The Eton BoostTurbine 4000 is a unique portable charger. It’s half everyday battery pack that can charge many modern smartphones, and half emergency power backup, thanks to its hand crank that lets you harness your elbow grease to power your dead iPhone. That makes it an ideal backup battery for powering your gadgets away from home, and helps you get power when there is no other power source, such as during a blackout, while you’re camping, or if you’ve traveled to a remote area.

The BoostTurbine is roughly the size and weight of the type of power brick found on a power cable for a game console or laptop. It sports a smooth brushed-aluminum case with sharp edges on the bottom.

On the back is the plastic crank that snaps into the main body for storage. The crank has a firm hinge that moves smoothly and keeps the crank in place. That’s a plus, because I’ve used crank chargers where the crank moved around a lot while I turned it, making it hard to get into a momentum and charge the battery.

Along the top of the BoostTurbine, there is a standard USB and a Micro-USB port, a power button, and LED indicator lights (more on those later). The device comes with one Micro-USB-to-USB cable, which you use to charge your gadgets. You can also charge the BoostTurbine itself by connecting the cable to your computer’s USB port and plugging the Micro-USB end into the charger’s corresponding port.

You can charge the BoostTurbine 4000 two ways, by plugging it into a power source, such as a computer or wall outlet adapter, with the included cable, or by using the hand crank. When you turn the hand crank, you’re creating kinetic energy that is stored in the internal battery as reserved power. As soon as you connect your smartphone to the BoostTurbine, your phone will transfer that stored energy into its own battery. Eton says that 1 minute of cranking will give you 4 minutes of talk time. You need to rotate it about one or two revolutions per second to generate enough energy to charge the battery.

The BoostTurbine performs best when charging gadgets with 4,000mAh-or-lower batteries, which includes the iPhone, the Samsung Galaxy S4, the HTC One, and the Nexus 7. The smaller 1000, 2000 series worked on phones but not on ipads, laptops. If you need something to keep you up and running during a power outage, camping trip, or disaster, the BoostTurbine 4000 is a decent choice, if you don’t mind turning the crank for a while. The BoostTurbine 4000 is a reliable gadget charger for when you need extra power, but it’s too big to slip into a pocket for everyday use.

– Backup battery pack with rechargeable 1000mAH lithium ion battery
– Hand turbine power generator
– Lightweight and durable aluminum body
– Provides 50% dump charge to smartphone when fully charged
– USB output to charge smartphone
– LED battery charge indicator
– Micro-USB DC input for use with smart phone chargers (iPhone block, etc.)
Dimensions: 1.1” x 2.2” x 5”12.8 x 5.6 x 2.9 cm | Weight: 9 oz (255 g)

producer: eton
period: 2013