There’s no shortage of power cases and external battery packs to keep your iPhone battery topped-up during a long day of heavy use, and we’ve reviewed a number of cases and external batteries.
But power cases add bulk, and battery packs are just one more thing to carry. So the company behind the Nifty MiniDrive thought why not embed the battery in something you have on you anyway – your belt.
The XOO Belt is a simple solution to an everyday problem: smartphone battery life. No new gadget to lug around but something we wear everyday anyway, redesigned with the help of some clever new technology.
It looks, feels and weighs about the same as a really nice belt… but comes with a mighty 2,100mAh of hidden charge and can charge pretty much any device.
While some of the battery power is housed inside the admittedly rather chunky buckle (DO NOT wear to Thanksgiving dinner), the XOO uses flexible batteries to tuck most of it inside the belt itself.
A micro-USB cable sits tucked into the belt, allowing you to pull it out and use with a Lightning adapter to charge your iPhone while it’s in your pocket. Nifty says the capacity is more than sufficient to fully recharge an iPhone 6 battery.
The convenience comes at a price, though: the XOO Belt is available as an Indiegogo project for a rather steep $155, and you’ll need to add the cost of a Lightning adapter to that. That makes it an absurdly pricy competition for the low-cost battery packs out there.
The project has already raised $28k of its $50k goal in the first 24 hours, so it seems guaranteed to be funded.
Via TNW