Choiix Power Fort Review

User Experience

Just as the features of a product such as this one will influence a buyer, those same features will also play a big part in the overall user experience. Were they true? Does the product live up to expectations? Did I get what I paid for? Now based on the listed features of the Power Fort, I will complete my evaluation.

Slim curve design and light weight

This one speaks volumes as it is definitely lightweight. This thing weighs only 102g (3.6 oz) and is small enough to throw into a pocket!

I had fun just toting this around knowing that if my smartphone went dead I’d still be okay. My BlackBerry Storm2 has a 1400 mAh battery, and on a full charge the Power Fort can easily recharge my phone from completely dead to full. Not only that but it still has enough power to function as a flashlight or charge smaller devices such as MP3/4 players. By the way, it charges very fast but I’ll get to that one in a little bit.

Special bypass circuit design prevents the battery from the damage & Full protections built-in to avoid battery damage

This one is a bit on the technical side, however, just take comfort in knowing that you cannot overcharge the Power Fort to the point where it causes damage. With several of these built-in protective technologies (Over Charging Protection, Over Discharging Protection, Over Current Protection, Over Temperature Protection, Short Circuit Protection), your unit is expected to give you a lot of mileage.

Powerful 1A charges 30% faster than normal USB power

Let me start off by saying that this claim is not a sales pitch. Charging from the wall outlet is one thing but charging by USB is a whole other story. Charging from a USB 2.0 port on a computer will inevitably be slower. However, the Power Fort manages to fall somewhere in between.

The best example I can use is yet again my cell phone due to its high capacity battery pack. With the phone on and active, a USB connection usually take about 2 hours and 30 minutes to fully charge from in the red zone.

The Power Fort does it in a whopping 1 hour and 40 minutes on average. This is roughly 33% faster! I really like conservative claims. Thumbs up on that one. When recharging the battery pack itself, it takes a conservative 3 hours via USB though.

Built-in LED flashlight for emergency

You never know when you are going to need a light in the dark or for what reason. Having a, can I say very bright, triple LED flashlight on your battery pack is a wonderful idea.

The stored charge powers the flashlight for easily over an hour. This should be more than enough time for you to get what you’re doing done. To activate or deactivate the flashlight, just press the button on the front of the device twice.

What is that white thing you may ask? That is the Choiix Boom Boom Speaker (also available in black). Stay tuned for that review soon as well. I am glad that the Power Fort could shed some well needed light on it…even in a pitch black room.

Battery life LED indicators

On the front of the Power Fort, there are four blue LEDs that indicate how much charge is left. Here is a rough breakdown.

• 1st LED blinking: 0-15%
• 1st LED solid:  15-30%
• 2nd LED blinking: 30-45%
• 2nd LED solid: 45-60%
• 3rd LED blinking: 60-70%
• 3rd LED solid: 70-80%
• 4th LED blinking: 80-90%
• 4th LED solid: 90-100%

For example, this picture shows 3 solid LEDs so that means that there is still roughly 70-80% battery power left.

Up to 500 recharge times with 85% capacity remaining & Ultra low self-discharge battery cell function

Over time, capacitors lose their ability to store as much charge as they used to. However, the technology employed behind the Power Fort allows you to have 500 full charge and discharge cycles and still be able to hold a charge of up to 85% of its original capacity. This is a very good attribute but only time will tell on that one as I have only had it for so long.

The ultra low self-discharge means that when left unused, the charge will not dissipate quickly. Just as a cell phone would have a standby time of say 300 hours for example, the length of standby time on the Power Fort is even longer.

A worthy note also is that it supports in-line charging. This means that you can charge or power a device from the Power Fort while it is also charging!