Sony Computer Entertainment PlayStation Vita Portable Charger

UPDATE: Full charge clocked in at a little under 10 hours of gameplay for the PSP title listed in the original review. ANOTHER UPDATE: I am going to bump up my review to 5 stars. I'm sitting in LaGuardia with a MiFi hotspot whose battery was low. The Energizer portable laptop charger that I carry around to charge my phone, laptop, etc, wouldn't charge it while I was using the hotspot. This Vita charger does, and is a fraction of the physical size. -----------------ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW------------------------ The short of it: AT LEAST 6 1/2 hours of non-wifi gameplay so far, and still going. I intend to update this review once I get through a full cycle of the charger and perhaps also test it on some other devices, but for now I wanted to put something up so people on the fence can get some idea of the device. I'm testing how much extra play this will give the Vita as we speak. I ran down the existing battery charge until I got my first "Low Battery" message from the Vita. After that, I plugged in the charger (after giving it time to fully juice up) and started playing a game through which I could track game time. In my case, I chose the PSP game "The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky". Note that this games doesn't use any wifi and is probably pretty easy on the battery, but I wanted to guage the charge under some kind of consistent conditions. OK, all that said, here is the point. I've recorded six and a half hours of game time and the battery still has juice left. And that is game time as measured by the game itself, e.g. I started using the charger as I was 22 hours 50 minutes into the game, and now the game clock says 29 hours 20 minutes. That's not even counting times when I reloaded, start-up time, etc. So, this battery pack definitely delivers its advertised 4-7 hours of extra gameplay. I'm knocking it down one star (for now) because it is a little difficult to read which side is the input and which is the output. In short, if you are on the fence, I'd say go for it. This will be great for travelers who don't have an outlet all the time.

I was skeptical when I bought this but over the past six months the worth of this little beauty has been more than proven out. It's a simple straightforward battery pack that works with the PlayStation Vita and nearly any other device that charges through USB. To charge the battery pack the USB cable for a PlayStation Vita is required so if you plan to exclusively use this with other devices that may be added cost. I didn't know how much I would practically use this when I purchased it but it has gotten plenty of use and allowed me to leave the somewhat awkward Vita wall charger on my desk. From summer travel and long car rides to forgetting to charge the system before bed it's brought extended game time. It's kept my phone going and brought my tablet back to life. It's a versatile little powerhouse with enough juice to charge up a hungry battery like the Vita or an iPad and still top up your phone.

Four things make this charger stand out: 1. PSV Compatibility 2. 1A Output 3. High Capacity; Compact Size 4. Low self discharge rate These three features make this product, the best portable charger possible.... Why you may ask? 1) If you need to charge a PSV there is little other choice 2) The 1A output ensures rapid charging of *any* USB device. I routinely use this to charge my HTC One X phone (as it doesn't have a replaceable battery) and from 10% battery, it will usually get it up to at least 50-60% on my train trip back from work (40minutes duration) giving me another 12 hours of use time with my phone. 3) With 5000mAH packed inside it's tiny shell (yes it fits in the palm of your hand)it is able to charge my phone 2.5 times fully. 4) This ensures that if you keep it in a bag for a while unused, even after a year - it will still retail 80% of it's charged capacity ensuring it works when you need it most. The one caveat to this beauty however is that it requires the AC cable from the PSV! So either use the one included with the PSV or purchase the cable (from Ebay or whereever) as it is *not* included with this device. In other words, if you are on the market for a portable charger even if you *don't* have a PSV - this one should be on your shortlist.

The PS Vita Portable Charger is great for the price that it is at, from the time I made this review which is $14.99. Being of Sony, it is nothing short of high quality, meaning the batteries within the charger will not be expected to fail or be lower than the expected 5000 mAh, as with some other third-party batteries. However, the charger does have 2 problems. First of all, it doesn't come with a secondary cable to charge the charger, as it can only be recharged through the proprietary cable for the PS Vita 1000. So you couldn't recharge the PS Vita and the portable charger at the same time if you needed too. Secondly, and most important, it IS NOT compatible with third party AC chargers. When i purchased it and tried to recharge it with the AC charger i had, it gave the message of a technical failure, and after reading from a couple of gaming forums, it seems that the portable charger needs the original charging cable and ac adapter for some reason, as it will not recognize the current even though third party chargers may provide the exact same output. It is assumed that the original ones have give some form of feedback to the charger to establish a correct connection and to not over-charge. So I had to purchase the original AC charger and cable with cost me around $30 here on Amazon. Otherwise, if you already have the original AC charger and cable on hand, then great, this portable battery would be a steal at this price of the time of this review with is $14.99, compared to the original price of $49.99. But if you have a third-party charger, then be expected to shell out more money for the original equipment. Or try finding a portable charger which provides the high enough output, which are readily available, but you'll need to look into the electrical outputs as it is said that the PS Vita needs a minimum input of 1.5A and 5V to charge. Some portable chargers do not provide that much, and if they claim they do like 2.0 or 2.4A, they may default to 1.0A when plugged in, as it may not correctly detect the PS Vita and may resort to the lower amperage to avoid damage.

