Accessory Review: Lepow Moonstone 6000 mAh Power Bank

You may recall that a couple months ago, we reviewed the Lepow U-Stone 1200 power bank. The U-Stone set itself apart from the sea of competing power banks thanks to its slim profile and stylish design, but not everyone wants such a large power bank. Instead, many would prefer something a bit smaller that still packs enough juice for a few full charges.

Today, we’re going to take a look at the U-Stone’s little brother, the Moonstone 6000. Is it worth its place in your pocket, backpack, or purse? Read on to find out.

Design and Unboxing

The first thing you’ll notice when you crack open the box isn’t actually the Moonstone 6000 itself. Rather, you’re greeted with a little, velvet-like sleeve filled with eight fun goodies.

The bonus gifts include a pack of button stickers, a gold-plated sticker, a rubber suction cup holder, a microSD card reader, a miniature stylus, a cable wrap fish, a headset wrap key, and a screen cleaner. The stylus and screen cleaner are particularly handy because they can dock themselves in your device’s headphone slot when not in use, and act as little cell phone charms.

Just underneath the bag of goodies, you’ll find a carry case that houses a micro USB charging cable, a manual pamphlet, and of course, the Lepow Moonstone 6000 unit itself.

As you can see in the picture above, the Moonstone 6000 is a stylish black square with rounded corners. The unit itself features a glossy plastic shell, and it is available in a variety of different colors. The pouch is made from an almost felt-like material, and the included USB cable features a little bit of flair with green accents that mirror the company’s color scheme.

When I first picked up the Moonstone, I was quick to assume that it would be both a fingerprint and scratch magnet. While the former is certainly true, the latter isn’t really as much of an issue as you’d expect from a piece of glossy plastic. In fact after several days of standard pocket use, I couldn’t notice any scratches on the Moonstone with my naked eye.

Functionality

What use is a pretty black box if it doesn’t work well? Luckily, the Moonstone 6000 is more than capable of charging your phone and tablet with its charging slots.

On the Moonstone 6000, the right slot is labeled “fast mode,” and it provides up to 1.2A of charging power. The left slot is labeled “ultra mode,” and it ups the maximum current to 2.1A. And at 2.1A max current, it’s more than capable of charging even the biggest phablets and tablets out there.

The smaller Moonstone 3000, on the other hand, features a “standard mode” at 0.5A and a “fast mode” at 1.2A.

Performance

Most other reviews you’ll find for the Moonstone 6000 focus solely on its stellar functionality and design. However, this is XDA and we wanted to take a deeper look to see if the Moonstone was actually putting out its rated power.

To test its output, we first fully charge depleted a Google Nexus 5 using the free Battery Tester app available on Google Play. After the Nexus 5 powered itself off, we then plugged it into the Moonstone 6000′s 2.1A charging port and turned on the phone. In under a minute, we turned the screen to max brightness and fired up the Battery Tester app, enabling all options other than vibration. At this time, the Moonstone 6000 was not only powering the Nexus 5 running at full tilt, but it was also charging its battery. We then kept track of how long it took for the Moonstone 6000 to: A) fully charge the Nexus 5 running at full power, and B) for both the Nexus 5 and Moonstone 6000 to run out of juice. We also performed the test on a fully charged Nexus 5 under the same conditions, but without the Moonstone. Finally, we repeated each test two more times and averaged the results.

So how did the Moonstone fare? Averaged across three runs, the Lepow Moonstone 6000 was able to power the empty Nexus 5 for 6 hours and 51 minutes while running at full power. And in the process, the Moonstone 6000 fully charged the Nexus 5 while running the battery tester app in just 3 hours and 22 minutes.

A fully charged Nexus 5 without the Moonstone, on the other hand, can last 2 hours and 52 minutes on its stock 2300 mAh battery under the same conditions. So if we are to take the Nexus 5′s battery rating at face value, this means that the Moonstone 6000 effectively adds 5496 mAh on top of the phone’s built-in 2300 mAh. In other words, 91.60% of the claimed 6000 mAh actually end up going to your phone.

While your first instinct may be to fault the Moonstone because we didn’t experience 100% rated capacity or more, one must keep in mind that there are a few steps along the way that eat at efficiency. For starters, the Moonstone first had to not only power the Nexus 5, but also charge its battery. In doing this, charge was going from one battery to the phone and then to another battery—and then back to the phone. Naturally, every transfer wastes energy in the form of heat.

So why did we test this way if we knew going in that it would waste energy along the way? Simple. It most accurately represents how the device will be used in real life situations, as well as how much of a power gain a typical user might expect. And all things considered, it’s quite impressive that the device achieved over 90% of its rated capacity. Because of this, we have absolutely no reason to doubt that the device’s battery back itself is capable of delivering the full 6000 mAh in a more clinical setting.

Conclusions

So is the Moonstone 6000 worth a place in your pocket or bag? Well, if you constantly find yourself running out of power while out and about, it’s hard to find fault with the Moonstone 6000. It’s relatively small, so it can easily fit in your pants pocket, yet it packs enough juice to fully charge your phone at least a couple times. And since its max output is 2.1A, you don’t have to worry about whether it can deliver enough current to charge your tablet or phone while in use.

Then there’s the value. The device normally retails for $60 US. However, Lepow is currently offering the Moonstone 6000 in all colors and styles for just $20 on Amazon. We’re unsure how long this sale will last, but at this price, you simply can’t go wrong.

Don’t forget to stay tuned here on the XDA Portal, as we’ll be giving away 25 of these in a couple of days!

source: xdadevelopers