I travel a lot. In fact, many (perhaps most) of my blog posts here are written in hotel rooms, in airports or other glamorous places business travel takes people – like railway stations, conference rooms and the Starbucks around the corner when you’re 15 minutes too early for the meeting.
My main problem when it comes to business travel and tech is battery power. Mobile phones die first, then my Nexus 7 tablet and the old laptop, converted to run Windows 8, doesn’t last very long either.
The solution isn’t as straight forward as it seems, especially now that most smart phones copy Apple’s decision to weld the battery in. I carry external batteries but they’re bulky and can’t always charge a busy phone.
The Mu plug is a must. It’s a plug that folds down to take up much less space. Sure it gets a little warm but it is small enough to fit in your pocket.
However, whether you go for external battery or for a clever USB plug you still have one more problem to solve in this less than ideal solution. You still need to transfer the power into your device. This is where Nomad comes in.
I’ve been testing two of their products. First and foremost there’s the ChargeKey (aka NomadKey) and then there’s the ChargeCard (aka NomadCard).
I put the ChargeKey first because it’s, by far, my favourite. It’s small but it’s robust. When I’m charging my phone off my laptop I don’t need a metre of cable. When I have the USB cable in my pocket I want it to be as small and robust as possible. That’s what the ChargeKey offers. The connection between USB heads is flexible plastic, flatter than a cable to take up even less space. In fact, it’s not even a full USB connection, it’s just the bare essentials to save on space. I carry the ChargeKey in my inside pocket along with business cards and Oyster card.
You can see the NomadKey here pictured alongside a Sonic Screwdriver for scale.
The ChargeCard is a similar idea – a USB that’s designed to take up as little space as possible. The goal of the ChargeCard is to fit into your wallet or card holder. I’ve tried that. I preferred carrying it loose. I’m not entirely sure why the charging end of the USB cable is on the end it is but it doesn’t stop the ChargeKey from carrying out its duties.
You can see the NomadCard here pictured alongside three FUDGE dice for geek cred and scale.
I’ve not been able to test Nomad’s latest and perhaps greatest USB innovation. There’s a third member of the family; the NomadClip.
You can straight up see how this works. This is simply perfect if you use a clip normally; for example, attaching your work pass to your bag, or your keys to your belt.
If you want to test the NomadClip, I think, you’ll have to pop over to Hello Nomad.com and pre-order. There’s been a discount code kicking around that gives you 25% off. It may or may not still be valid – but try LIVESIMPLE and see if that works for you.
My Nomad chargekeys were provided for review. They’ve been tested thoroughly.
