Big batteries are the hallmark of Energizer phones. These devices aren’t actually made by the battery company, but phone maker Avenir Telecom takes the brand seriously, once showing off a brick with an 18,000mAh battery that never made it to market. At Mobile World Congress this year, it has humbler but still long-lasting new phones with 7,000mAh and 5,000mAh batteries.
“I swear I didn’t come with a brick today. It’s a phone you can put in your pocket, for sure!” said Loic Schiano, Avenir’s spokesman.
Instead of a brick, he pulled out a relatively slim, extremely inexpensive phone: The Energizer Ultimate U680S, which has a 7,000mAh battery. The $139.99 U680S has all of the hallmarks of a certain class of inexpensive Chinese phone (including a dramatically underpowered Unisoc processor), and unfortunately it doesn’t look at all banded to work in the US. But it’s cool to see a 7,000mAh battery in something under 10mm thick and costing less than $200.
“You can take your phone and go through more than a day…and it really fits in your pocket, I swear,” Schiano said.
As I said, once you’re not worried about US compatibility, there’s a lot of interesting stuff like this out there. For example, the $149.99 Oukitel K15 Plus has a 10,000mAh battery. But interesting phones from Energizer and the likes of Oukitel, Blackview, and Elephone are practically doorstops in the US because they lack the appropriate band support and certifications. It’s a pity.
Energizer’s potential unlocked US play is with its $599 5G phone, the Hard Case G5, a ruggedized, sub-6GHz 5G Android 11 phone with a 5,000mAh battery and a MediaTek Dimensity 720 chipset. It has a very nice IP rating that I rarely see, IP69, which signifies protection against a “high pressure and temperature water jet,” as opposed to just being dunkable.
“We love a phone that will last nearly forever and a phone you will be able to trust,” he said.
The phone will be banded differently for different markets; Schiano couldn’t confirm whether it would come to US carriers.
