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The mystery of the power bank phone taking over Ghana

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Re: The mystery of the power bank phone taking over Ghana

#71

Post by selectodude »

plorg wrote: post #65

Only partially related, but I have a friend who carries around a comically-large 14000 mAh battery[0]. Comically large as in about the size of three or four iPhone 6s's stacked on top of each other - he wore it on a belt clip. My other friends and I made fun of him. He always had his ridiculously large, power-guzzling phone plugged into it. But he insisted that he had it because it could jump-start a car (he's a mech…

If you're wondering why we still use lead-acid batteries in cars, it's because they don't have a memory effect and a high power to weight ratio.

Re: The mystery of the power bank phone taking over Ghana

#72

Post by michaelbuckbee »

guelo wrote: post #55

One of the confusing things to me about the apparently competitive smartphone market is how little creativity there is in smartphone design. Why do we only get thin rounded rectangles? Seems like there would be a market everywhere for big thick indestructible smartphones.

I think it's because the thin rounded rectangle is the base model and then almost everybody gets a case to customize it to their needs. There's a half dozen options at every point on the ruggedness, battery life (I'm thinking of things like the Morphie power case), water resistance and price spectrum.

Re: The mystery of the power bank phone taking over Ghana

#73

Post by leni536 »

ghshephard wrote: post #25

Impressive that it sells for $25 given that I just (yesterday) paid $60 for a Fujitsu MC700 10,400 mAh battery.

You can get a Xiaomi 10400mAh powerbank for $22.22, free shipping from Aliexpress. I'm not saying it's a better deal, but you can already get this raw spec for a lower price. Getting a dumbphone for that extra $3 is quite nice though.

Re: The mystery of the power bank phone taking over Ghana

#76

Post by mturmon »

jtchang wrote: post #23

Can we talk about the Nokia 8210 candybar phones? Circa 1999 this thing was indestructible and had battery life that would probably outlast 3-4 iPhones. I think there is a market for these types of phones again. Even if it was ugly it was durable and functional. There is definitely a market for a phone that can be dropped and still function.

I get nostalgic for my HP-41CV RPN programmable calculator. It had a printer as a peripheral! And a magnetic card reader, and an optical wand. It's a totemic device for me.

But I don't think there is a market for either my old calculator, or candy bar phones, outside of nostalgic ebay purchases.

Re: The mystery of the power bank phone taking over Ghana

#77

Post by smokinn »

plorg wrote: post #65

Only partially related, but I have a friend who carries around a comically-large 14000 mAh battery[0]. Comically large as in about the size of three or four iPhone 6s's stacked on top of each other - he wore it on a belt clip. My other friends and I made fun of him. He always had his ridiculously large, power-guzzling phone plugged into it. But he insisted that he had it because it could jump-start a car (he's a mech…

I have the product you linked in the trunk of my car. So far I've had to use it twice and, just like you, it worked beautifully each time.

I wouldn't recommend it for your cell phone but it's way more convenient an emergency kit than jumper cables.

Re: The mystery of the power bank phone taking over Ghana

#78

Post by nickysielicki »

I recently got rid of my Moto G in exchange for a $20 Nokia 208.

It's been great. I can still call or text my friends when we're out and need to find each other. I'm not reading reddit everywhere I go. I can still do USB tethering with my laptop. It has an MP3 player built in, as well as a radio. It even has Opera Mini, which does well in a pinch for settling bets via wikipedia. The only thing I really miss is maps.

But by far, the best part has been that it simply doesn't die. I charge it about every 4 days. It charges in an hour or less.

Re: The mystery of the power bank phone taking over Ghana

#79

Post by keithpeter »

jdmitch wrote: post #8

I just got back from Ghana, where I was evaluating an ICT in education project, and one of the people on the team that was implementing the project had this phone. At first I thought he just had an old phone, then I learned he had downgraded from a smartphone. Then I thought maybe he was doing it for ironic retro style points (which is not really "a thing" in rural northern Ghana in the way it is in London or New Yor…

What was the call quality like? I'd imagine fairly good simply from the better microphone placement given the size of the thing.

PS: My old Blackberry can do 2.5+ days on a charge since I mashed the earphone socket and can't use it to listen to music. The music application seems to drain the battery for some reason.

Re: The mystery of the power bank phone taking over Ghana

#80

Post by plorg »

selectodude wrote: post #71
plorg wrote: post #65

Only partially related, but I have a friend who carries around a comically-large 14000 mAh battery[0]. Comically large as in about the size of three or four iPhone 6s's stacked on top of each other - he wore it on a belt clip. My other friends and I made fun of him. He always had his ridiculously large, power-guzzling phone plugged into it. But he insisted that he had it because it could jump-start a car (he's a mech…

If you're wondering why we still use lead-acid batteries in cars, it's because they don't have a memory effect and a high power to weight ratio.

Oh, I'm aware of what value a lead-acid battery has in cars. But after considering it for a short bit I'm not so surprised that you could jump start a car with a smaller lithium battery (as opposed to the bulky equipment that most mechanics around here will carry around to do the job).
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