What’s the situation with portable batteries? If I’m out and about and need some juice for my MacBook but don’t have my cables, what do you recommend?
We recently reviewed Sanho’s HyperMac line of external batteries (4 out of 5 stars, Apr/10). And we still use them all the time for tasks ranging from keeping a MacBook Pro fully charged during a grueling live blog of the iPhone 4 announcement (our 3G modem saps the MacBook Pro’s battery life insanely quickly) to topping off an iPad’s battery during a long weekend camping trip out in the woods (no, we don’t care to leave the electronics at home, thank you).
HyperMac's batteries can double--and in some cases triple--the life of your MacBook battery.
They’re pricey, starting at $199.95 for the 60-watt-hour battery to $499.95 for a 222-watt-hour one (hypershop.com). And they’re heavy--you won’t want to schlep it everywhere with you, only the places you really think you’ll need it. The mid-range one we tested (150 watt-hours, $399.95) is 2.4 pounds, just over half the weight of a current 4.7-pound MacBook. But they last and last (and last), and the built-in USB port lets you charge up your iDevices or other USB gadgets too.
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