Road trip with helper monkey

Published on Sunday, 26 September 2010 15:38

Written by Randy Garbin

The downside of all the technology now available to today’s roadside traveller comes in the form of the necessary accessories, adapters, wires, and batteries that must by nature accompany the all-​too-​useful gadget. Not so long ago, I’d hop in the car with a printed road atlas, a notebook, a camera, and maybe a small tape recorder. Long trips gathering photos, information, and other lore-​in-​progress would then require several hours of transcribing and sorting the information upon the return home.

The Powermonkey eXplorer by Powertraveller.

Between then and now, we’ve seen the advent of ubiquitous internet, allowing instant documentation and dissemination of all that data. As wondrous as this appears, getting it all to work still seems to require just as much preparation, planning, and spending as it ever has. How many times have you had to make emergency stops at a Radio Shack for a missing cable or to pick up a special battery? For me, too many to count.

The Powermonkey eXplorer has a wide array of adapters to hook up your portable device. Here, it readily applies power to my iPhone 4, but its dongle-​like form factor makes it cumbersome to use and charge at the same time.

The folding solar panel will charge your eXplorer wherever the sun shines. Works under a bright light as well.

The greatest feature of the Powermonkey eXplorer is its adaptability. I doubt a cell phone out there won’t work with this device.

Gadgets have become generally more powerful and capable, but now we contend with all the maintenance and overhead of keeping these devices charged, tuned, and operating. These days, my trips involve taking along at least one digital camera, my laptop, and my iPhone. Thanks to dongles and adapters, I can plug them into my car to keep them charged, but what happens when you opt to get away from you car, go out for an exploration through an urban environment or camping in the woods?

Maybe, you need to bring along a helper monkey. In this case, the Power Monkey eXplorer made by Powertraveller. On first impression, this device wowed me with its potential. Out of the box, the Powermonkey eXplorer comes with a rechargeable battery pack, an array of output and input adapters, so that you can draw power from an outlet in just about any industrialized country and then charge just about any device, including the iPhone. Best of all, it comes with a small, folding solar panel that recharges the device just about anywhere the sun shines. I count eleven output adapters which allows you to recharge a variety of phones, PDAs and iPods, and three input adapters. The eXplorer comes with a handy Velcro strap so you can hang the solar panel on a wall or from the back of your backpack and a pouch for all the adapters.

The eXplorer’s form factor doesn’t exactly blend into the design of the device you will charge with it. It hangs off of it like any other dongle, so using your phone with this thing attached may prove cumbersome. Its design may raise eyebrows at the airport, because it resembles a small grenade. Because of this, I suggest getting it in one of the four colors that isn’t gray.

I haven’t yet taken the eXplorer into the wilds of Borneo or in a mission-​critical situation, but I’ve put it to use in some more everyday settings. More typically for me, I took the eXplorer and my iPhone to a Phillies game. With the iPhone fully charged, I entered the subway for my 40 minute ride to the park, listened to music, chatted with a few friends, updated my Facebook status. Arriving at the park, I launched the MLB app to check scores, listen to the last three outs of the Red Sox-​Yankees game (Sox won!), and called home to check on things. By the time the game ended and I reboarded the subway, I had run down the iPhone to less than 15% of battery. At that point, I plugged in a fully charged eXplorer and listened to music to block out the rowdy fans and check my Facebook page a few times. At the end of a 25 minute ride, the Powermonkey recharged the iPhone to about 40% and drained itself to near zero.

I’ve also taken a drained Powermonkey and hooked up the solar charger, leaving it in direct sunlight for a good five hours, coming back to find the eXplorer charged to about 70% capacity. This works for me, but only in a situation where I know I’m not far from an actual electrical outlet. If I forgot a critical cable or I’m in a remote area for an extended time, the eXplorer won’t quite cut it. But maybe that’s just as well. If I’m in a remote area and I’m not in danger, I should probably just sit back and enjoy the scenery.

Powertraveller describes the eXplorer as water-​resistant and durable, but in the time I’ve had this, carrying it around mostly in my pocket or my briefcase, I have to call them out on this. The plastic battery pack enclosure has developed a gap in its seam which would easily allow water inside after just a quick dunking.

I can recommend the eXplorer for anyone who plans to take long road or hiking trips who feel they’ll probably need to stay connected to their homes or offices “just in case.” I don’t see this as an alternative power source for everyday use but a good thing to have in case of an emergency.

The Powermonkey eXplorer costs $105 at Amazon​.com. We’re associates, so please buy through Roadside and help support our efforts.