Elecjet Apollo Ultra
From €69

We’ve all been there with our smartphones – a rapidly depleting battery and too much time between us and a wall charger. Smartphone batteries have certainly improved over the years and it’s now common enough to get a full day of use out of a single charge – for the average user at least.

But there are times when you need a charge, fast, when you are out of range of your regular charger. That is where battery packs come in handy.

They suffer from the same problem though: you need to remember to charge them. And if you don’t, you’ll have to wait while it charges enough, defeating the purpose. There have been many occasions when I’ve been frantically searching for a charging pack, only to find every one of them is empty.

The Elecjet Apollo Ultra is aiming to change this. The 10,000mAh graphene power pack not only charges your phone quickly, but it also charges its own internal power reservoir at a fairly fast clip. That means within half an hour you can safely leave the house with enough power in your bank to fully charge your phone from empty.

You can see it happening before your eyes. The Apollo Ultra includes a small digital display that shows the power level in the bank in per cent; as it is charging, you can see not only the percentage increase, but it goes up in 0.1 increments. In the space of 10-12 seconds, it added 0.4 per cent to the power bank.

With the right charger, it will fully power up in less than half an hour. With a USB C charger I had lying around the house, it was fully charged in under an hour.

This is made possible by its graphene technology. Graphene is an ultra-thin carbon material, known to have unique mechanical and electrical properties. It is more energy dense than lithium ion, so you can get a lighter battery pack.

There is another reason to prefer graphene to traditional battery technology: it has a longer life cycle, about five times longer than standard battery packs.

The Apollo Ultra has two ports: a USB C that serves as a 100 watt input super fast charge and 65 watt fast charge output; and USB A port that delivers an 18w quick charge. When the pack is in fast charge mode, you’ll see a small lightning indicator on the display.

There are some bold claims here. According to Elecjet, it will charge a smartphone to full in seven minutes, but that depends on cables and battery size. I got two full charges and then some for an iPhone 13 Pro out of the battery pack, while using the phone too, and it was impressively fast compared with other battery packs I’ve used in the past. It charged my iPhone from empty to 20 per cent in a matter of minutes; a 15 per cent charge on the battery pack got the phone to 54 per cent.

It’s not just for smartphones though, with Elecjet also promising extra power for iPads, Macbooks and other USB-chargeable devices.

Elecjet says there are built-in safeguards to ensure devices don’t overheat, protect against over-voltage and short-circuit. The battery pack itself stays cool when charging, a marked difference from other battery packs.

The good

This battery pack is lightning fast, faster than any other pack I’ve used. At 10,000mAh, it also lasts an impressive length of time, with at least two full charges for the iPhone 13 Pro, which has a battery capacity of more than 3,000mAh, and approaching a third before it needed to be recharged.

The not so good

You will need to invest in a separate wall charger to get the best out of the battery pack in terms of its own charging speed. However, it will still charge fairly quickly with a USB C charger from your smartphone, enough to make sure you can leave the house within 15 minutes even if the battery pack has been allowed to run low.

The rest

If it can be charged by USB, you can use the battery pack to power it. And unlike other battery packs I’ve used in the past, it won’t heat up too much so you can carry the pack in your bag without worrying about it.

Elecjet is currently offering the Apollo Ultra on Indiegogo at a discount.

The verdict

Could Elecjet herald the future of battery packs? Here’s hoping.

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