While the battery life in our Windows Phone and Windows devices has improved dramatically over the years, there are still times when you need a little boost to make it through the day. The easy solution is finding an outlet and just plug in your Windows Phone or your Surface tablet.
However, when an outlet isn't available a portable, an external battery is a good option to have. RAVPower offers a nice assortment of external batteries and the RP-PB14 Xtreme is one of the beefiest batteries the company offers. The Xtreme battery sports a 2300mAh battery with LCD display and a ton of connection options.
The RAVPower Xtreme is a nice option to consider to cover a wide range of recharging needs but the size may take away from the portability of this battery.
Design
The RAVPower RP-PB14 Xtreme battery measures 4.88 x 7.28 x .75 inches and weighs in at 1.3 pounds. In practical terms, it is about the size of an 8" tablet but with a little bit more heft to it.
The face of the battery is brushed aluminum that has a small LCD display that will show you the amount of power remaining, charging status and voltage selected. The unit's main power button sits adjacent to the LCD display.
The bottom shell of the RAVPower Xtreme is glossy black plastic with all the ports resting on one end of the battery. The ports include:
- DC output (9V, 12V, 16V, 19V, 20V)
- USB 1 Output (5V/1A for phones)
- USB 2 Output (5V/2.5A for tablets)
- DC Input
The guts of the RAVPower Xtreme includes the 2300mAh battery that is composed of lithium-polymer battery cells.
Overall, the construction and design of the RAVPower Xtreme battery is solid. It is definitely not a back-up battery to toss in your pocket but backpack carry shouldn't be an issue.
The brushed aluminum looks nice as does the glossy black under-belly but the battery is definitely a dust magnet. A downside you can easily live with if the RAVPower can give your laptop, tablet or phone a boost in power to get that last email out for the day or finish that marathon game of Wordament.
Connectivity
The RAVPower Xtreme 2300mAh battery comes with enough connectors that if something is missing, it's probably for an old Palm Treo. The connectors includes an AC adapter to re-charge the Xtreme battery as well as:
- Samsung 30Pin Connector
- Mini USB Connector
- Micro USB Connector
- Nokia DC 2.0 Connector
- USB Power Connector
- DC Power Connector
- 10 various Notebook Connectors
The Notebook connectors are compatible with various Sony, Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba, Asus, Samsung, Dell and HP Notebooks. It does not include Apple adapters (30 pin or lightning).
Performance
Again, this isn't a back-up battery you toss in your pocket but fits backpack carry nicely. While finding the correct connector is fairly straightforward and should you need to adjust the voltage (for laptops), that process is straightforward as well.
The power button is a multi-function button with the following features.
- Gently press the power button to check the battery status.
- Long press the button and the voltage on the LCD will begin to flash. Once flashing, tap the power button to cycle through your options.
When inactive for five seconds, the battery will power down.
Charging time to get the RAVPower to 100% takes about six hours. When fully charged, the RAVPower Xtreme has plenty of juice to replenish most Windows Phone batteries, tablet batteries and keep laptops going for another few hours.
You do have the ability to simultaneously charge up to three devices at once with the RAVPower Xtreme.
Overall Impressions
The RAVPower RP-PB14 Xtreme 2300mAh portable battery is well made, simply designed and while it's not pocketable, it is portable.
I can see the Xtreme battery coming in handy for students who rely on their tablets for note taking, hikers/campers who need a portable recharging source for their phones or those who simply need a reliable source of power for those times a wall outlet isn't handy.
While RAVPower includes a nice assortment of connectors, it is a subtle reminder that we really need a universal standard for these connectors. Luckily, you'll only need to lug around those connectors specific to your devices but still, one size to fit all would be nice.
Overall, the RAVPower Xtreme is an external battery worth looking into if you need something more than the smaller, pocket-sized batteries. Especially if you need to charge more than one device at once.
The RAVPower Xtreme is currently running in the neighborhood of $100 and you can find it through RAVPower directly, Amazon.com or other third party retailers.
