Last time, we talked about Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS).  That’s great for home use, but what about when you’re traveling or just away from a power outlet?  You know your phone or tablet is prone to die just when you need it most.  The easiest way to deal with this is to have an external battery or two on hand.  Here’s what I use:

We first got the Motorola a few years ago.  Instead of getting proprietary extra batteries for our phones, we bought two of these small external Motorola batteries.  They will charge anything that works in a USB port (as long as you have the cable or if it’s a micro-USB, the cable is included).  These are small and good for a charge on a typical cell phone.

After we got the tablets (the Motorolas will provide some juice to the tablets as well, but they won’t fully charge them), we invested in something a little larger. The HyperJuice Plug, which comes with a whopping 15,600 mAh of charge.  That’s enough for eleven iPhone charges or two and a half iPad2 charges (13 hours on a newer iPad).  No external cables are required for charging, because it has a retractable plug (Many people are concerned that this plug is fragile, and we are careful with it, because we share that concern.  We’ve had ours for a year and a half with no troubles.).  It has two USB ports and adjusts charging depending upon the device(s) connected.  My husband and I each have one, and we both use them extensively.

This small, rectangular charger by Jackery has been very useful for the cell phones. The advantage of it as well as the Motorola’s is the compact space they consume, which is important when you’re on the move.

I was so happy with the small Jackery charger, I decided to add to the stable by getting a slightly larger one which includes the added benefit of an LED flashlight.  This will work fairly well with a tablet or a cell phone while still being compact and lightweight.  I’m keeping this one in my truck, so I always have something handy

These colorful “lipstick” chargers are also available at places like Walgreen’s for $9.99.

These chargers range from $10 – $160 so there’s an option for every price range and power need.  I haven’t found something that will work with the laptops yet.  I’m quite certain if I had a USB charger for the laptops, the HyperJuice Plug would work very well. Do you keep an external battery around for any of your devices?  What’s your favorite?