Whether you're flying out to Thailand for a holiday or New York for a business trip there's one comparative problem, the 6 hour+ travel time vs the < 3 hr battery time of today's modern, pocket sized gadgets. Sure the manufacturers tote long battery life but when you start surfing the web on your phone, watching videos on your iPod and playing games on your PSP you begin to wonder exactly who came up with the product specs.

We've been recommended portable power supplies before but now we've been sent a Devotec Power Brick to put through its paces and see if it really does make a difference to those long arduous journeys.

Suffice to say it does. The small 100g 'brick' packs enough punch to charge a mobile phone 3 times over, an iPod also 3 times and a PSP 1 1/2 times. It will also charge cameras and any device that uses a mini-USB connector. Personally it meant my phone was still usable after forgetting to charge it before travelling and that I could use my PSP to while away more hours than I've ever been able to while away before.

The advantages don't just stop with the journey itself. The USB adapter it comes with means that it can be plugged in to a computer USB port and charge devices from there, but you can also buy a USB Travel Plug (included in the Extended Pack) which means you can do away with all the adapters for each of your gadgets and carry just the Power Brick with you - meaning more luggage space for the missus to fill!

There's really only one problem with the Power Brick and I found it pretty quickly. The first thing I tried to do was plug it in to my  iPod Touch... no response. A quick flick through the Devotec FAQ and I found that the device isn't compatible with the latest iPod's and the iPhone. Devotec certainly isn't the only third party supplier to be caught out by Apple's new devices, in fact it's a deliberate ploy from Apple to protect it's profits products. Devotec assure us they are working on finding a solution.

Without the iPhone / latest iPod problems I would have no problem whole heartedly recommending the Devotec Power Brick, if you don't have an iPhone or current iPod then I still would. It comes with such a dizzying array of connectors and options that you'd be hard pressed to find a device (other than an Apple) it doesn't support and on long journey's it really does help juice up power hungry modern gadgets. And, at £15 you can't go far wrong.


p.s. If you're looking for corporate gifts the Power Brick can be printed up with corporate branding, just drop them a line from their website to find out what exactly is available.

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