Introduction

When it comes to portable battery charging packs, one name stands out more than others -Sandberg. The company is consistently delivering products that cover the spectrum, from compact ones for easy traveling, to beefy ones meant to provide much-needed juice to several devices simultaneously. In their quest for streamlining the size of its products, it seems as though they've managed to achieve that with the Excellence PowerBank 3000, which so happens to be stuffed with a 3000 mAh battery.



Specifications.




Packaging & Contents

The packaging may seem fairly serious, but you do get a brief summary of PowerBank's capabilities on the front cover.



A few words about the PowerBank are present at the rear in 24 different languages.



The image below show what you will find under the flap of the box.



Along with the PowerBank you will also get a manual and a mini USB cable.




A Closer Look

Packed inside an plastic housing,Sandberg's Excellence PowerBank 3000 is pretty slim thick, and about the same width as an iPhone 5 or 5s, but a little bit shorter. The size and shape make it easy to travel with, either in a pocket or in a bag. It draws power from a micro-USB port, paired with an included cable, and can put out up to 1 Amp of power. This makes it best suited for iPhones and iPods.



Its exterior is plastic.Shimmering and catching our attention, it can easily be mistaken for some kind of smartphone. As its name implies, the profile of the battery pack is Excellence rivaling the thinness of today's modern marvels in the smartphone realm. A refreshing change no doubt, this isn't your traditional looking battery pack.



Four LEDs at the top indicate remaining charge.



Sandberg's logo.



The PowerBank is lined with silicon pads.



Sporting a mostly clean finish, there's only one section on its body that breaks up its uniform looks,the one that houses its microUSB port, full-sized 1.A output USB port.There is also an power on/off button near it.



Around the two corners you'll see two grey pads.There are actually two cables for charging your devices and the PowerBank.On one cable is a microUSB connection an the other has a Apple lightning connector.




Performance

Even though iPads won't charge at their maximum speed when connected to this battery, I tested it with a fully drained iPad mini because of its capacity.Sandberg's Excellence PowerBank provided just shy of 47% before running dry.



In testing with a zero-juice iPhone 6 Plus, the Sandberg Excellence PowerBank 3,000mAh added 3 hours, 32 minutes of LTE video streaming time with the phone's screen brightness set to maximum, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned off.


Final Thoughts

While flashy extra features generally don't hurt, they're certainly not always necessary.Sandberg's latest battery pack is Excellence PowerBank 3000, a 3000mAh backup power device, and it doesn't include a flashlight or any of the other bells and whistles battery makers have been packing in lately. Instead, it's stripped down to the bare essentials: one 1A input port/output port, and a few lights to show how much battery is left.It won't charge most tablets, but for going out on the town and not hauling a jump starter battery, this is a great thing to slip into a pocket or a purse if you need to keep your phone, or your friend's phone, up and active.



It'll charge most phones currently on the market once from dead to fully charged, but after that you might have a trickle left if that. If you're on an HTC One M8 or something that sips power, you're pretty much set for another day of use though. I would have laughed at 3000mAh on my last phone, but now that seems pretty decent.It's extremely thin, feels solid, and gets the job done.The Excellence PowerBank 3000 not only will charge most all devices, but thanks to the integrated cables you won't need to carry a charge or sync cable with you.The price($45) is a little more what I'd expect in a decent 3000mAh charger, although you're paying for sleekness and very quick charge abilities here, not so much for mAh capacity, so keep that in mind.