I often go camping with my friends for a weekend and find that my phone battery dies after the first day. I’m really fond of the phone any wouldn’t like to change it. Is there any way I can boost the charge on the battery?
An online friend of mine sent me this question after he “disappeared” off the face of the Internet for a few days. Turns out he was on one of his usual camping trips, but as his phone had died, he couldn’t even update his Facebook status. I don’t have details of what phone he has, so can’t really be specific, but a couple of options do spring to mind.
The first option would be to keep a spare battery handy. Charge it up before you go on your camping trip and that way when the battery fails, just switch to the other one. Here I’m assuming that 2 batteries will be enough. The downside of this option is that batteries tend to lose their charge in storage, so you have to make sure the battery is charged when you need it, fine if you can plan a trip, but not so good for impromptu changes of battery.
The other option is to use a portable power source. The great thing about these is that they can be used to power a variety of devices. Not just phones, but also cameras, MP3 players and a selection of other gadgets. For example, buy.com currently have the Xpal Harry II on sale for under $20. It’s a device that can give you 5 volts, enough to charge most portable gadgets. It can be recharged over 500 times and includes a display to tell you how much chage you have left. Here’s how you charge your device:
Not too hard now, is it? I think I might actually fancy one of those myself, for the time I run out of charge on my digital camera.
Good information to know— I do go camping and hiking. However, I probably would not be thinking about Facebook!! Perhaps an emergency call if needed, but that’s about it
There are many solar charging devices on the market that work well also, that fit in with the theme of camping. Then again, you could tell your friend that camping is away to GET AWAY from all this stuff and enjoy nature š
i love camping, and i know this will be an issue for us the next time we decide to go. joe might be able to conserve his battery, but i run through mine pretty quickly. š
Owen, There actually battery powered chargers to power up your phone. Usually, cellphone specialty shops carry them. Also, get a second battery. Or an extended life battery. One factor that affects battery life is how much your phone has to search for a signal. If you are far from towers, then it uses alot of juice to search. If you kept the phone powered down and only turned it on for use, then your battery would last longer. (Sorry for being so long winded, I actually sell cellphones in my day job!) Good Luck
Thank goodness I don’t have to worry about this. I’m not a camper in any way, shape or form š