Review: Bavin Stone 12000mAh

Because I do not really charge my phone unless it's drained, I often find myself holding on to it while I'm on my way home since that''s pretty much the time when you actually need your phone for emergencies - literally.

Besides, I go out and meet my cousins and friends sometimes. By sometimes, I mean a time when I tend to use up my phone's battery in an hour or two. I have to call my family, talk with my kids, text my husband, take photos, browse the net and whatever. So I think it's time I buy myself a power bank (PB).

With a friend's recommendation, I willingly checked an online shop. Luckily, it was on sale! So I browsed the products -- and saw that cute Bavin power bank. I didn't just jump into it, though.  I did a little more browsing and had my choices. The Jingnoo 16000mAh, the Jingnoo 28000 mAh, and the Bavin 12000 mAh, which was priced P1600, P1700, and P1900, respectively -- sale prices, actually. As all buyers do, I inquired. And the seller amiably answered all my questions.

First, she recommends Bavin. Although it is relatively pricey, she swears on the quality and the accuracy of the mAh. While it can only fully charge an iPad mini once, it can fully charge an iPhone 4 to 5 times (I think). The Jingnoo, on the other hand, is cheaper but trusted as well. Probably not as good as the Bavin, but it's high mAh is sweet! Especially for someone whose bag is actually a pack of gadgets <cough>. But, of course I'm going after quality.

So here goes the Bavin, photo courtesy of the seller. I bought mine in blue, and my brother's in black.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take pictures of it when the items arrived. But the items came pretty much just like that in a hard plastic shell, with the manual, a USB with 4 connector tips (30-pin, lightning, micro USB, nokia) and the unit, of course.

So when the package came, we had to drain our phones, and try out this PB. I tried to read the manual but it was all Chinese and all I was able to read says: BAVIN.

Technically, I did it the hard way - trial and error.

The PB was able to fully charge my phone in more or less two hours - not as fast as expected, unfortunately. Could be because I connected it to the 1A USB port. There are two ports, by the way, 1A and 2.1A which I think refers to the "flow" of current from the power bank. Like 1A has a slower flow than the 2.1A. Not sure, it's just a wild guess. 

Two outputs: 1A and 2.1A

Here's the deal, though, I have tried the Jingnoo 16000mAh power bank, courtesy of a friend, and it charged FAST! FAST as in an additional 50% in 30 minutes. But her PB kind of heated up, unlike the Bavin. That, I guess, is a good thing for me.

Moving on, the Bavin, without having it charged initially, was able to charge my iPhone 1.5 times, and my iPad mini once. Impressive. 

When the PB's battery is running low, it's last indicator (the closest to the power switch) kept blinking until it goes off. The fun part, of course, is learning how long it charges, which was about seventeen (17) hours without heating up!

Twelve hours of charging is long. Seventeen hours is longer. And heating up is possible. But it didn't. WOW.

You'll know the PB's charging because of the blinking indicator. It goes from the first, second, third, and the fourth, one at a time. These are obviously the power levels. Once full, the blinking stops and four lights go steady for a few minutes then it goes off. Although I'm not sure if the lights actually went off, it could be because I accidentally moved the charger. Let's play safe and just say that when the blinking stops, the PB is fully charged. But of course, if you have used the Bavin PB for quite some time now, please comment below on how you actually figure out it is fully charged.

The power switch, the indicators and the outputs.

Now let's talk about its physical appearance. As I've said, it is cute - same size as an iPhone 5 only thicker and heavier. It has a matte-finish, the kind where you wouldn't worry it would slip off the table! Plus points for me considering that I often, accidentally, swipe stuff from my table. LOL! It seems dust proof, but not dirt proof. Perhaps I should've bought myself black, instead of blue. That said, it comes in four different colors! Black, gray, blue, and pink! I wanted pink just because I'm a girl. But I chose blue, because I'm not that girly anyway.

Photo grabbed from Google Images. Hello Seller Olinad29!

Here are additional photos of my PB. Its sides are lime green. Cute combination, actually. But the black-orange combination, the one my brother got, is fierce!

 

By the way, I actually bought it from another seller! Her Bavin's on sale, too, at P1,650.
Fast transaction! :)

UPDATE AS OF JULY 7, 2014:

I charged it last week - a month after it's initial charging. The charging time is actually shorter. Perhaps 12 hours, and the indicators didn't go off. The USB adapters (the thing with four (4) different charging pins) is now extra sensitive after my kid played with it.

I actually lost count of how many times I've charged my phone. Maybe three times for my iphone 5 then my blackberry 82-something twice. Also, as I've said earlier, it isn't dirt proof so the corners are going black now.