The ever-growing cadre of battery-powered devices--cell phones, cameras, gaming gadgets, etc.-- make our lives more entertaining and convenient. But keeping them charged, particularly on the go, becomes increasingly more difficult as more and more gear follows you home from your favorite gadget store. Not surprisingly, electronics manufacturers have flooded the market with "universal" chargers that aim to solve your portable power needs. Today we'll look at three, see how they stack up against each other, and how many of your gadgets they actually charge.

PlanOn Universal Mobile Charger: Expensive, feels cheap, and doesn't connect to much.

PlanOn's Mobile Charger is essentially a small external lithium-ion battery which purports to "charge a wide range of products." Better still, the box says it'll let you "fully charge your DocuPen up to 55 times on a single charge." That might be useful, if I knew what the hell a DocuPen was. Okay, Google tells me the DocuPen is PlanOn's pen-size handheld scanner, which obviously has a crappy battery, if this 4400-mah universal charger will recharge it 55 times.

And what else might this "universal" device charge? Well, it comes with standard USB female and Mini USB adapters. There are three other adapters included, but I'm not sure what they're for. The single index-card documentation sheet hints that they might charge things like Canon, Olympus, and Fuji cameras and Camcorders. But I wasn't sure, so I took the documentation's advice and visited PlanOn's Web site to "find out more."

What'd I find when I got to the product page? A rehash of the info on the box, and a reminder about how well this works with the DocuPen I don't have. But at least the page throws in some grammar fun:

"This tiny, fully portable charger weighs a mere 3.8 oz and can fully charge your DocuPen up to 55 times! on a single charge " Apparently the exclamation point overslept, because it didn't quite make it to its proper (if hyperbolic) place at the end of the sentence.

As far as actual charging ability goes, the Mobile Charger wouldn't plug into my Nintendo DS Lite, Sansa e280, or Casio Exilim digital camera. But I could blame that just as much on the consumer electronic industry's frustrating use of proprietary cables than on PlanOn's lack of adapters.

The one device in my bag that the PlanOn charger would connect to was my HTC phone, which blessedly has a standard mini USB port. Once I plugged it in, though, my power meter mysteriously dropped from 90 percent to 88 over the first 20 minutes or so of charging. After that, the PlanOn charger seemed to find its calling and begin to top off my phone's battery, pushing it up from 90 to 100 percent in about 35 minutes. All in all, though, I might have done better with a hand crank, or a water wheel.

So unless you're a dedicated DocuPen user with a compulsion to scan things on the go, your $69.99 is much better spent somewhere else.

Power Traveler Power Monkey: Better presentation, but less power.

Where the PlanOn Charger looks cheap and hastily designed, Power Traveller's Power Monkey brings the swank: silver bullet-shaped design, solid feel, and a convenient on/off switch. It even comes with a bevy of mains adapters that'll keep your Monkey powered up in "over 150 countries." The Power Monkey also comes with no less than ten adapters to charge a host of phones from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Siemens, and Sony Ericsson. There's also the requisite USB iPod adapter, a mini USB tip, and one for the PSP as well. Still no love for my DS Lite though, which makes Mario sad.

Yet despite the plethora of plugs in Power Monkey's package -sorry, couldn't resist--there isn't a lot of juice under the hood. The typically hyperbolic text on the front of the package proclaims the device to be "10 times more powerful than a conventional battery." These guys clearly have to start shopping somewhere else for their batteries, because at a capacity of 2,200 mAh, the Power Monkey delivers about 500 mAh less than even a cheap alkaline AA; the Duracell rechargeables I use deliver 2,650 mAh.

So while the Power Monkey's presentation is nice, you're essentially dealing with a $60 low-end rechargeable single-cell battery wrapped in a plastic candy shell. In 45 minutes, the Monkey managed to boost my HTC phone's battery about 15 percent, so don't think you'll be topping off quickly either. It's better than the PlanOn charger, in terms of build quality and presentation, but at half the capacity, it still costs almost as much. Next.

Energizer Energi To Go: Cheap; limited to phone charging, unless you bring your own adapter and cables.

Sometimes the simplest -and cheapest--solution is the best. Case in point, the $20 Energizer Energi To Go, which Gearlog first wrote about last summer. Regardless of its blatant disregard for proper spelling or capitalization, Energizer seems to have the best solution, particularly if you're just trying to charge your phone. This is a simple little pod for two AA batteries that comes in four flavors, depending on what cell phone you have. The best bet though, would probably be to nab the mini USB version, and track down a $4 mini female-to-USB A female adapter. Then, voila, you've got yourself a charger that'll handle anything that charges over USB, as long as you bring your own cable. Of course, you could do that with the other chargers, but with the Energi, you could do it all at less than half the price. And with good rechargeable batteries, you can load this charger with more capacity than either of the other two options, and be green at the same time. Also, because this device uses standard AAs, if you're on the road and run out of juice, you can pop in fresh cells for just a few bucks.

So at half the price, more capacity and the convenience of being available at your local chain pharmacy, the Energizer Energi To Go Mini USB model seems like the clear winner, though you will have to track down a female mini USB adapter online if you want to charge something that doesn't have a mini USB port. If Energizer went ahead and included one in the package, they'd have a much more versatile product. But thanks to your Gearlog reading habits, you're now in the know, and can get yourself a portable charger kit on the cheap.

I would have loved to include some hands-on photos with these charging devices. But, like rain on your wedding day, or a free ride when you've already paid, none of these devices would charge my Casio camera. Who would've thought? It figures.

Post by Matt Safford