Fuelbox Wants To Be The Be-All And End-All Of Phone Chargers

It’s happened to us all; we get somewhere and realize we’ve forgotten a charger, or a cord, and now we’re up the creek. Don’t even get me started on if batteries are disposable, very few people have the best C batteries on hand. And the more devices you have, the more likely this is to happen. Fuelbox, however, wants to ensure you’ve got them all in one place. Or you could look our goBat 1200 rugged battery contest for a battery you could have on the road.

Why We Need This

A while back, all the major phone manufacturers got together, agreed that making a proprietary charger for every single phone they made was stupid, and all agreed to use the USB standard. This, you’d think, would make multi-pronged chargers unnecessary. But thanks to Apple being stubborn and, let’s face it, kind of evil, and the multiple connectors allowed under the USB standard, it turns out phone chargers still need a variety of connectors. If you want a case that will always keep your phone charged, you should also read our review of the 7 battery cases that will keep your Samsung Galaxy S4 or HTC one juiced up.

A Power Jackknife

Essentially, Fuelbox works on a jackknife, modular design. First of all, you slot a battery into the top of a custom outlet. When the battery is charged, you can just pop it off and carry it with you, using it to gas up your phone or tablet. Connectors fold out from the side, conveniently labeled so you can just pop out the one you need and slot your phone it. Two flexible cords pop out with the most common connectors as well. And, of course, there’s a USB port to just plug in a cable if you’ve got one handy.

Charged Up

Realistically, this is going to be an increasing problem, and Fuelbox is clever in how they’re marketing this particular gadget; they’re aiming not just at the day to day consumer, but also at hotels, coffee shops, and other public spaces where people often have to plug in just to get something charged up or otherwise done. If you’d like to see where the future of power goes, a full set of Fuelbox gear is just $80.