USBCell Battery: A darned good idea, if it works

(Credit: USBCell)

A few minutes ago, I was crawling through the oft-dull posts that turn up in my RSS reader on Saturday mornings while downing the day's first cup of coffee. Not particularly momentous. Then I saw this TreeHugger post, and I was all wow, you know, in the way that Microsoft was hoping I'd react to Windows Vista. (I didn't, for the record.)

So what are these? They're called USBCell, and they're AA batteries that you charge in a USB port. What a cool idea! Of course, there's always the quality issue, but TreeHugger seems to approve: "The batteries are sturdy, powerful, and take the annoying clutter of a charger completely out of the equation." Hey, if they're helping to get rid of toxic waste that comes from alkaline batteries, they really should get a thumbs up just for that.

And considering the hordes of stupid USB devices out there, it's good to see one that actually appears to accomplish something.

I'm still a bit cynical, because I remember being a kid and noticing that plain old alkaline batteries had about four times the battery life of their rechargeable brethren--and I was one of those kids who carried a portable CD player absolutely everywhere with me, so the rechargeables often just didn't cut it. As a result, I'm tempted to order a few of these USBCells and try them out myself to test out the battery life and power. Then again, I can't remember the last time I used a AA battery, since most of my gadgets rely on rechargeable battery packs these days--and the TV remote uses AAAs. Ah, the digital age.

[qprize]

Uh, I only have 2 USB outlets.

So I can't recharge both and use my mouse, which ironically uses AA
batteries.
And if I want to use my flash drive? So you likely need a USB hub, and
probably
a powered hub at that. And based on my iPod, which takes a few hours to
recharge connected to the computer, but 45 minutes when using the AC
adapter, I'll take the USB charger instead.

this is the best of both worlds:
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9707757-1.html

and for newer technology:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1177105446.html

[make_or_break]

The only problem with Sanyo's eneloop

Is that in its announced form the internal storage allows for less power than earlier Ni-MH cell technology. I've gotten used to using 2200mA cells and going back to 850mA batteries would be an adjustment. The 1000 charge cycles is great, if true (however in the past I've NEVER achieved the rated amount of cycles that any of the manufacturers have claimed, so this is take with a grain of salt).

I do like the 15% discharge rate/year; certainly far better than what I typically find with Li-ion technology (except for the battery in my Nintendo DS, which seems to hold a charge FOREVER), but with my experiences with earlier Ni-MH cells they haven't been all that bad themselves in terms of power leakage. And aside from a couple of flashlights, it's seldom the case that any of my current Ni-MH cells will sit that long without use anyways.

[morgausedragone]

Old news...

I heard about this months ago. Haven't noticed any reviews for it, though.

[docstar7]

good idea but...

If I had to take a quick guess at it, I would think that the battery life on these things would be less than that of a regular rechargable simply becasue there's less space for the actualy battery components since you've got to remove some of that stuff in order to get the usb port in there.

[Pcfreakske2000]

I bought these batteries today

I bought these batteries today and as we speak they are charging.

Let's hope they will work.

It's a great idea to make batteries that are able to be charged by your USB port.