One of the biggest questions when buying or owning any smartphone is improving the battery life to last at a minimum one full day of normal use. The Samsung Galaxy S5 already has a pretty good battery and many great features baked in like power saving mode. Sometimes this just isn’t enough to keep the battery charged all day and in this case you will need accessories that can supplement this need like a power bank case or external power bank to increase battery life and/or recharge the device on the go.
Generic 3500mAh Power Bank Case for the Galaxy S5
The one we decided to check out is a simple 3500mAh Power Bank case that is easy to place your phone into as well as having a kickstand as a bonus feature. Adding your phone to the case is as easy as opening the flap covering the charging port and sliding the GS5 into a micro USB attached to the case and sliding the top of the case down securely. You can see this in action via our video at the bottom of this post.
The Power Bank case adds very nice protection to the back and corners of the device with little protection to the front of your phone. This said you will likely want to use a tempered glass screen protector with this case instead of your standard flimsy screen protectors to be sure the front is well protected. The only other downside to this case is the fact that it about doubles its thickness and weight no longer giving you the thin light feel of the Galaxy S5 alone. You have to keep in mind that the added battery life if a requirement makes this all worth it.
How the 3500mAh Power Bank Case actually works
Once you have your Galaxy S5 in the case you have two options at all times which I will explain. There is a button on the bottom left of the power bank case to turn the cases battery on. Option 1 is leaving the case off and your phone running as it does without the case at all and option 2 is turing the case on by pressing the button and using the cases battery instead. While we say the case doubles battery life we really mean you have a captains choice battery that you can switch between internal and external battery as you like. You will notice when your using the cases battery that there are four lights to the right of the power button that show you how charged the case itself is when in use. Charging the Power Bank Case is also managed by you as in when plugged into a wall charger with the case off it will charge the case, when plugged in and the case turned on it will charge your phone. Again this is a second battery and not an extended battery.
enCharge 2000mAh External Power Bank
The 2000mAh external power bank that we are using as seen in the video below around the 4 minute mark is a small one that can fit into your pocket as well as having a small enough cable to be easily mobile. This is more of an emergency way of getting battery power when you need it and your phone is dead. This particular Power Bank also has a flashlight that can be used to make it more of an accessory for even your emergency kits for hurricanes or whatever you may have one for. Tapping the power button on the device once will turn on one or all of the four lights to the right of the button to show its current charge level. Each light corresponds to 25% battery life. Double tapping the power button quickly twice will turn on an LED flashlight on the front of the device. This is a great as a way to get a little extra use out of your Galaxy S5 although is not meant to get another full charge out of the device.
Conclusion
Personal thoughts about both devices and how I use these types of devices. I personally have an external Power Bank in my cars glove box in case I need a little extra juice in a pinch and this has proven useful. The Power Bank case is a little too heavy and bulky for my liking although I keep one in my book bag so when out and about I can easily change to the case if my battery is almost dead and i want to use the phone a bit longer. An example is when sitting at Starbucks writing articles like these I tend to use my phone a lot and it dies by lunch time and I can just pull out the case and put the phone into it and get use for the rest of the day easily without having to find a plug. Plugging into a wall when needing the phone for calls throughout the day gets annoying to say the least.