The PLANon Universal Mobile Charger - UMC - consists of a cigarette pack sized lithium battery pack, a slim wall wart recharger, two adapter cables and a slew of connectors for various mobile phones. Standard-size and mini USB connectors are included, so some digital cameras and MP3 devices may be recharged as well.

The PLANon Universal Mobile Charger kit comes with a panoply of adapters, and a paucity of instructions.

You first charge the device with the adapter, and wait for the blinking red LED to turn green. Unfortunately, the green LED only indicates over a 70% charge. On the opposite side of the PLANon UMC, you connect the appropriate cable to an adapter, and then to the device to be charged. The LED will turn red when charging, and green when the device is charged. The poorly written instructions state that the LED might flash red instead of solid green if the device is fully charged, but no explanation is given as to when this state of affairs might arise.

I charged the UMC initially for 12 hours, then recharged a Nokia 770 tablet. In two hours and 15 minutes, the 770 went from one bar to a full charge - and the charging light blinked red. The PLANon battery pack became moderately warm.

PLANon Conclusions

The PLANon unit is a great idea - how many of us want a small universal charger? You do have to remember to keep the lithium battery unit charged, and to bring it with you. That’s one advantage of the Medis unit - you can purchase extras, and stuff one in the glove compartment, and keep another wherever you go. PLANon UMC is a great idea, though the documentation is extremely poor to non-existent. However, with a little bit of thought and pre-planning — and my description of the connectors — the device should work reasonably well.