People are like cellphones. We both need to recharge. Humans sleep, and cellphones charge. There are work-arounds of course, cellphones have battery packs and humans have coffee and Redbull, (although not simultaneously after last time).

Spyder isn’t exactly the first on the scene with battery packs, but they have contributed quite a hefty little device to the market. For the most part, the Powershadow is a solid device that will serve your battery hogging needs.

The Powershadow is a cover for your phone that charges the phone while you use it and in this simple little function, it’s brilliant. The effect this has on your battery long term is debatable, but it’s a more than suitable solution for those whose phones can’t make it through the day.

The Powershadow is a very pretty piece of hardware. It is certainly slimmer than most battery packs and the LEDs on the back have a futuristic blue tinge to them. The Powershadow also comes with a syncing dock that alleviates the pain of having to scrounge around for a chord and plugging it into a cover that already restricts access to the phone’s hardware, but more on that later.

The Powershadow’s battery life can be described as adequate which is more than awesome when you’re on 1%. After about 2 and a half hours, the Spyder had charged 40 percent of my phone, and had about half of its battery left. The Spyder can be counted on to sustain your phone in an emergency, but its not the red bull and coffee deluxe of 2012.

There are some flaws in the Powershadow. While the cover is slim, it is very bulky at the bottom, thus making access to the earphone port really difficult. The cover does come with a small auxillary cable to prevent this issue, but it feels like this is a problem that shouldn’t exist, instead of a solution having to be bundled with the cover.

The cover is also extremely arduous to take off and put on. The top slides off (and Spyder has been courteous enough to provide a replacement top) and removing the top is a somewhat painless process, but sliding the phone out of the bottom is such an undertaking, that its easier just to buy a new iPhone.

To summarize, the Powershadow will cater to your needs if you need some extra power for your phone, but due to its design and debatable performance, it isn’t exactly a must-buy.

Get it: R1 200
From: www.DigiCape.co.za