Backpacking New Zealand

Following on from yesterdays posts about keeping that iPod charged while you are away, I thought I would mention keeping your Nokia phone charged.

Not everyone seems to realise that there are 3 Nokia Chargers available for the vast majority of phones, and that these chargers differ quite a bit in power and weight.

ACP-7x
The ACP-7 is the older charger, a heavy square lump that was supplied with most older nokias - 5110, 3210 to name a couple. These are the heaviest, slowest and most common charger you will see. They are also the least ideal for travelling because of this. Its also fixed voltage, which means UK ones will work anywhere the mains is 240v - Europe, Oz, NZ etc, but NOT the USA.

Output: 3,7V/355mA

ACP-8x
The ACP-8x is nokias earlier lightweight travel charger, and was standard with newer and more expensive phones - eg the 6310 series. It supplies more current and a higher voltage, which can drop recharge times significantly - 4 hours to 2.5 hours on some phones. A neat feature is that you can remove the power cable, which has a velcro tie on it to keep it orgainised while travelling. It is also multi voltage, so works worldwide. All in all, a much better choice for travelling than the ACP-7x.

Its possible to buy this charger of internet sites for around £7 - eg at mobilefun ACP-8x.

Output 5.7V/500mA

ACP-12x
The ACP-12x is the newest charger, supplying more curent than the ACP-8x for charging the newer high capacity phones faster. It is also light, multi voltage but lacks the removeable power cable of the ACP-8x.

Its possible to buy this charger for £2! at Amazon.

Output 5.7V/800mA

I have had no problems mixing chargers, but it may be wise to see which travel charger nokia reccomends for your phone - find you phone on this page and look at the suggested enhancements.

The Gear4 Firepower World Tour iPod Charger (Formerly made by PodGear) is a worldwide mains charger for all dock connector iPods and and device that chages from USB.

It comes with plugs for The UK, Europe, The US and Austrailia / New Zealand, and works with 100-240v systems. Once the plugs are removed, it gives access to a standard figure 8 power input, so you can use this anywhere. Its also useful as most camera chargers come with a figure 8 lead, which will at least double the reach of the charger.

Beware of other versions of this that do not come with the Oz/NZ plug - liek the one sold by ipodworld.co.uk.

The device has worked flawlessly - it charges my Video iPod without complaint and seems well built. Its also pretty light to carry around.

I would get it here at Amazon