Tired of lugging around a larger external battery and cables for your various devices? The Moshi IonGo 5K Duo Portable Battery with Built-in Lightning and USB-C Cables is here to help. It’s compact, good-looking, and it has both Lightning and USB Type-C cables built-in so that you can grab it and go.
The Moshi IonGo 5K Duo looks like a little gray (vegan) leather taco with aluminum trim; it uses the same battery technology that you’ll find in electric cars; this little guy’s battery cells are optimized for charging, discharging, and low internal resistance. Moshi says a fully-charged IonGo 5K will still “provide power even after 27 months in storage,” and of course, it arrived fully charged and ready to use.
The Moshi IonGo 5K Duo measures just 3.5″ long by 2″ wide by 1.1″ thick at its fattest point, and it weighs just 4.2 ounces. I love that it’s small enough that you’ll almost forget you’re carrying it, but it’s powerful enough that you won’t want to forget to carry it.
The IonGo 5K has a 5,000mAh battery with both a 4″ MFi-Certified Lightning cable and a 4″ USB Type-C cable built right in.
The vegan leather cover uses magnets to stay neatly closed.
In the Moshi-branded aluminum panel built into the front of the battery pack, there is a button that, when pressed, will display a red LED when the remaining charge is 0-20%, and orange LED when the remaining charge is 20-80%, and a green LED when the remaining charge is 80-100%. It is unnecessary to press this button to make the battery start charging your phone; it’s plug and go.
There are no extra ports built into the battery pack; to recharge the IonGo 5K, you can plug it into any USB-C wall or car charger. Suppose you have an iPhone or an older iPad. In that case, you can take advantage of the portable battery’s SmartSense pass-through charging circuitry, which will make sure that your Lightning port connected device’s battery gets topped off first. Then the power will go toward recharging the battery pack. Since the Type-C cable will be in use when recharging the battery pack, you won’t be able to pass-through charge a non-Lightning device while charging the battery pack. To recharge the IonGo 5K more quickly, you should use a 3A high-output charger, like the one that came with your laptop or newer iPad.
While they aren’t classifying the IonGo 5K as having USB Type C PD (Power Delivery), which is usually around 18W or so, the Moshi IonGo 5K Duo supports 15W output through USB-C and 12W output through Lightning, which twice as fast as your 5W charger can do.
The Moshi IonGo 5K Duo can fully recharge the LG V60 ThinQ (which has a 5,000mAh internal battery) once.
Whether you have a new iPad, an iPhone, or an Android device, the stylishly made and supremely portable Moshi IonGo 5K Duo Portable Battery is the perfect choice for everyday carry.
The Moshi IonGo 5K Duo Portable Battery with Built-in Lightning and USB-C Cables retails for $74.95 (with free shipping in the US). It is available directly from the manufacturer and other retailers, including Amazon [affiliate link].
Source: Manufacturer supplied review sample
What I Like: Tiny size; Built-in MFi-Certified Lightning cable and USB Type-C cable; 5,000mAh is enough to charge the latest flagship phones with 5,000mAh batteries fully; It’s not PD, but it is still quite fast; You can pass-through charge a device with a Lightning connecter, but when the battery pack is recharging, the Type-C connector will not be able to charge your device as it will already be in use
What Needs Improvement: Nothing