Review: Eton BoostTurbine 2000

THERE’S THAT OLD joke about the girl who thought her blind date was so ugly she put a paper bag over his head and then, just to be safe, another over her head in case his fell off. The Eton BoostTurbine 2000 takes similar precautions. While its 2000mAH lithium-ion battery will fully recharge your depleted cell phone battery, it also comes with a hand crank to whip up a little more power when its own battery is D.O.A.

At first glance Eton’s 7-ounce charger looks like most of the other rechargeable battery packs out there. There’s a power-out USB port you attach your digital device for recharging. The power-in, mini-USB port connects to an electrical outlet or a computer’s USB port to recharge the BoostTurbine’s own lithium-ion battery. Pushing the power button on the charger starts the re-juicing process and conveniently lets you check on the BoostTurbine’s remaining battery as represented by four LED lights.

What separates the BoostTurbine from other brickish cadets in the recharging brigade is its recessed handle. Ah, yes, the crank — or as Eton dubs it, the Dynamo. Eton suggests turning the Dynamo at two rotations per second for a minute. It makes a whirring sound as you grind away, and the company promises that for every minute of rotating, you’ll get about four minutes of talk time. If my math is right, that’s 120 rotations for at best four minutes of phone use.

While I can admire the Eton’s intent to cover all bases here, you’d have to be pretty desperate to ever need to hand crank for a 60 second phone call — particularly when you consider that you get much less that four minutes of talk time.

Like a rat on a cage wheel, I cranked at the suggested speed of two rotations per second (not the easiest task to coordinate) for two minutes. Those 240 rotations bought me a bare trickle of power on my phone, not even enough to make a call. I turned the Dynamo for another two minutes and, with the charging cable still attached to the phone, I was able to talk for a minute before the call was cut off.

Good thing the BoostTurbine offers an arm-saving alternative. With a fully (USB) charged unit I was able to get my iPhone battery from 40 to 100 percent, top off a Bluetooth speaker battery, and still have 50 percent life left on the BoostTurbine. The fully-charged Eton also gave my exhausted iPhone a 100 percent charge in just under 75 minutes. And using the mini-USB port, it takes about 2.5 hours to completely replenish the BoostTurbine’s own battery.

For the price the BoostTurbine 2000 is definitely a worthwhile backup charger (like GOAL ZERO SHERPA 50 POWER PACK It’s small, portable, and will help keep your low-powered gear fully charged. And in that rare emergency situation, its crank will give you that extra bit of power (and reassurance) you may need. Just be prepared for a very sore arm if your emergency requires a lot of explanation.