PowerSkin Case for Blackberry Bold 97x0 - Charging, Testing and More

Charging:

When charging the PowerSkin, there are little blue LED lights on the back that light up.  At each step of the charging process a new light will light up until all four LED lights are shining brightly.  When they are all lit up it is fully charged.  The entire process took about two hours, so it's not the fastest charging device around, but it could be worse as well.  Holding the button in for two seconds will turn it off the battery LEDs.  It's nice to see that PowerSkin uses the LEDs to keep track of the battery level so you will always be able to see how much "juice" you've got left in the PowerSkin.

LEDs

Testing:

Testing a battery case, it's pretty much as simple as comparing device run-time before and after you add the battery.  In order to test how long this will last, we tried to be consistent by making a similar number of calls, SMS messages, web surfing and even played the occasional game.  In the end, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 lasted about two days without the skin and almost four days with the PowerSkin installed.  The battery on the phone would decrease by a bar at a much slower rate than without the skin as it would get a charge from the PowerSkin.  It is a good thing that the PowerSkin would run dead before the phone so you know that you need to charge it up before your phone dies.

You can test and see how much is left in the PowerSkin by pressing the test button on the back.  The end result is that the PowerSkin gave me almost two extra days of power on my device.  Of course different devices will vary as they tend to eat up mAh at different rates.

Final Thoughts:

The PowerSkin for the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is not a super heavy-duty protective case, but it will still protect it from a modest fall.  Having an extra 1150mAh battery is a great bonus as the battery on the BlackBerry is 1500mAh.  While it doesn't quite double the battery life it sure adds some longevity and gives you extra days of use - or a lot heavier use for a couple of days.  This case is a great idea for someone that is on the go and forgets to charge up there phone every night.  It is super easy to charge as you just have to plug into your laptop or PC at work.

There is really nothing bad to say about the PowerSkin.  While the MSRP is listed at $49.99, I've found this at a local brick-and-mortar for about $40.

Pros:

• Not a big clunky case
• Reasonably priced @ $39.99

Cons:

• Long time to charge

I'd like to thank PowerSkin for sending over the BlackBerry Bold 9700 PowerSkin.  It's nice to see that you can get some extra life from your device (both in battery life and protection) from a $50 case.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them in the forum at the "Comments" link below.