Battery Life: keeping charged while on the go

There is plenty to talk about when it comes to battery life and keeping your devices charged while on the go. At risk of stating the obvious, but this is one of those times when there never seems to be enough and where bigger seems to be better. The exception to that rule comes when the battery is large enough that it adds serious weight and size to the device. Anyway, the topic of batteries came up when we saw that Woot offering from last week, the one where they were offering the messenger and sling-style bags for $39. Basically, while trying to decide whether I needed to purchase the Powerbag, it got me to wondering — how are most users keeping their device charged while out and about.

Lets face it, with a few small exceptions such as the Galaxy Note II, most devices will drop into the red with a heavy day of use. In taking inventory of my battery charging options, I found that I am using four methods. One of those we can rule out for most Android users right off the bat. That one is the battery case. I have a Galaxy S III and am happy to have the Mophie Juice Pack which adds a 2300 mAh battery to the stock 2100 mAh of the handset. While I consider this to be solid option, I also realize that I may be more of an edge case in terms of use here.

You see, I like the Mophie because it gives me a form factor ‘close’ to the size of my phone and allows me to have double the battery life without ever having to shut my phone down. I tend to use this on long runs when I want to make sure Runkeeper stays running and tracking beyond a few hours time. More realistically here, and likely the reason most Android users would not feel the need for a battery case — many Android handsets have a removable battery.

Enter method two. In my case, I have a few of those. The extra battery option is good for just begin away from power. They tend to work good when I go camping. It is easy enough to swap the battery out and this is one of those times when I don’t mind the phone being shut down for little while. This also goes to the external USB battery packs, method number three. These tend to work better when you have multiple devices and also when it is convenient to be carrying the battery pack itself. After all, unlike a spare battery, these are generally not going to fit in your pocket.

This is where the Powerbag comes back into play, assuming I am carrying a bag that can hold a USB battery pack — it may as well be a bag with a built-in battery and internal wiring. That being the case, I did go ahead and order a new sling-style Powerbag and have plans to pass my current bag off to a friend. Another perk with the bags is the charging. You see, you can have your devices plugged in while inside the bag (multiple devices at a time) and they all keep charged using the bags internal battery. On top of that, you can also charge them all up by simply plugging the bag itself into a wall outlet.

Of course, the key factor with any of these options is to making sure they are charged ahead of time. Sometimes a dead battery or making use of a car charger is inevitable. With that, I shared a bit of my craziness when it comes to making sure my devices keep charged while out and about but I am also looking for some stories from others. Shout out in the comments and share some of your methods, or if you want, call me crazy for having so many battery charging option.