As such, smartphone markers are rushing to innovate ways that can keep smartphone users connected with their power-hungry devices. Tecno for instance ships its Phantom A+ device with an external battery bank. The competition, particularly Samsung and lately Nokia responded with their own versions of battery banks. Preciously, i had to carry a feature phone to argument on my Lumia just incase my battery ran out even though i hated carrying two phones. But now the Nokia Universal Portable USB DC-16 charger could be the ultimate answer to my problems. The portable charger spots a 2200mAh battery, a USB connector, LED Indicator lights, Power indicator and a Charger connector. The cylindrical shaped charger has a poly-carbonate shell just like most Lumia phones while its surface is nickel free. The charger is remarkably easy to use akin to most Nokia handsets. You simply plug the charger into a wall outlet, or connect a charger cable to a compatible PC. Then connect the micro-USB end of the cable to the charger connector on the Nokia DC-16. When the Nokia DC-16 is charging, the indicator lights blinks giving you an idea of the progress of the charging process. When the battery is fully charged, the indicator lights stay on. While the we loved the design of the DC-16, the fancy LED charging status lights and the charger’s light weight, and the fact that it’s a multi-device charger that can even charge your Samsung devices, we’re terribly disappointed by its battery capacity (2200mAh). It’s a battery bank for crying out loud! If so, then it should by all means have at least more than twice the capacity of most battery phones. The bank almost has the same capacity as the Nokia 1020 or 920 which both spot 2000 mAh batteries. 4000 mAh plus would have been deserving for a portable charger. We also didn’t like the fact that it took a long time (more than 3 hours on external power) to charge! Once again, compared to how long smartphones fully charge, this is a very long for a portable charger for this capacity. In conclusion, we would give the Nokia DC-16 charger a 2.5 star rating out of 5. Certainly not our favorite. We’re looking forward to the next iterations of the charger, but for now we’re looking elsewhere for portable energy for our devices.
