Sunday, March 16, 2014

The portable external battery pack face off: Neptor vs. Lepow

It is time for another product showdown and this time it is a battle of the juice boxes, with the Lepow Moonstone going up against Neptor's Dual Port Portable Battery Charger. Lepow's Moonstone is an external battery pack that is elegant and powerful with 9000 mAh of juice and two ports to charge from. Neptor's entry is a smaller juice box with less power, 5600 mAh, which also includes two charging ports but adds an LED flashlight. Ready for the mash up, it is time to see which pack will come out victorious.

I got the Moonstone first so I will start with that and I have got to say it is an elegant accessory. The battery pack is palm sized and a bit thick so it is not very pocket friendly, but with a charger that looks like this why would I want to hide it? On the bottom is a button to check the battery life with four LED lights to indicate when an overnight charge is necessary as the recharge time is approximately nine hours to recharge. The mobile lifeline also comes in a nice wool case to keep shiny, but that wasn't all that was in the box, in the bottom was a bag containing eight fun and useful accessories so make sure you check all content of the package as they almost got missed.
Next up is the dual port charger from Neptor and this small pack packs a punch for its size with a whopping 5600 mAh and a flashlight to boot. The small size allow this to fit easier in a pocket and the light was actually useful in a dark room or vehicle looking for something like vehicle registration or finding an item in the bottom of a purse. Neptor did not use a glossy coat but went with soft touch coating instead, which felt nice and stayed cleaner. There is also a single button to press once and check the remaining battery life, double tap it to turn the light on and off.



In the end, am siding with the Moonstone with its power. However, if you are someone that does not need massive amount of power, Neptor took the very close second for its and size and added light. Lepow's Moonstone is available now from Amazon in Sapphire Blue for the price of $39.99 dollars. At less than half the size and more than half with juice with and added light, Neptor's dual port charger with flashlight is available in five different colors for $49.99.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Divoom's Voombox Outdoor ups the ante with more speakers and power

Divoom has provided me with their new rugged wireless Bluetooth speaker, the Voombox Outdoor. The new addition to their lineup has added more oomph by packing Bluetooth 4.0 wireless connection, 5 drivers with 15-watt output, and a microphone into a weather resistant case. On top of the beefier build both internally and externally, the speaker has onboard controls, a twelve-hour battery life, and comes in an assortment of colors. Now that I am synced, charged, and by the pool it is time to see how the Voombox Outdoor compared to the previously reviewed Onbeat-200.
The addition of drivers to the already compact design is my favorite part of this speaker. While most wireless Bluetooth speakers come packing only two drivers and a passive radiator, the jump up to five drivers really makes a difference in regards to the sound quality while filling larger areas with ease. The speaker is about the same size as those dual driver speakers, but is quite a bit heavier and not so much that it looses portability, just enough so that it is more difficult to knock off tables or shelves. However, should I have dropped it, which I did and kept on ticking as it was built to be tortured.

The rubber texture did pick up a lot of dust but it was a small price to pay with a speaker you can practically play catch with. I was expecting a bit more bass from this speaker, there is more depth but does not come close to those with a larger subwoofer. The battery is no slouch either as it has more speakers and wattage than those other guys but it packs more juice with up to 12 hours of playback before recharging. Divoom's Voombox Outdoor is available now in red, blue, black, and dark green from a number of online retailers.