Panasonic Mobile Booster QE-QL101

Not many of you are aware (myself included) that Pansonic has acquired Sanyo about 3 years ago.

On December 21, 2009, Panasonic completed a 400 billion yen ($4.5 billion) acquisition of a 50.2% stake in Sanyo, making Sanyo a subsidiary of Panasonic. In July 2010, Panasonic announced that they would acquire the remaining shares of Sanyo.

Sanyo created the Eneloop rechargeable battery brand which is pretty popular around the world. Eneloop Mobile Booster is Sanyo’s answer to portable battery charger for your mobile phones, I am a huge fan of that as you can see from my featured page to Eneloop.

It seems that Panasonic will be taking over the Mobile Booster brand over from Eneloop and that explains the similarity in the design as well as the name Mobile Booster.

At launch time there will be 2 Mobile Boosters available, the Panasonic Mobile Booster QE-QL101 (2,700mAh) retailing for S$49.90 and the Panasonic Mobile Booster QE-QL201 (5,400mAh) retailing for S$89.90. ~~No word on the RRP yet, I wil update this post when I have that information.~~

The Panasonic Mobile Booster QE-QL101 is equivalent to the Sanyo Eneloop Mobile Booster KBC-L3AS but with an additional capacity of 200mAh (2,700mAh vs 2,500mAh). The output Ampere has also been increased from 500mA to 1A.

The Panasonic Mobile Booster QE-QL201 is equivalent to the Sanyo Eneloop Mobile Booster KBC-L2B but with an additional capacity of 400mAh (5,400mAh vs 5,000mAh).

The USB charging method of the Mobile Booster has been changed from Mini USB to Micro USB. This is a much welcomed change as these days all mobile phones manufacturers (except Apple) uses Micro USB. But nevertheless you still can charge the Mobile Booster over a regular electrical outlet with the bundled AC Adapter.

Panasonic Mobile Booster QE-QL101 Specifications

Input: DC 5V 500mA/1A
Output USB x 1 port, DC 5V Max 1A
Size: 39mm x 70mm x 22mm
Weight: 78g
Battery: Li-ion 3.7V 2,700mAh
Battery Charging Time: 7 hours (Micro USB), 3.5 hours (AC Adapter)

According to the press release of Panasonic Japan back in April 2012, there will be more models of Mobile Boosters available including three wireless charging ones. But do note that not all Mobile Booster will be for sale outside of Japan. Another model that caught my attention is the Panasonic Mobile Booster QE-QL301 which boost 10,260mAh, I hope they do bring that to Singapore.

Official Site: Panasonic: Go The Distance