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20130511

Saved: $5 at Future shop and the Source

Problem: I need a better charging system than what I have now which is a NiHCD portable power charger by Black and Decker.

It's only good with non-smartphone devices since smartphone have 1250mAh batteries which means only 75% of the charge will be met before the charger shuts off.

Soutioon:
So I went to Future Shop and found the Aluratek 5000 mAh Portable Charger on sale for $10 plus tax.

All that was missing was the USB to DC cable, which I have since mine came with the Kodak camera I used to use before switching to my smartphones to take pictures in addition to the 101 other things such phones can do.

The only thing I don't like about the new charger is it does not have a second port like the one I originally wanted to buy from the DMAC store for $40, but felt that a better deal was waiting for me.

After looking at the adapters for various cellphones, I realized that they would be perfect with an AC-to-DC adapter.

So I bought a Newtech adapter and polarity adapter that matches both the charger's DC charging socket and the cellphone charging adapters which came with the Aluratek charger.

This means I could use the cellphone adapters with the AC-to-DC adapter and with the USB-to-DC cable.

If I didn't by the AC-to-DC adapter and polarity adapter, then I could have saved about $9 but even after buying it in addition to the charger, I still saved about $5 over the charger I saw at DMAC.

With the USB-to-DC cable and the cellphone adapters, I can charge the charger with my USB AC adapter and have a charger handy if my mobile devices' batteries go flat on me using the cellphone adapters with the cable.

This replaces my B&D charger, iPhone USB-to-iPhone adapter cable and retractable USB-to-micro USB cable at the expense of having the device closer to the charger.

Though it makes sense to keep the retractable USB-to-micro USB cable when charging my Android phone.

With the working phones I have, I only need the iPhone adapter and the Nokia adapter since the other working phones use micro-USB.

Of course, this complicates the number of parts to carry from originally 3 to the 5 pieces I intend to use (charger, USB-to-DC cable, two phone adapters, and the retractable USB cable).

Though, this also means I always have to carry my knapsack to hold all the pieces of my new charging kit.

The old charging kit.

The new charging kit.

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