Review: Patriot FUEL Active Mobile Rechargeable 2000mAh Battery with LED Flashlight

If you are a fan of celebrity food fanatic Alton Brown, you may know that the one thing he steers clear of when equipping his kitchen is a "unitasker," an object that can only perform a single function. That is what I like the most about the Patriot FUEL Active Mobile Rechargeable Battery. It combines a mobile device battery charger, something many of us will only use occasionally, with a flashlight.
The FUEL Active Mobile Rechargeable battery comes simply packaged with a MicroUSB to USB cable, which can be used both for charging the battery via wall or USB jack. The same cable is also used for powering your devices off of the battery pack. The 2000mAh lithium-ion battery ensures that you will have plenty of juice for whatever device you need to keep up and running.
The Flashlight on the FUEL consists of a single LED, which is bright enough to light your way or find that tiny screw you dropped. It is touted as a three-stage flashlight, but I found only the first of the three to be truly useful.
The flashlight button on the back of the FUEL is small and flush with the surface of the case, so it sometimes takes one or two tries to turn it on or toggle through stages. When you first press it, the LED turns on at its brightest level, a pretty impressive light with a wide radius. A second press dims the light slightly, providing enough vision to skulk around in the dark, but not much else. The last stage is the ever-familiar strobe effect. I have never once found a use for this on any flashlight. Then again, I rarely find myself at a dance party or needing to flag down a helicopter.
With its compact design and sturdy aluminum body, reminiscent of tiny MagLite flashlight, the FUEL Active Mobile Rechargeable battery perfect for your glove box or tool bag. As an IT consultant who carried around thirty pounds of equipment in his backpack, it was helpful to have one small device that had a couple of uses, be it keeping my phone charged through a long day or lighting up a cramped server closet so I could trace cables behind a rack of network equipment.
If you find yourself needing a battery backup for your mobile devices, why not get more bang for your buck and get a durable, compact flashlight as well? It will make your inner Alton Brown nod in approval.
You can find the Patriot FUEL Active Mobile Rechargeable 2000mAh Battery with LED Flashlight, available in black or gun metal grey, in the Windows Phone Central Store for $19.95.
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The third picture looks like it's winking at you.
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Yeah it does LOL
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Lol good find XD
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Saw it too lol
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$19.95? That's pretty costly
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It's solid metal though, very sturdy. Throw in a 2000 mAh battery, USB, and three flashlight options and it doesn't seem too bad.
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I agreed.
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I was going to say that's a great deal! I'm going to pick one up
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My daughter is always running her battery dead when she is nowhere an outlet and always loosing her flash light. Hmmm can you say stocking suffer?
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20$ is not much for a rechargeable battery..
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I was going to say the same thing
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Depends on what the dimensions are. If it's in a small package then it's worth it.
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It is incredibly compact, especially since it also has a flashlight built into it.
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I agree, there are definitely better deals to be had, especially for only 2000mah. I picked up a 6500mah cell for power outages with aluminum casing, two USB ports for charging two devices at once and a flashlight for less that $40.
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There are always better deals to be had if one is prepared to shop around. This particular deal isn't that great to be honest.
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Didn't take much "shopping around". All it took was going to Amazon, doing a search for "6500mah charger" and clicking "Add to cart", so about two or three minutes tops, lol.
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Looks like a chinese copy of Anker Astro Mini with a flashlight...
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So if my 1520 was at 0% would this gadget be enough to fully charge it to 100% ?
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You'd be lucky to get half I guess.. It's pretty cheap though, at least compared to the other options in my country
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Sure not
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Nope, the 1520 battery is around 3400 mAh
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Slow day? And in other news, I bought my first cell phone external battery charger/flashlight when I was still using Windows Mobile!
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Everyday seems to be a slow news day recently when talking about Windows Phone. That's to be expected I suppose.
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Looks like I know what I'm buying for my teams for their Christmas stocking stuffer. ;-)
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I was wondering why WPCentral were reviewing such an average device.
Then I saw that it was 'on sale' in the WPC store.
Just a little heads up. Pretty much every Anker battery comes with an LED torch. My one also came with a 13,000mah battery, a 2 year warranty -- and all for the princely sum of £17.99.
2,000 mah isn't even a full recharge on my 1020! -
No torch, but 3,200mah capacity...for the same price...
(Just use the torch feature on your Lumia ;)!)
http://www.amazon.com/Astro-Ultra-Compact-Lipstick-Sized-Technology-Smar... -
I'm not surprised for that price since Patriot FUEL are a good & trusted brand. Worth a buy.
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You should do durability and drop tests with these to see what is truly the best deal.
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Alton Brown, lol. I never knew who that was till the better half got hooked on Food Network. Now we watch him every week.
Kind of like this though. As a Bike Commuter (gave up driving 3 years ago), I am constantly buying tons of flashlights to keep in my packs. This one would be extremely useful. BTW, Strobe function is a must for night activities such as cycling\ jogging when you are in need of not being run over, lol. -
My newtrent I torch from Amazon has 5200 mag batter plus flashlight and laser. It costs $30 Posted via Windows Phone Central App
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Trent is a good unit too.
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The strobe feature is for neutralizing home invaders in the dark, duh. See: Robin's Revenge or Kick-Ass
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Unit should click into interface though the middle so there less chance of jarring!