging technology and a built in digital display to monitor battery status. Today I’m going to look into their latest SuperPak battery which has some unique features while keeping it at a budget friendly price.

Arrived in a small packaging box, you get a nice cover graphics with a picture of SuperPak and a detailed listing of features on the back and the sides. Out of the box you will find the battery packed inside of a plastic storage tray with user manual and USB charging cable. Typically I don’t spend too much time in further description of the cable since everybody includes a typical usb to micro-usb cable with their products. Well, this is not your typical cable because in addition to micro-usb connector it has a removable adapter (attached by a cable string so it doesn’t get lost) with Apple Lightning connector for use with iPhone 5/6. Though I personally don’t have any Apple products, I think it’s a fantastic idea to provide a universal cable to accommodate charging of any device. Obviously, the same cable could be used to charge battery itself.

Now about the battery, it has a sturdy quality build and a durable metal case. The footprint of the battery was relatively small for its 10,000 mAh capacity, but also a little bit thicker in comparison to other batteries. Either way, it should be pocket friendly and easy to carry with you in the bag on the go. The design itself is very simple. The top of the battery has a typical 4 led indicator with 25% charging/capacity increments. Nothing special here except in comparison to led display of UltraPak this was one of the “corners” UNU had to cut in order to reduce the price of the unit. The rest of the ports and controls are clustered and clearly labeled on the side of the battery. In there you have a large round power button, can’t miss that, which you have to push in order to start charging. In comparison to most of the other batteries charging usually starts automatically as soon as you connect the cable, while here UNU gives you a control – just have to remember to push that button.

You also have 2 full size usb charging ports labeled uSmart 5V/2.1A and 5V/1A. They use a new charge sensing technology to supply charging current at the max speed of the connected device. UNU is not the first one to introduce this technology, but still it’s a great feature which I only found available with two other manufacturers. Also, in my test I found my Note 4 charging at exactly the same speed from either of the ports. So I’m just going to consider this as a dual output 5V power supply with a total capacity of 3.1A shared current which gets distributed and optimized according to the max charging speed of your device.

Of course, I saved the best for last – SuperX micro-usb input port to charge the UNU battery. While only a few companies focus on faster charging of the devices connected to the battery, nobody focuses on fast charging of the battery itself. UltraPak introduced super fast charging but at an expense of a bulky AC wall proprietary charger which is not very convenient when you are traveling. SuperPak uses a regular standard micro-usb input charging port which is capable of 2.4A charging speed!!! For a comparison, all the currently available external batteries have a charging input of 1A or lower. With increasing capacity of batteries, that’s roughly speaking 1 hour of charge per each 1000 mAh of capacity. So a typical 10,000 mAh battery will take about 10 hours to charge, while SuperPak with its 2.4A input will fully charge its battery in under 5 hours. You also have to keep in mind, that you will not have the actual 10k mAh of available capacity to charge your phone since conversion of internal SuperPack battery of 3.7V to 5V and back to your phone’s 3.7V battery will result in about 20% of efficiency losses.

Overall, I found SuperPak to be a great battery with a decent build, high capacity, flexibility of micro-usb and apple lightning connector, smart device charging outputs, and a unique feature of super fast 2.4A input recharging. Only a few currently available ext batteries offer smart charging outputs, and universal micro-usb / lightning connector high quality cable is definitely a bonus. But SuperX input charging feature of SuperPak is the first one I have seen. This means that you no longer have to wait to charge your ext battery overnight or keep it on the charger half of the day to get those 4 leds lit up. In half of the time you can have your SuperPak battery full and ready to go!

Here are the pictures.