Powerbanks and battery extensions have become a necessity as the battery life of our smartphones continue to frustrate us, while at the same time our dependence on our gadgets for almost all our activities continue to increase. But sometimes, it is a pain to be constantly carrying around wires and batteries that feel (and look) like a bar of soap in our bags or pockets. A new crowd-funded product aims to revolutionise all that with a compact and wireless battery extender that is literally as big (or as small) as a key.
bKey may not pack the punch of the usual 5000 mAh powerbanks, but in terms of portability and the comfort of not needing any wires, it may definitely be worth it. The creators specifically made their PCB board as small as they could to house the battery it in a key-like case. It’s almost the same size as a car key, 75mm in length and 6.55mm in thickness (or rather, thinness). It’s good for an additional 30 minutes of charging for your smartphone with its 230 mAh and can hold its charge for around 30 days, with 500+ battery cycles.
Charging the tiny device doesn’t need any wires either. You can just stick it in the USB port of your computer, laptop or an A/C wall adapter. Then to use it, you just stick the micro-USB tip into your Android phone (it also has an iPhone tip as well) and you’re good to go. Well, for a few additional minutes at least, just enough to “bridge charge” when you’re commuting at a short distance or you just need to make a quick call and you have nowhere to charge at the moment.
Their Kickstarter campaign has already gone beyond their target of $25,000 with 18 days to go still left for people to back up the project. Their target is to be able to package and ship the bKey by the end of this year. Hopefully it will also be available in retail stores by early next year and not cost too much as well.
SOURCE: Kickstarter