Mugen Power Battery, User Review.
When I first heard of this battery I knew I would have to purchase it. Like many other heavy pda users I’m always in need of more power. I had purchased a Toshiba E805 that came with this Mugen Power battery and I was eager to charge it and test it. The results were very good! I was hooked and knew that from here on I would buy one of these batteries for any ppc I would purchase.
When I read that lionbattery.com were looking for someone to review their latest battery that would fit a 5555 ipaq, I jumped at the opportunity. So if you need more battery power please read to see if this battery might be for you.
Mugen Power.
Specs:
HLI “ 5400XL 3.7 2800 mAh. Lithium Ion Battery.
Price:
The 2000 mAh is going for US$ 82.75. But I did not see a price on their website for this 2800.
Size:
I had nothing to make precise measurements but I will say this. If you own or have seen the HP extended battery this one is just a tad thicker. I compared it with the HP brand by holding the ipaq with each battery and there was not that much difference at all. The only time I did notice that the HP was thinner was when I held them both side by side. Both batteries weigh about the same when held in the hand. But I’m sure if weighed with a scale MAYBE the Mugen would be heavier, I’m not sure. To ME I did not see much of a difference and would easily choose the Mugen Power battery any day!
Color:
Of course it’s silver and matches the ipaq nicely. Having painted hundreds of Silver Sliders Cf expansion packs I can say that the color, quality, of this paint is very good.
Fit:
Slides right into the ipaq but you do need to push a LITTLE harder to snap it in place than that of the HP brand. Not a problem at all but I thought I point this out.
Charging Time:
I placed it in the HP Stand Charger and in an hour the battery was fully charged. I could not believe it so I took it out and added the battery to the ipaq and went to the power settings to see what the power really was. I looked and it was at 33 %! I put the battery back in the charger and it still showed a full charged battery. Than I just charged the battery with a Usb mini sync/charge cable and it begin to charge the battery more. 7-8 hours later it was really FULLY charged.
So in MY case here, the HP stand up charger did not work with this battery. I also have to point out that with my original HP extended & regular battery the charger will not charge the batteries to 100%. It leaves both the regular and extended battery at 86-90%. Why? I have no idea and HP was happy enough to help me but I did not have the time to pursue it. So it might not be the Mugen battery that’s at fault, it could be both the battery and charger but I’m not sure. Anyway, the mini sync worked fine and I was ready to go. Btw, my cradle charger was defective so that is why I used the mini sync.
Battery Life:
When I had used the Mugen battery I was VERY impressed with how long the Toshiba lasted using wi-fi. So that was the starting point in this test. I first adjusted the light to 100% brightness, I wanted to put it fully to the test. Than I turned the wi-fi on and started to stream music form club77 80’s channel (great music). I made sure that the ipaq would not shut down or that the light would not turn off. At 1:30 AM I left the ipaq to do it’s thing. I woke up at 8:30 Am and the ipaq was still going strong with 60% battery life left over. I left it alone once again and came back at 2:30 PM and the battery was at 30%. I could no longer keep testing this because I needed to go out and had to take the ipaq. So, 13 hours of streaming music constantly AND with the light on at 100% brightness THAT is very impressive.
I would never listen to music that long and I would certainly never have the light on while listening (especially at 100% bright). So, with this test I can certainly know that when I need to use wi-fi to look something up on the Internet and than want to listen to music followed by normal uses I know this battery will do it for me just fine. My next test was to see how well the battery would performed with no light and with music playing from an sd card. But I ran into some business I had to take care of and unfortunately I had no time to test it out. I was already 3-4 days late to post this review in forums so I just did what I could.
Before this test I did start one that included the light on full brightness with no wi-fi on and it did VERY well. I stopped the test after reaching 11-12 hours since I needed to use the ipaq AGAIN. With my first test that I did I could not get myself to try any more tests. Because if I can get so many hours with wi-fi on and stream music and have the light at full brightness what more can anyone else want? I always keep my ipaq at 35-45% bright. I do not need it at full max unless I’m outside which I will set it to 80% only. So this battery will work very well no matter what I need to do with the ipaq.
Uses for this battery.
Listening to music while surfing the net
Outside while using a GPS having the screen at 80-100% bright
Playing games and knowing you also need to use the ipaq afterwards for more important things
Or, all the above!
The Good, The Bad & the Improvements.
The Good:
Great battery POWER
Color matches ipaq nicely
Just a little thicker than the HP brand
The Bad:
Did not work well with the HP stand up charger. This is important because one needs to swap batteries to always have plenty of battery power. Otherwise, one has to charge the battery overnight on the cradle, which might be okay for some. Again, I do not know were the problem came from. Maybe it was just this one battery that was sent to me, I don’t know.
Price,
I may have missed it on their website but I have no clue what the price is. I believe that they did send me a price but I must have lost the email when I had to format my desktop 3 days ago. So this is my fault for not knowing the price. I call it the bad because I THINK it might be close to $100.00 or more since the 2000 mAh is $82.75 with 10% discount. To me I feel that it would be nice to get this battery as low as possible so that the new ppc’s won’t be so tempting. Either way this battery is definite worth the money if you are in need of more battery power.
Improvements:
Design, would have been nice if they did not follow the design of the HP brand. HP makes their batteries BULKY more than they need be. I know this because I modify each battery I buy from them to use on my ipaqs. It seems because it’s a design from a well know company that it’s okay to go with that design. I think this is a big mistake because there is good money to be made when a company goes for a more slim and nicer design. Not a big deal but I wanted to mention this to the makers of this battery. With their technology all they need is a better design than the original and they got it made (although they do anyways!).
Conclusion:
Go buy one, well worth it!
Lionbattery