Turbo Charge TC400 Portable Cell Phone Charger

by Turbo Charge

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 2 inches ; 4.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000JP8OTK
• Item model number: TC400
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,668 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Product Description

Turbo Charge portable cell phone charger. Compatible with Motorola RAZR/ SLVR, BlackBerry, Nokia, Samsung, LG (x2), Sony/Ericsson, Nextel, Kyocera/Audiovox and Sanyo

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good product -- with a *HUGE* caveat, March 27, 2007

By 

S. Hirozawa (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Turbo Charge TC400 Portable Cell Phone Charger (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I already had one of these (as pictured on this page) and found it very useful. I ordered the product on this page in order to get the larger set of adapters. What I received is apparently the second generation. It is significantly larger: about 3/4" longer and slightly larger in diameter. The new case incorporates a switch mechanism into the battery compartment end cap, so that you can turn it off without removing the battery or disconnecting your phone. It also has a blue-green cap separated from the end of the metal tube by a dark blue band. The old one (the one pictured on this page) had a clear/translucent cap illuminated from within by a blue LED.

I'm not concerned by the larger size; it's still very convenient, and the extra space hopefully houses electronics that improve the charger's performance. The problem is that, despite the tube's increased outer diameter, its inner diameter has shrunk so that rechargeable NiMH batteries will no longer fit in it!!!

To me the exclusion (intentional? Could they really be that stupid?!) of rechargeable batteries is a huge design blunder, which makes the charger much less useful. When I could run it on NiMHs (of which I have many), I used it as a tiny take-anywhere charger. If I can only use disposable batteries in it, then it is merely an emergency charger. Way to ruin a good product, guys!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great little emergency device, August 25, 2007

By 

Bugton (Arvada, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turbo Charge TC400 Portable Cell Phone Charger (Wireless Phone Accessory)

The little Turbo Charge works great if used correctly. It restores my LG to 50% power in about 45 minutes when the Turbo Charge shuts off. If you try to run your phone off this device it won't work if your phone battery is so low that you are getting the warning beep. What happens is you are running off the Turbo Charge and the phone battery is not being charged so the phone shuts down because it senses a drained battery, the device is not powerful enough to power the phone and charge at the same time. I have used it sucessfully to power the phone when I had one power bar still showing when I plugged it in. The instructions say it is best to turn off the phone when charging. The instructions also say that you can go to the web site for instructions on how to receive a free adapter if the adapters that came with the device don't fit your phone. I only use the Turbo Charge to get me out of a bind when I can't wait for the AC to charge my phone, or I don't want to leave my phone in the car to charge. I shut off the phone, plug in the Turbo Charge and drop it into my pocket or I set it on the table at a restaurant and wait for the blue cap to go out. This little charger has saved me many times. I am ordering the newest one for my Ipod.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Flawed Product., November 22, 2008

By 

MarioJP (SF) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turbo Charge TC400 Portable Cell Phone Charger (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Where do I begin??. This has to be the most upsetting thing for me for this product. Horrible at best. Here are few MAJOR FLAWS this product has.

1.Unable to fit rechargeable batteries but yet works fine with disposable batteries which gets eating away faster than you can keep buying. Sure there are those Lithium energizer ultimate batteries but they are still disposable.

2.Turbo Charger isn't really turbo. It does not have the power to charge my blackberry properly. the screen goes on and off like its having trouble charging the blackberry. Sure i turned it off and still it charges way too slow and the batteries inside turbo charger gets pretty warm which means its not every efficient.

Energizer Energi-to-go charger beats turbo charger hands down. It not only charges my blackberry while its still on with no problems at a fast charging rate. But also you can use any 2 AA batteries including RECHAREABLES and hardly ever gets warm. On a fully charged 2 AA 2500mah nimh batteries. My black berry gets fully charged when its off and 85-90% charge when its on. I am talking when my phone is fully discharged, and hardly ever gets warm which makes it a very efficient cell phone charger.

Something that turbo charger fails to do without eating away batteries first.

3.I had to take the paper wrapping off for rechargeable batteries just so it can fit.

I highly do not recommend this to anyone. Worst decision i ever made.


Now there are things to consider that might fix these issues. One of them happens to be that in fact this unit uses 1 AA. This means in order to charge your cell phone the voltage would have to go from 1.2/1.5 to exactly 5V. Thats a big boost from one AA battery.

All the conversion is lost as heat. Heat that is been generated = waste of charge because this thing eats batteries like there is no tomorrow.

The only downside with the energizer enrgi-to-go is

1. Has no switch for on and off

2.Has a high voltage termination threshold. This means when the battery gets around 75% charge left. Whatever you do, do not disconnect it from the phone that is charging or remove the batteries. Because once it goes off thats it and all that remaining charge wont get used. But if you don't disconnect or remove the batteries. Then the battery will get used up all the way.

Which is why i am looking for a charger that has the strength of the energizer energi to go but with a much lower voltage termination so that way i can turn it off whenever i want and not having to worry about not turning back on.

I try the Turbo Charge TB550 and see how that goes because this one is a complete failure.