Earlier this month, I introduced you guys to the Cheero Power Plus 3 and today, I am glad to be able to review for you guys the Cheero Ingress Power Cube from Cheero. Virtual online games these days have its line between virtual world and the reality getting fainter, with collectables and apparels or accessories having themed as such. The Cheero Ingress Power Cube, as its name suggests, is similar and is aimed mainly at the players playing the popular game – Ingress.
Ingress, is a game by Niantic Labs (which is an internal startup at Google), and is an augmented-reality massively-multiplayer online role-playing location-based game. Unfortunately, our BlackBerry 10’s cannot join in the fun, just yet. The upcoming BlackBerry Priv, might just allow us to do that, however.
The Cheero Ingress Power Cube is the World’s first external battery pack for ingress players that is officially licensed by Niantic Labs. In fact, to further boost the player in the game, apart from being able to keep their device’s juice up and running, it comes with a special Ingress MOD Card pack that includes some power ups for the player in the game.
Now, let us go back to the powerbank and its packaging.
When you first open the box, you get the Cheero Ingress Power Cube with a sticker film protecting its top. First glance, you see the glitter on it and upon closer look, its actually super glossy! This meant that it has a higher chance of getting your fingerprint smudges and scratches on it.
On the flip side, we have the ingress logo imprinted and the specifications on the bottom corner. One thing to note, however, unlike the Cheero Power Plus 3, the Ingress Power Cube has an input of just 1.6A which is a tad less, and hence, charges slower than it.
On the bottom, we have the inputs and outputs. Listed on it is the first port pumping 1A, second port having 2A whilst the third (right-side) is the microUSB charging input port.
On the left side of the power bank, we see two buttons. What are these 2 buttons for?
A quick flip of the manual was useful in this case. The rectangular button, as denoted by its symbol, is the power button which controls the powerbank. On the other hand, the circular button controls the lighting.
Wait, what lighting? Well, we will come to that, in a while.
Underneath the powerbank lies the cards, manuals and accessories. In this case, we have the Ingress-branded pouch, microUSB cable as well as the manual and the Ingress MOD card. It’s always nice to have a manual, which indeed came in handy for situations such as the above!
Now, earlier we talked about the button controlling the light, what were the lights that we were referring to? Well, in this case, we were referring to the lights on the top of the powerbank! We can have up to 6 varying patterns though the patterns are dynamic, so they will change as well.
Moving onto the performance, as the powerbank, we start off with the 1A port. With the stresser’s resistance at 1A, it was able to draw a steady 1A out from the powerbank. The port is rated to be 1A, but what happens if we tried 2A? Well, it took it like a champ and pumped out 1.92A for us.
Next, we test out the 2A port. First, with the stresser’s load at 1A, it pulled a steady 1A, like the other port. Putting a 2A load, the powerbank pumped a steady 1.94A.
Like all the powerbanks, I like to test it with my fussy BlackBerry Bold 9900, does it work? First, on the 1A port, yes it does! Moving onto the 2A port, however, the BlackBerry Bold rejected it outright.
All in all, despite this being a solid portable powerbank, some of you might not be exactly pleased with the top. Despite the of the powerbank being a potential artistic piece for one to show off, there is always the concern of fingerprint smudges and the light draining the battery faster than it should. However, if you are into Ingress or want a powerbank that you can actually show off, this is it!
The Cheero Ingress Power Cube 12000mAh can be purchased at Amazon now for USD$43.99!
