Review: Griffin PowerDuo Reserve

Why didn’t anyone think of this one sooner? Power users on the go want to charge their iPhone or iPod everywhere – at home, in the car, even while holding it in their hand. Griffin’s new PowerDuo Reserve bundles a wall charger, a car charger, and a snap-on battery into the same $59 package, which is efficient, but the brilliance kicks in when you realize that the snap-on battery itself can be recharged by being plugged into either the wall charger or car charger. The result is that any time you leave your house or step out of your car, you’ll start off with not only a charged up iPhone or iPod, but a charged up external battery to take with you.



Many of us have been following the same formula via multiple separate devices over the years. But at home that’s meant charging the iPhone and external battery via separate outlets, and in the car it’s meant only being able to charge one or the other at a time. But all of that complication gets erased with the Reserve. It’s one of those ideas that sounded good in theory, and turned out even better when I put it to test in the real world.



The one fundamnetal shortcoming with the Reserve is that bottom snap-on batteries are generally less desirable than form-fitting battery cases or cradles due to the fact that it’s not highly realistic to leave a snap-on battery attached to your device while it’s in your pocket or bag for fear it’ll snap off in a way that damages one or both. So if you’re already accustomed to a battery cradle, you’re unlikely to give it up in favor of the Reserve system. But competing snap-on batteries with similar capacities (about 50% more battery life for your iPhone) tend to cost about $50 themselves, meaning you’re essentially getting the two chargers for five bucks each, making the package a highly compelling value even before you throw in the bonus of simplification. Also available for $39 as the PowerJolt (battery and car charger) or PowerBlock (battery and wall charger).



One question though: why wouldn’t a car charger come with a cable to connect it to your device? Unless you want to carry your sync cable to the car and back, you’ll need to pick up a spare cable for the car – hence the lower rating for the PowerJolt.

Learn more at GriffinTechnology.com