To start off, this is a great portable battery. It's simple one button operation makes it very easy to use. I also really like how the power button lights up differently, with the same color code as the Vita itself, to let you know the status of the battery. I received mine, plugged it in to charge, and in about 2 hours it was good to go. The power button even blinks the different colors to let you know what the charging progress is. It is very compact, recharges itself quickly, charges the Vita properly, and is at a very good price point...unlike the memory cards. If Sony missed the mark with those, they definitely made up for it with this. As far as the battery itself, there are cheaper alternatives, but they will not work properly with the Vita. Here is why. Practically every other battery of this size, capacity, and even in the ballpark of this price point, only has an output of 1.0 amps. This battery has an output of 1.5 amps. The PS Vita's internal circuitry looks for this output, and if it doesn't see it, it won't charge while powered up. If you want to play while charging, or without shutting down completely, this is the only battery like this that will work. You can't go by the "5v, 5000mAh" rating, as others have suggested. If playing while charging is important to you, this is the battery you need. Something to be mindful of, is that this battery is all you get in the package. You will need the USB cable that came with the Vita, as well as the Vita power brick, to charge it. You can also use the Sony Vita car charger to charge your battery on the go, or you can charge it via most any USB cell phone charger, or USB 2.0/3.0 port. Remember, that like the Vita itself, this battery likes a 1.5 amp output for charging. The charger that came with an iPhone is only 1.0 amps, but the one that came with the iPad is 2.1 amps. That means that this battery will charge the iPhone, and even the new iPad (which requires a minimum of 1.5 amps) with no problem whatsoever, depending on your screen brightness (since that determines how much power the iPad needs to draw). It is so versatile, I have ordered two more of them to have on hand. Another nice thing about this battery, is that it fits very well in the limited edition clam shell case that came as part of the First Edition bundle. In that little cargo pocket up top I have the portable battery, the USB cable, the Vita headphones, and a few games wrapped up in a screen cleaning cloth. With two games in each of the elastic game pockets, I have all I need for a day out and about, and nothing is "crammed" in anywhere. That was not the case when I had to carry the AC brick/cord up there. This battery definitely cleans up the package nicely. As a side note, if you need or want additional USB cables, the Vita AC power brick, or the Vita car charger, I have seen them on clearance at most Target stores for between five and ten dollars each. They even have the Sony PS Vita travel case for five bucks.

Product came to me dead on arrival and was even given a replacement that was also dead on arrival. I waited the time to get a full charge as stated on the product but the light never changed and it never held a charge despite waiting again for 12 hours to charge it. I'm going to return this as the product is broken and I an going to have to wait for my refund. It's going to take time to get back to the products seller as Amazon doesn't take back lithium batteries and now I have to send back two as their "replacement" isn't working, almost like they don't check their products for quality or if they even work.

Just ordered two and they work perfectly fine. The only thing is, in order to charge the batteries you need and OEM Model 1000 charging cable. I tried using a third party cable and the batteries wouldn’t charge, I switched to my OEM and they charged no problem. So just keep in mind: if you want this battery, you need to have or buy an OEM cable, anything else and it won’t charge.

It does ok but where some others have written they are getting 8 to 10 hours out of it is highly doubtful. My roommate and I both bought one for our Vitas and it will recharge your Vita battery twice so you get about 4 hours out of it unless you are playing games while using it and then you get about 3 hours from it. After reading the other reviews before I bought this at first I thought maybe I had received a bad one but then my roommate got one too and he gets the same results I do. It's good if you are in a foreign airport where the outlets are 220v and you don't want to fry your Vita or for using during flights but don't expect to get 8-10-12 hours out of it like some others have claimed