Portable Power! New Trent USB battery packs.

So this weekend I ended up doing lengths of Britain, quite literally! This is just one of the occupational hazards for any busy session musician, and with so much traveling to do, the common way to combat the bordom is either sleeping or idevice-ing the time away. As the proud owner of an ipad 2 I chose the latter. Despite it's impressive battery stats (and the less-than-impressive battery stats of my, now very old, iphone 3GS) i was struggling for power **cue the star-trek Scottie impressions**

With this in mind i started searching for a suitable USB battery pack to have on hand for those times of amp hour need. Incidentally I always see plenty of these packs at the airports but they are always hideously overpriced.  One would guess because the people that need them have usually been caught out with little charge left and have to pay the price out of desperation! After a little research and a trawl through amazon.co.uk i happened across the New Trent line of battery packs.

Contendors:

Now there are a fair few different models to go for but what wold be of most use to me was something that could charge both my apple idevices. The three New Trent devices under consideration where the IMP icruiser 11000mah, the IMP 50D 5000mah Dual-port and the IMP660 Dual-port. So the icruiser was the first I looked at and boasted the biggest fuel tank. At 1.1amp capacity I would imagine a good charge and a half being delivered to an empty ipad as well as many, many charges to an iphone. While this looked promising it had two down falls. First off it was the largest and heaviest of the bunch and more importantly it had just one single USB output (1Amp). 

*For the less tech savvy, the iphone requires about a 0.5Amp socket to fast charge, an ipad requires a 2Amp output to fast charge. Hence why if you try to charge your ipad off of your iphone charger it will take forever compared to its native charger*

Next was the IMP 50D. Now this pack is only half the capacity and thus smaller/lighter than the icruiser so only offers half the charge but where this pack excels is the dual USB ports which allow you to charge two devices at once and more importantly, each output is different. One USB is rated at 500mah (0.5Amps) which is perfect for devices like the iphone and another output rated at 1Amp (like the icruser) for higher current devices like the ipad. 

While all this was heading in the right direction it still wasn't quite there, and that's where the IMP660 Dual-port comes in. Holding a charge of 6600mah it was heading closer in capacity to its bigger brother (around 70% charge to a flat ipad) yet still small and light like the 50D. Most important of all are the dual outputs like the 50D, but this time one rated at 500mah and one at a higher current of 1.5Amps. This higher rated output is much closer to what the ipad needs to fast charge, happy days! If you have to tether your idevice to charge it you want it tethered for as little time as possible and that is why this pack gets the overall win for me. In an hour it will get more into the ipad than the bigger IMP will and thats what counts. It will get me 50% recharge to my ipad and a couple of charges to my 3GS before it needs plugging into the wall itself to recharge and thats more than enough to get me out of trouble. At a very reasonable £31.99 on amazon UK I dont think you can go wrong!

Winner: New Trent dual-port IMP 660 

Travel Speakers: Jawbone Jambox VS Soundmatters Foxl V2.2

So on one of my regular trips though Heathrow T5 last month I found myself, yet again, trawling through the various tech at Dixons. Having frequented that particular store so many times actually made spotting any new tech arrivals fairly easy. What caught my eye in particular was the very small Jambox by Jawbone. This trendy looking travel speaker was on a dedicated display stand littered with quotes claiming to have sound that defied its size blah, blah, like we havent heard that before? I asked the shop assistant to demo it, i could tell it was a powerful little speaker for its size but given the noise level in any airport you can imagine how impossible it was to properly hear this thing. So, with assurance i could return the product if i didn't like it, i took the plunge and made a purchase of £145 no less! At that price was it worth it? Well, yes and no. More on this in a bit.

Jambox by Jawbone

After about three days with the Jawbone and reading up on this unit, i couldn't help but notice the regular mention of the comparable Foxl travel speaker by Soundmatters. A similar sized device that has been around a little longer. With so many people favouring either one or the other for different reasons, i decided to make a purchase on Amazon and see (hear) for myself which was the better unit and return the loser.

Foxl by Soundmatters

Now there are plenty of reviews out there if you want the real nitty-gritty of technical detail on these two models. What i will talk about it the comparable differences and why for me there is one clear winner.

Features:

When it comes down to it, the Jawbone has most of the advantages here. The firmware is updatable via USB, and using the mytalk website you can add some cool little features like personalising the battery announcement voice and voice dial apps. Both devices have a mic for handsfree calls, in tests the Foxl wins for clarity. The connectivity is similar on both units. Bluetooth streaming is via A2DP compatible devices (i used my ipad), a regular 3.5mm jack input is present for wired connection on both units and USB inputs. The Foxl, on top of this, has a subwoofer output should you want to run a full range set up. In comparison though, the Jambox feels the most feature rich.

Design:

Well when it come to the looks you have to admit the Jambox does look pretty slick, and each colour has its own style of metal mesh grill which is a nice touch. It also has a very sturdy base and top made of rubber which help stop the device rattling across the table when the bass starts to kick out. The Foxl does come with an anti-slip matt to help solve this but the Jambox had the better idea integrating at design stage. The Jambox is definitely the bulkier of the two units, though not by much. Both units are very solid and well constructed with no tell, tell signs of poor construction through chasis/grill rattling. Again the Jambox wins for having nice big accessible rubber buttons on top whereas the Foxl's small buttons on the rear are a little fiddly to get to.

Accessories:

Both units have all the bits you'd hope for, audio jack cable 3.5mm, USB cables for charging/firmware updating respectively, travel bags (Jambox one is particularly cool) and chargers. A good feature for the Foxl here is the interchangeable power blades for world travel, nice touch!

Sound:

So by this point you probably have a good idea of who my clear winner is right? Well, you may be surprised to hear its actually the Foxl that will be staying at the Jones residence for (above all) one reason, it sounds fantastic! This is not to say the Jambox isn't a great piece of gear because in most other ways it is the better buy, by design, features and looks. It just seemed to fall at the final and most important hurdle. As an audiophile i just couldn't ignore the difference in sound. Another reviewer actually put it the best when he said the Jambox sounds like your favourite artist is trapped in a little box trying to get out whereas the Foxl just breaths clarity. The tops are crisper and the lows are lower and richer. Both units kick out an extraordinary amount of bass for their size putting many bigger units to shame. It's very much a near-field speaker but you pair it up with your ipad to watch a movie and kick back, this thing actually rumbles the sofa! This is thanks to the clever 'Bass Battery Radiator' found in both devices. One other thing worth mentioning is that the Foxl, when plugged in to the wall unit, will double its power from 2 to 4 Watts which is some welcome extra grunt. Both units will start to distort at the top of their volume but the Jambox seems to have a little software compression to deal with this, i have to say im not a fan as the audible result is just odd. 

Winner! The Foxl's sound is totally wizard.

Verdict:

So for me the decision was pretty easy. For the price you could argue these are both luxury items. If you're not a traveler i dont really see the point in spending £150 on either of these units. If however you want to sit outside in the garden or you're locked in the hotel room for any length of time and you want a super portable great sounding speaker that is also a great alternative to wearing headphones, then i can heartily recommend the Foxl by Soundmatters.