Griffin 9784-PBLKRSV PowerBlock Reserve for iPhone & iPod

by Griffin Technology

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5 x 1.4 x 6.9 inches ; 5.1 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001Q2FM2W
• Item model number: 9784-PBLKRSV
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,268 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

PowerBlock reserve for iPhone & iPod charges your iPhone, iPod, MP3 players, and other USB-chargeable devices.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars PowerDuo Reserve an AAUG Review, June 28, 2009

By 

D. Enders (Apple User Group, Anchorage Ak) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Griffin 9784-PBLKRSV PowerBlock Reserve for iPhone & iPod (Electronics)

With the iPhone utilizing 3G, GPS and push notifications the iPhone battery can get consumed quickly. Previous to this I had been using a Griffin PowerJolt in my truck and a Griffin PowerBlock Universal. This provided me with having power in my rig and at work therwise my battery would not make it through the work day.

So when I saw the Power Duo Reserve, I saw the opportunity to have a third additional charging opportunity in the form of an external battery. A few friends I have talked to don't like the fact that the battery hangs off the iPhone. I myself don't mind it especially if that is my only source of power for the iPhone at the time.

I like the overall design, the Power Duo Reserve provides the ability to charge your iPhone while charges the battery. The battery also snaps into place magnetically. I found the magnetic strength to be more than adequate in my testing. I fell though Griffin should have provided a dock connector cable with this unit. If I didn't have cables from other purchases I probably would have wound up purchasing a cable. This would have added to the $59.99 price tag of the unit.

Up to this point I was excited and with an upcoming trip to test this all out on even more so. That's about where my excitement stopped.

The battery did not provide enough additional capacity to the phone to warrant me spending $59.99. I also tested a Kensington modelthat comes with less features but provided almost twice the recharge that the Griffing unit did.

The battery has 5 leds on it, 5 indicating a full charge.
Connected to iPhone: 4 stars
3 stars 2 minutes later
2 stars 5 minutes later
1 star 8 minutes later
0 stars 40 minutes later

I tried this test more than a half dozen times with varying levels of charge on the iPhone with very similar results each time. The Griffin website doesn't list the battery capacity nor how long you should expect for additional time from a fully charged battery. Griffin should provide these specifications on their website. From some web spelunking it appears the battery has a unofficial capacity of 500 mAH while Kensington states that their battery is 1000 mAH. It is apparent from the week that I used it the battery capacity is too minimal to justify spending the money on this unit even at the reduced price offered at Amazon.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars READ THIS if the other reviews are influencing your purchasing decision, June 22, 2010

By 

Mark Susan (Phoenix, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Griffin 9784-PBLKRSV PowerBlock Reserve for iPhone & iPod (Electronics)

Here's the REAL story on this excellent item:

- The detachable, iPhone battery is more of a "booster" than a "full-recharge" system.
- This should be self-evident by it's demure size and 500 mAh rating.
- The iPhone's internal battery is approximately 1100 mAh, which is over 2x as much as this small booster battery.
- Harry Potter does not make this battery... thus there is no magic inside it. Therefore, because 500 mAh is only 45% of 1100 mAh, it's not very intelligent to think that a full power dump from the battery to your iPhone could add much more than 40-45%. If you need a full recharge... or even more, this is not for you. RichardSolo offers some nice options that are 1200 mAh (full recharge) and even a cool 1800 mAh (1.5x recharges). They're both more expensive and slightly larger, but wouldn't that make sense?

So, mathematically, this battery gives you what you should expect.

- A small bucket of water will only partially fill up a larger bucket.

- It will take about 45-min to do so.

Finally, here's what this product is, in a nutshell:

- A nicely packaged, small wall-charger with USB as its output. The power-plug prongs fold in neatly for ease-of-packing and as an added bonus, it includes a neatly mounted 500 mAh "booster battery that plugs directly into both the charger and also your iPhone. The booster battery holds approximately 40% of the capacity of your iPhone and can transfer that 40% in about 45-min. This is perfect for when you need to top-off your iPhone or "rescue" it from dying completely.

I hope this cleared up some of the details about this product.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nowhere near the life I expected after reading the manual, April 13, 2009

By 

J. York (Arab, AL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Griffin 9784-PBLKRSV PowerBlock Reserve for iPhone & iPod (Electronics)

I went to the Apple store a couple of days ago to try to find a power solution for a trip I have across country coming up. I knew my options included the Slider case with a built in battery, the 3GJuice (this one is not available at Apple Store), the Kensington Mini Battery Extender, and this model from Griffin. They all seemed to claim the same prolonged battery life/recharge specs, so I went with the Griffin model at $39 instead of paying $49 for the Kensington or $79 for the Slider power case. (The 3GJuice, available only online as far as I know, is $55 online but lists for $65.) The Griffin PowerBlock does have 5 green led lights on the front of the battery to indicate the current level of charging when plugged in, but does not illuminate when plugged into the iPhone dock. So before I go across country in a little over a month, I decided to try it out to see if I made a good choice on the ten dollar savings. The night before I had given the PowerBlock a full charge, and my phone when I connected the PowerBlock had about 1/2 charge. The phone immediately displayed the battery icon indicating that the phone was being charged. So far so good. Since my plans are to use my iPhone to watch videos as I travel, and since the manual claims up to 6 hours of additional video usage with the PowerBlock I thought I would start it up and let it run and check on it periodically. After only one hour and 15 minutes the battery icon so longer showed that it was charging, so I disconnected the PowerBlock from the phone, plugged it into an AC outlet, and pressed the button to see if it was really drained. It was. Then I checked my phone to see if I had a full charge, which still would have extended the phone's battery life pretty well, but it was barely greater that the amount of charge from when I began. So the best I can tell you will get somewhere between 1-2 hours more video usage, but nowhere near the 6 hours claimed. This product will be returned to where I bought it and I plan to check reviews on the others I have listed to try to find one whose claims of extended battery life are valid per their published specifications.