PhoneSuit was present at CES2017 with a new line of products including the Journey Travel Charger Ultra 5000mAh . With built in micro-USB and lightning cables, plus an additional USB port for charging, it covers three devices at once. It comes in a great looking package for appeal and which the charger and one additional micro-USB cable.
I found mine arrived fully charged and ready to go when taking it out of the box. The two cables easily pop out of the sides and stay tucked in tight when not in use. What was surprising was how thin the Journey Ultra was at 13mm. They packed a lot of power and cables into such a compact design. Making it perfect for travel. I always carry one to two portable batteries, but cables are always a problem. This seemed to solve both issues so it was put to the real world test.
It definitely was able to support charging three devices at once. Since all of my devices are power hungry it maxed the output. The built-in connected cables are 2.1A and the USB port on the bottom is 1A so a slower charge for sure. Weight of the Journey Ultra is 5 ounces making it easy to slip into pockets, backpacks and purses for anyone.
If you have an iPhone 7 do not fear. They built in power management to know when it is full and cuts off the charging power. It also prioritizes delivery of power to the iPhone 7 according to docs. I had no way to really test that claim still running an iPhone 6S. For all other devices it did stop when the device was full during our tests.
“So how many charges can I get” from the Journey Ultra is always a question. Well consider how far gone the battery of the device is, how many devices you are trying to charge at once or multiple usages. There is no great single answer. Can it recharge fully one time an iPhone? Yes. Will I be able to fully recharge the iPhone, iPad and Galaxy on one charge? No. It is only 5000mAh. I have larger ones that could handle that request but they are not as slim and do not have included cables.
So there is one thing I did not like and that is some Android phone makers seem to flip a coin on what way the cable will go in. So the PhoneSuit Journey Ultra has some firm attached cables making them hard to twist. So if you want your phone face up while charging and the maker decided the cable input faces the other way, the charger fights you some. You can see that in the image above. The Sony Android phone had the charger slot upside down compared to the Journey Ultra cable. So it always flipped back over.
You are able to see the charging status and battery levels of the PhoneSuit Journey Ultra on the side of the device. Four tiny, blue LED lights give you the percentage of charge range. When it is full all four lights are lit. Then you lose a light for each 25% it goes down.
Overall, the PhoneSuit Journey Ultra 5000mAh is taking a place in my portable bag with the built in cables. I still carry regular chargers daily, only because I save the battery chargers for when no plugs are available. But, with this I only need the Journey Ultra. Everyone else can bring their cable and use the slower port on the bottom.
Thanks to PhoneSuit for sending this over for review. Thin, matches the sizes of my phones and packs a punch. Oh and cables.
You can get all the PhoneSuit Journey chargers on Amazon (affiliate link) and the newer ones like the Journey Ultra and Journey Max on their website until it shows on Amazon too. Make sure yo see all our CES coverage, products reviews an more here, our Facebook pages and on YouTube