ElecJet Apollo Ultra power bank.
David Phelan
Portable power banks are great for peace of mind. If your smartphone, tablet or other device, is running low on juice, just plug in the power bank cable, or snap it into place if it’s a wireless charger, and you’re good to go.
When the recharger runs out of power, though, you need to recharge it. Which takes time.
Often, that doesn’t matter. Charge the power bank overnight, with your phone, and both are good to go in the morning.
But there are other times when you need to recharge the charger, so you can recharge your other device, fast.
Which is where the ElecJet Apollo Ultra Power Bank comes in. It uses graphene to ensure that it recharges fast. I mean, really fast. ElecJet claims it’s five times as fast as a regular power bank, if not faster.
ElecJet Apollo Ultra power bank.
David Phelan
Here’s why I believe it: I’ve seen it in action. ElecJet has done a very clever thing in terms of presentation: the LED on the battery shows you the percentage of charge, down to one tenth of a per cent. Because it charges so fast, you don’t have to keep your eyes on it for more than a few seconds before you see the digits change. In ten seconds of watching, the screen changed three times, from 63.9% to 64.2%. It’s hard to convey just how persuasive this is.
To put it another way, I left the ElecJet Apollo Ultra to do its business at that point. When I went back to it, about ten minutes later, it was at 100%. I don’t know how long it had been since it was fully charged but even if it was only a few seconds, this is impressive speed. ElecJet says it can charge from flat to full in 27 minutes.
This speed is achieved using a 100W GaN wall charger, sold separately. But the change I commented on, of 0.3% in ten seconds, was from a much less powerful 65W charger.
The secret is the graphene, which not only makes the fast charging happen but also, according to ElecJect, will last longer, good for 2,500 recharge cycles, which is four or five times longer than conventional lithium ion batteries. This makes it a more sustainable gadget.
Output from the Apollo Ultra is also significant: it was able to happily, if fairly slowly, charge my 16-inch MacBook Pro while I was using it to write this review. It charged it by 17% before it was empty.
ElecJet Apollo Ultra power bank.
David Phelan
There are two sockets on the device. One USB-C for input and output, one USB-A for output only.
As to how graphene works, fellow Forbes contributor Mark Sparrow has more, here.
The review sample I was sent of the ElecJet Apollo Ultra is very impressive. It is compact, though thicker than some batteries, but still highly portable.
The ElecJet Apollo Ultra is on Indiegogo right now, and has hit 1692% of its goal–it hit a significant part of that, $100,000 funding after just four days, apparently. Prices on Indiegogo can change, and backing a product on crowdfunding sites is not the same as buying a product in a regular way, so there are risks attached. If you’re still interested, right now it’s $65.