It started with the trip to Dubai. My friend had one of those cell phones that goes dead within four hours. So a couple of times a day, she pulled out this small gray box, plugged it in, and, voila, the phone was charged.
I wasn’t home a week when a local newspaper columnist did a piece about charging phones (tablets and whatnot) “in the wild.” Apparently, she was sitting there on a city sidewalk charging her phone at the base of a tree (this is Seattle, so power outlets on trees are not unreasonable). She mused about how folks are always in search of power, how they scan a room (or a tree) for an outlet out of habit.
And she then started talking about portable power.
Desperate for phone power, this iPhone owner plugged in wherever she could…in this case the outlet for tree lights at a cafe in Wenatchee, WA.
Sure, you can plug into your car. But if you are not in your car or if you don’t have a car, there’s the frantic search for power.
And I remembered the flight back from Dubai when my phone was down to 7% and I knew I needed to make a call when we landed.
Enter Ventev
So I sent off for the Ventev, the portable power source my friend had used in Dubai. I got the powercell 6000+ which has two USB ports, one (1A/5 watts) good for handsets and the other (2A/10 watts) good for tablets or rapid charges. The enclosed sheet promises 25 hours of talk time, 18 hours of 4G internet, 20 hours of video playback or 100 hours of audio playback (hmmm … audio books for endless drives).
Ventev chargers are fast and lightweight, making it easy to have power anywhere you go.
There are numerous chargers out there and I can’t vouch for them, but I can say this about the Ventev: it’s small (about the size of a large pack of smokes), it’s easy to use, and it works.
Technology doesn’t come easily to me. But I was able to open the package and figure it out just by looking at the thing. Unfold the built in plug, plug it into the wall, wait for it to charge, and take it with you. I never did get around to the instructions. The hardest thing about the Ventev was liberating the devices and their cords from the packing (tip … the containers open from the bottom … pull off that black thing).
All you need is the cord that charges your phone … or one of the company’s neon colored cords so you always have a cord with you.
And there’s also the Ventev Dashport r2240 which plugs into your car with 12 watts and two USB ports if you’re in a real hurry and happen to have your car. Otherwise, if carry space is tight, there’s the r900 which works in a car (but can also be charged with a wall adapter) and once charged, can be used for emergency phone power on the run.
The picture accompanying this, by the way, was taken with my freshly Ventev-charged phone of my friend’s phone being charged.
The Ventev in action, plugged into my friend’s Samsung S3 cell phone.
Ventev devices work with both Android and Apple devices. Retail price for the Ventev powercell 6000+ is $74.99, for the dashport r2240 $29.99, for the dashport r900 $39.99, cables $14.99. (All of this is bit less on Amazon.com). There are also less powerful Ventev devices that are cheaper. These are devices that will keep any realfoodtraveler charged, no matter where you go. — Yvette Cardozo, RFT Ski & Dive Editor 
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