Proporta’s original Mobile Device Charger started off the ‘external battery’ craze – indeed, it was(and still is) an excellent product that scored a rave review on TamsPalm some time ago. Now, Proporta couldn’t resist the urge of following the weight-loss trend…can the slimmed down MDC micro stack up to its predecessor?
As usual, Proporta’s stuff ships with standard mail. The products themselves are in a blister package:
Proporta ships the box with a carrying case, charging cable and a bunch of tips – extra tips cost: first one for free and 95 pence then on . The included tips work with the following devices: Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Ipod, PSP and Micro USB.
First of all – the device indeed got a lot smaller compared to its predecessor. It also is a lot lighter:
These pictures show it next to a Treo 680:
As usual, the device charges via MiniUSB and has a full-size USB port for connecting devices:
Pressing the buttons at the front of the unit starts the charging process – the device powers off automatically when no further power is drawn for a few minutes:
The MDC micro now has a sophisticated LED system at the front. When charging, the LED’s pulsate to show that power is being loaded. When discharging, the amount of bright LED’s show how much power is left:
I tested the device on a few of my boxes – and had no problems with any. All of them could be charged without any issues…if a tip is available. Tips for Palm’s Treo series are not included by default, and tips for my QTEK 8500 weren’t available as of this writing…
In the end, the MDC micro is a step forward – but also one step back. Yes, it’s smaller. Yes’ it has the best charging state indicator of all devices currently on the market. But – its capacity simply is way too small. Many devices have internal batteries that a fully-charged MDC micro can’t fill up completely. If you absolutely need a small device(or, if you want to charge a WristPDA), get it for £29.95 inc VAT(45$). If you can live with the bigger size, definitely stick to its excellent predecessor though.
Related posts:
Thanks for the review
In fact, I have heard some bad feedbacks from other forum regarding this device, they said that there are some bugs, but they refuse to reply me what kind of bugs they found … 
Hi,
I didnt find any so far…the battery capacity probably isnt as high as some may want it to be, but I cant complain too much!
Best regards
Tam Hanna
As for battery state indicator whackyness: this sometimes happens. Folks, this isnt a microprocessor calculated capacity indicator – IMHO this is just a network of Opamps that measure voltages…
I’ve used it to charge my nokia communicator 9200. It works like a charm and give me 8 hours more of autonomy. I found it useful on camping. You can make your cellphone’s battery to last a day or two with the charge stored on this device.
Nice blow BTW, and thanks for allow me to post on int.