Powergorilla November 2008

Powergorilla – battery and charging system for laptop and gadgets

This versatile battery pack promises to keep a wide variety of laptops and portable gadgets fully charged while you’re on the move, and can even charge them using solar power.

Essentially a large lithium-polymer battery, the Powergorilla is a bigger brother of the Powermonkey from the same manufacturer, Powertraveller. It takes five to six hours to charge it fully from the mains, but there's also a Solargorilla (available separately), which will charge your devices directly, or charge the Powergorilla from the sun.

The manufacturer claims the Powergorilla will give you an extra two to five hours of power, depending on your laptop's specification – enough to cover a long train journey or flight, and ideal for watching DVDs on the move. If you’re using the Powergorilla with other devices, the claimed battery life is an average of 20 hours.

The key to the Powergorilla’s flexibility is that it gives you a choice of charging voltages. It can output 5V, 16V, 19V or 24V, depending on which gadget you need to charge, and its blue backlit LCD screen indicates your chosen voltage.

One of the biggest advantages of the Powergorilla over other battery chargers is that you can charge multiple devices simultaneously, as is has separate laptop and USB sockets. It’s even capable of charging them while itself being charged from the mains power supply.

It comes with a vast array of connectors, including worldwide mains adaptors, 15 plugs to fit most brands of laptop, and another 10 plugs for other gadgets. These will fit MP3 players and iPods, satnavs, mobile phones, Blackberries and PDAs, plus games consoles such as the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP.

The Powergorilla weighs 631g and measures 22cm x 13cm x 1.5cm, which makes it portable but quite hefty. It feels solidly made, with an aluminium casing and shock-resistant rubber protection strips, plus a useful neoprene pouch, though this doesn't have enough room to carry all the supplied accessories.

The Powergorilla also has many safety features including voltage and current limitation and protection from short circuits, overcharging and overheating, so there should be minimal risk of damaging your gadgets.

An alternative solution to keep your laptop powered for longer is, of course, to buy a spare laptop battery, but this could still be pricey, and won’t offer the flexibility of the Powergorilla. If you’re considering buying a new laptop, check out our laptop reviews, which includes battery-life ratings.

The Powergorilla is available now from online retailers for around £150, or £290 with the Solargorilla. Macbook users will need to buy a separate Apple MagSafe airline adaptor to be able to connect their Macbook to a Powergorilla.

Pros: Versatile portable power, connectors for most gadgets

Cons: Expensive, bulky

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