Apple’s MacBooks are gorgeous notebooks for everyday or professional use, making excellent portable devices and desktop replacements alike. But there is one area in particular where Apple’s notebooks aren’t exactly ideal: travelling.
Overview
Several years ago, Apple moved away from using removable batteries in their MacBook like to sealed batteries that can’t be removed. For anyone that spends long hours travelling, this can pose a challenge, as Apple does not offer a way to carry additional battery power for you device.
HyperMac has been tackling that issue for a number of years by offering external batteries that connect to your MacBook in a variety of ways – either by using an Apple Airline Power Adapter alongside a plug included with the device, or by using a HyperJuice Magic Box to modify your Magsafe charger.
Sanho’s latest MacBook battery, the HyperJuice 2.0 ($300, link) packs a few unique features that I really like. We’ve put it through its paces to see how well it performs!
Design
The HyperJuice 2 is nothing if not elegant. The battery features an anodized aluminum casing to match your MacBok, and a virtually symmetrical design with 2 USB ports for charging your iPhone or other USB devices, a DC output for charging your Mac, and a DC input for charging the HyperJuice 2 itself.
One of the most unique features of the HyperJuice 2 is the inclusion of a small OLED screen on the front of the device. The OLED offers information about how much power is remaining, the temperature of the device, whether it is charging or discharging, and how long it will take to completely recharge the device when it is plugged in. While small, the screen is a great addition – and much useful to the LED lights that previous HyperMac/HyperJuice batteries have used.
At about 1.5 lbs, the HyperJuice 2 isn’t especially light – but it’s certainly small and light enough to toss in a travel bag for emergency power without weighing you down too much. The fact that all of the various cables can be removed leaving a flush device makes it easier to carry it in a laptop bag or backpack.
Performance
The HyperJuice 2.0 includes an impressive 100Wh battery capacity. By contrast, the 15-inch non-Retina MacBook Pro includes a 77.5Wh battery, which means the HyperJuice 2.0 should more than double your battery life for such a device. In my experience, I found this to be absolutely accurate.
Both of the USB ports on the HyperJuice 2.0 are capable of outputting up to 10 watts, offering rapid charging even for high-power devices like the 4th-generation iPad – and enough power to last you for days or even weeks of powering an iPad and an iPhone (assuming you don’t use it with your MacBook).
When completely drained, the HyperJuice 2.0 takes about 4 hours to charge, which I felt was appropriate considering the massive battery included with the base model.
Verdict[rating:4.5]
If you frequently travel and find yourself in need of a large supply of power for your Mac or iOS devices, I cannot recommend the HyperJuice 2.0 highly enough. It’s a great value for the amount of poer you get, and it’s an indispensable and simple to use tool that does what it claims to do very, very well. I award it 4.5 out of 5 stars.
For more information, or to purchase the HyperJuice 2 directly from the manufacturer for $299.99, check out Sanho’s product page on the web! The HyperJuice 2 and older models can also commonly be found at discounted prices from Amazon.com.
Pros
- Color-matched for your Apple products.
- Sleek and portable.
- Easy to use.
- More than doubles battery life on a 15-inch non-Retina MacBook Pro.
- Great for Macs and iOS devices alike.
Cons
- Requires a separately purchased Airline Power Adapter or Magic Box to be used with a Mac (although that’s due to Apple’s restrictions, and not Sanho’s fault)
