Review: Scosche’s flipCHARGE Rogue

One of the most frustrating things about smartphones today is how quickly the battery drains.  There is nothing worse than not being able to make calls, send texts, watch videos, surf the web, or access email because of a dead battery. If you have the dead battery blues halfway through your day, then the Scosche’s flipCHARGE Rogue is for you.  It comes with a powerful 1800mAh lithium polymer battery and a flush folding USB cable—and a dock connector has been integrated to the charger to provide an efficient and easy way to recharge your iPhone or iPod.

While measuring in at less than the size of an iPhone, this backup battery and charger is the great solution for portable power. A convenient carabineer clip has also been included which allows you to attach the flipCHARGE rogue to your backpack, golf bag, luggage or nearly anything else.  Four LED lights on the charger provide an easy and quick way to indicate how much battery power is left. When you notice that your flipCHARGE is low on power, simply recharge it using the flush folding cable to plug it in to any computer, wall charger or car charger.

A free app, reVIVE by Scosche, works in conjunction with the flipCHARGE. You can easily find out how much battery life is left and how much time it will take to recharge your battery based on the rate of charge.

FlipCHARGE rogue works with the iPhone 4S, 4, 3GS, iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation) and the iPod nano (5th and 6th generation).

• Battery type: Lithium polymer; 1800mAh
• Battery charge time: 4 Hours
• Offers up to 100% charge on dead iPod
• Offers up to 75% charge on dead iPhone
• Flip-up 30-pin connector
• Integrated USB charge and sync cable

Overall, the filpCHARGE rogue is a pretty decent charger.  It does exactly what it is suppose to do—it recharges your iPhone or iPod.  Not too mention, for those on the go, it is extremely light and very portable.  Although it takes four hours to recharge the flipCHARGE and an hour to only recharge an iPhone to 75%, it is better than having a dead iPhone or iPod.  One issue that I did have is that during the time that my iPhone was being charged, the filpCHARGE made it awkward to use the iPhone.  When the charger is attached, it is equivalent to having an old Motorola flip phone dangling from your iPhone.  Not good.  But, at the end of the day, my iPhone still had plenty of battery life thanks to the flipCHARGE and you really can’t ask for more than that.

The flipCHARGE rogue is available at Scosche’s website for $59.99 and on Amazon for $35.16