Review: Moixa USBCELL USB rechargeable battery

The USBCELL is a brand new concept from Moixa Energy. In a nutshell, it's an AA battery that's rechargeable via an integrated USB connector.

A cap at the top of the battery slides off easily to reveal a full-size USB connector; the cap itself is tethered by a robust elastic cord so is unlikely to get lost.

AA batteries are almost exactly the same width as USB connectors, so two USBCELLs can be charged in ports next to each other without causing obstruction, unless the ports are stacked on top of each other. However, if you have USB sockets stacked close together vertically, you'll find one will block the adjacent socket.

Moixa promises a no-quibble refund to customers if the batteries don’t fit into recessed USB ports. We don’t foresee this being a problem as they will sit happily in the sunken ports of an Xbox 360. Should you have an unusual port design, the cap can be twisted to stay out of the way.

Capacity of USBCELLs is about 40% less than that of conventional rechargeable batteries. This is due to a third of its volume being taken up by the USB connector and support circuitry.

Despite this reduction in capacity, Moixa encourages use of the batteries in wireless mice, handheld gaming pads and even high-drain devices like digital cameras. The batteries are nickel metal hydride so will suffer from self-discharge even when not in use so, like most rechargeables, they don’t perform as well as alkaline batteries in devices like television remote controls.

USBCELLs take about five hours to charge via the USB connection. This could be a long wait if your wireless mouse dies, but we found that even a quick charge of twenty minutes will equip the batteries sufficiently to power the mouse for a day.

Moixa claims that the batteries will last for 500 full-charge cycles.

It’s also possible to use a regular charger with these batteries but this takes an extra two hours for a full charge.

Moixa plans to release AAA and mobile phone battery versions sometime next year. Whether people are willing to accept the decrease in battery life as a result of the convenience of USB charging remains to be seen. Whatever the future has in store for USBCELLs, we can't deny it's an interesting idea.

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