Limeade Blast Awesomeness

So, after having to wait FOREVER for the Limeade Blast to finish its Kickstarter campaign and what seemed like an eternity for the Shipping information to go out, and an entire weekend where it was sitting in my mailbox (I was at National Guard drill); I finally got to check out my Limeade Blast battery.

First, a little background about the company.

---from the Kickstarter page

Limeade was cofounded by Paul Lin and Melissa Lau in November 2012 and officially incorporated March 2013 in Boulder, CO. The company produces cutting-edge external batteries for smartphones, tablets and other devices, maximizing battery capacity within the smallest possible form factors by pushing the boundaries of what current technology will allow. In the past year, the most talented team of individuals ranging from product manager to graphic designer have been assembled to work on Limeade products. The goal is to bring the coolest gadgets to the market. After months of preparation, Limeade is ready to launch the first set of products on Kickstarter.

Pretty solid intro and the idea behind the product and project just seemed too good of an idea not to back up...besides, I'd also get a battery out of the deal. Seemed like a great trade off, improve the mobile device world with an external battery option, and get a battery myself. Que the waiting, and the watching of the project.

A week later I got my brown envelope with my magical battery, that's when the fear set-in.

Wet, packaging was wet, condensation was everywhere, the cardboard of the packaging was just so soaked that it stuck to the outside of the battery (which has a rubberized "feel" to it so it was difficult to get off). The instructions were unreadable, I was truly afraid. I opened the package carefully just in case I would have to send it back, and pushed the button on the side and got the 50% status light. When I got that I decided that I could take the chance and see if this will work...or fail.

Fortunately for myself, it seems that the battery itself is a bit more resilient than I had thought and charged nicely. All 4 LED's came on, the light on the top works (took me a few to figure out how shut it off because the instructions were no good to me). Once all of the soggy cardboard was cleaned off of the device I held it in my hand and judged the weight and feel.

The weight of the device was beautiful, sturdy enough for me to feel confident in dropping it (I didn't, however) and yet light enough for me to not even really care about carrying it. The rubberized "feel" (it isn't actually rubberized) definitely feels good in my hands, smooth and comfortable and yet it isn't going to go anywhere. At this point the only thing keeping from sending it back is the fact that all of the LED's are lit. So I decided to actually charge something. The included cable is pretty cool, they definitely make sure that the included user base of  EVERYONE can use this guy. The cable includes a two part plug that has the Apple 30-pin connector, which comes off into a micro USB connector, I think that it's a pretty snazzy looking item to include with the device.

I took the cable that came with it, plugged it in to my Galaxy Nexus and BAM! the little guy turned on and started charging. It took me nearly 5 MINUTES to charge 10% of the battery. Pretty speedy for simple charging. The auto shut-off feature worked when it reached the full battery power (which gives me a good feeling about leaving it go overnight). Lastly, neither the battery, nor the phone got too hot during the process, so big plus to me.

After all of this I felt great about it, and plan on keeping it. Trust me when I say I exhaled a great sigh of relief when I confirmed for myself that the wetness of the packaging and the condensation did not affect the battery operation. The Limeade Blast works JUST AS ADVERTISED!

Downsides

There has always got to be a downside to everything, fortunately this device didn't have many at all (I mean it's a friggin battery, how hard could it be to use). One of the for me, it is the included cable, it fits in the ports properly enough. I had some issues where simply having the battery on the seat of my car and the phone next to it where over time the cable would slip out of the USB port of the phone, where I don't normally have that issue with my other phone charger cable. Though, you could just as easily use your own cable (as could I).

My other downside, The reliability of their shipping operation. Either their warehouse people had a freak indoor rainstorm, some sort of water leakage problem, or an incredibly high humidity issue caused the condensation (and possibly more problems). Checking on their Kickstarter comments page, I've seen a few other people with wet packaging and batteries, and more than a few more people APPEAR TO HAVE either bad batteries or other issues that render the batteries in capable of working properly.

Like this guy

Fortunately, the company appears to be very much on top of trying to figure out where the issue lies, so at the very least their customer service is top-notch.

Above:  top notch

 My final thoughts? Seeing as it would appear that the majority of people who got one did not have wet batteries, I would say go ahead and buy one when you get the chance. Unfortunately full purchasing is still not available on the main site, but with the success of their Kickstarter, and the fact that backers have a product, I would say it won't be long at all.

4 Out of 5!!!!


****UPDATE**** According to an Email that was sent to all backers, the Limeade Blast is not for General sale at Amazon: HERE for the Kickstarter prices (for a limited time that is). Get this wonderful device while it's hot!!