With the CHUGPLUG external battery, you won’t have to worry about running out of power while you’re traveling. The CHUGPLUG is designed to work with 45W or 60W newer MacBooks. You can expect up to 4 extra hours of power for an 11″ MacBook Air or 3 extra hours for the 13″ MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. It measures 9″ X 2.9″ X 1.1″ and weighs 1.1 pounds. It accepts 100-240VAC 1.2A / 50-60Hz AC power and outputs 120-250V DC power. You just fit it between your MacBook’s MagSafe power adapter and its power cord to charge its internal lithium-polymer battery (takes about 2 hours) or to power the laptop. It’s coming soon from Lenmar Enterprises for $159.99.
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Although this is a cool idea, and aesthetically pleasing design. I wonder why they went with the decision to use an inverter based power over direct DC. I’m wondering how much efficiency is lost in each step.
The power is stored in batteries. It is then converted to AC using either a transformer and/or wave form modification circuitry. This reduces efficiency and increases heat. It then enters the apple charger as AC, where it is converted back into DC to power the laptop. More efficiency lost and heat generated.
Seems like function was sacrificed in the name of form. The alternative would be to have a battery with a magsafe receptacle on one side (to receive power from the stock power adapter) and a magsafe cable on the other side to deliver battery power to the laptop. I have one of the APC universal battery packs that does just this with my Dell laptop.
The issue may be with Apple which – I think – does not license its charging design to 3rd parties. I have the HyperJuice battery for Macs and you have to destroy a Mac charger by cutting off the MagSafe connector and wiring it into a HyperJuice-supplied connector in order to use it.
This does have an elegant design and the stated specs – despite the conversion steps noted by others – are comparable to what I get from the HyperJuice device. The price is cheaper.