**REVIEW** Lifeguard Mini 1 Portable Charger

Cellphones. Agh! We've chained ourselves into having them, using them, and never being able to be without them. They are convenient and, for some of us (me!), they have replaced landlines and radios. And if it's not our cellphones, it's our tablets, right?

Convenient, convenient, convenient. Until the batteries runs down. Agh!

For the longest time, I carried a plug-in charger with more care than I do my checkbook. I actually had a cute little cosmetics bag just to hold my charger. Having a cellphone battery run down is not even that big of a deal in most cases. I repeat: In. Most. Cases.

This is the charger next to the laptop Spacebar.

However, in some cases, I have ended up 1 - looking selfish (running over someone to beat them to a free outlet in an airport boarding lounge); 2 - looking crazed while baby-talking the charger to "charge faster, faster" so I can dash away as soon as my boarding group is called or; 3 - just about having a nervous breakdown when I realized I am boarding a flight with my phone only charged to 12%...

Now we have portable chargers. Ahhh...What a relief.

This is the second charger I have tried out and 1 of 4 or more that our family has around.


That right there is the Lifeguard Mini 1. It's small enough to share a cosmetic case with my lipsticks. Nice. Real nice.
(And, yeah,  sorry for the angle... Blogger is acting a fool & not placing photos in their original orientation).

The first time I charged it (out of the box), it took just over an hour and a half. That seemed like a long time, but this is a portable charger that's supposed to hold a lot of juice. I read that some people let theirs charge up overnight, but not me. Too impatient.

Next test, charging up my tablet that has been completely dead for about three weeks. How'd the charger do? Well, I had intended to time how long the charge-up took, but I fell asleep. Next morning, my tablet was charged to 100% and the Mini1 had enough juice left to charge my phone (from around 86% to full).

Wow, right? And wait - there's more!

My bad photo.
This comes with a USB connector
and instructions

After juicing up my dead tablet and my almost-full phone, the Mini1 still brought my bluetooth headphones from a Medium charge to High. There was more juice left (according to the lights), but I can't tell how much...

Now, because this charger is so awesome and packs so much juice, I am not really bothered by the one thing that could be considered a negative. That one thing is that there is no display on the Mini1 to show what percentage of charge it's holding. The indicator on the Mini1 will show Red when it's plugged and being charged up for use. When it's full, the light goes out. Once you plug the Mini1 into your phone or other device, the indicator light shows Blue.

Do I wish that there was a better/quicker way to know how charged up the Mini1 is? Of course. But does that bother me much? No sir. See, another portable charger I have used does have the display to show how charged up it is. That's nice, but the other charger doesn't pack the charging power of the Mini1. I'll take more juice over a better indicator any day. Anyway, the work-around is simple: just plug in the Mini1 to see if the Red light indicates needing a charge. Or, better yet, just make sure to always keep the Mini1 charged and ready to go. That is pretty much the point of any portable charger...

So, even though the Mini1 is slightly heavier than another charger I've used, it's about the same size (fits into a pocket or tiny purse, etc.) and yet it packs a ton more charging juice. And that really is the main point.

The only thing I would change about this is the color I got. I now wish I had gone for the pink or silver one. That's the chick in me.

Now, to get to get to the nitty gritty, this comes with an 18-month money-back guarantee. Notice on the product page that you can choose to get the Mini1 that includes a lightening cable or not (for a few dollars price difference).

This is a charger that packs a lot of power, so out of the 4 that are being used in our family, this is the one that I like best so far. Just that pesky little no-display issue...

Peace
--Free

DISCLOSURE: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.