When you talk about Japan's biggest electric town, "Akihabara" is the answer. In this neighborhood lined with neon signs, mysterious electronic parts, anime goods, PC parts, junk goods, and even kebab stands, I came across a dirt-cheap mobile battery, so I'm going to write up a review of it. The shop that helped me out with this article is the PC peripherals specialty store "PC USEFUL."
Lined up outside the shop are all sorts of things — cheap tripods, wireless chargers, and even soy sauce dishes that reveal a hidden picture when you pour soy sauce on them.
I've actually bought a wireless charger from this shop before for a few hundred yen. As an aside, wireless chargers are great for situations like when your phone gets wet from rain or after using it in the bath. (If you plug a cable in before the charging port has fully dried, it can scorch.) So with that, let's pay the shop a visit. The first product that caught my eye was this one.
I spotted a mobile battery for 545 yen, before tax (about 4 USD)! And it boasts 5,000mAh of capacity, which is plenty. This is the kind of item that would easily run you over 3,000 yen (about 27 USD) for the same capacity at a major electronics retailer. Even as someone who routinely scans Amazon for cheap mobile batteries, I was surprised that something this cheap even existed. The maker name "Hi-Disc" wasn't one I'd heard before, but looking it up, it turns out to be a legitimate brand from a company called Magnetic Laboratory Co., Ltd. (Jiki Kenkyusho). It's listed as a bulk product, but the unit itself looks clean, and of course it carries the PSE mark too.
I hadn't been planning to buy a mobile battery, but the one I owned was from an older era without a PSE mark, so I decided to grab this one as a replacement. Incidentally, the double-capacity 10,000mAh model was also a steal at 818 yen before tax (about 7 USD). I got pulled in and bought that one too.
Here are the 5,000mAh and 10,000mAh batteries I picked up.
The 5,000mAh model can charge a smartphone roughly two times, and the 10,000mAh one about four times. The body is compact, so it looks like it'll be easy to carry around. The 5,000mAh one in particular slipped right into a pocket. As for accessories, a microUSB cable for charging the battery itself is included. It's surprisingly well put together for the price.
It comes with two USB output ports. The one on the right side of the photo is high-output, and can even charge an iPad Pro.
For the price, the charging speed is on par with a typical mobile battery, so the cost performance seems pretty solid.
Rather than buying an overpriced charger at a convenience store, swinging by Akiba and grabbing a hidden gem like this (?) is a totally legit option, I think.
