I was sent the product in this review in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was received for this post. Please note the protective film is still on the unit in the following pictures and it has a stream lined look with the plastic off.
I upgraded to a smart phone just a few months ago and with all the options and convenience of checking social media accounts, the power level can be depleted quickly. I was sent the mobile power bank (external battery) by OXA to try and alleviate the chance of being caught without a wall or car plugin to charge with. This review is for OXA Model A5 and is 5 volt/1 AMP.
This product comes with four different connector ends. There is one cord that has a USB end and female end for the connectors. The battery pack has a USB input port and a micro USB output port located on one end.
With the volts/AMPS of this external battery, it is not recommended for tablets. The user manual says this product is to immediately charge mobile phones, MP3/4, IPOD, bluetooth, game console/media/player or some models of cameras/camcorders.
The user manual has a short English section, but most of it is in Chinese. It states that the power bank may have automatically discharged and it takes two or three times of complete charging and discharging cycles to achieve optimal performance. I wish the instructions would have been written in a matter that said, “you need to charge for 24 hours before using” or just something more definite.
My husband tried the unit first on his Samsung Galaxy SIV. The micro USB connector created a very tight fit with his phone. Upon plugging the OXA external battery in, he was prompted by his phone to remove and plug in the charger that came with the phone because it was charging too slow. He tried the OXA battery three times to charge his phone.
There were also issues with where the micro USB connector went into the female end of the cable provided. It had to be turned and wiggled a bit before the phone would even say it was charging.
I then tried it in the Samsung Galaxy SIII that I own. I also thought that the provided micro USB connector was very tight. The external battery was fully charged, or had recently gone from the red light to green light visible on the unit. I unplugged from the charger and plugged it into my phone, which was at 15% remaining battery power.
The external battery shows a red light when the unit is to be charged and green when it should be ready to use. Otherwise, there are no other visible status lights on the unit.
I should have taken an after shot, but my phone got up to 85% for power status of the battery and then the power level stopped increasing. I did take three short calls (under 5 minutes each) that day and used my computer to check e-mail that day so I wouldn’t be doing more to drain the battery and declined any requests by my children to play games on my phone.
The OXA External Battery Model A5 is small and lightweight. It currently is listed at $7.65 on Amazon.com. The list price on Amazon is $49.00. I would like to see some improvements to the OXA External Battery though.
The tight fit on the micro USB connector scared me a bit. It took a little wiggling to remove and I was afraid it might damage my phone.
Another disadvantage I personally feel is not knowing when the external battery is fully charged or if it has already partially/totally discharged. This is the first external battery I have used, but I would have preferred to have something visual on the power level, even if it would just give me a percentage, like the three green bars on the Duracell external battery that my spouse routinely uses for his phone.
I think the user manual is not very user-friendly as is and I did contact OXA via e-mail on Aug. 15th, 2013, through oxausa.com, regarding what seemed like a possible electrical short with the female end and the micro USB connector. As of today, no reply to my submission and now the status light does not work. 🙁
