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What are the two things that you never leave the house without? Or at least, the two things you check for every time you go out? Your wallet, and your keys. It’s a check we all do before we leave the house for any considerable amount of time and a tradition many see as second nature at this point. In today’s world of smartphones and not-so-smart batteries, what’s the one thing you wish you had with you every now and then? Your charging cable. If you’ve got a smartphone with pretty poor battery life, then you probably have a charging cable strapped to you at all times, but even devices with impressive battery life can catch you off guard every now and then, leaving you wishing you had bought that cable with you. That’s where ChargeKey and ChargeCard from Nomad come in, they’re the best way of keeping a microUSB cable with you at all times, the question is though, are they any good?
The folks from Nomad were kind enough to send a set to take a look at and myself and Peter Holden have been living with these little gadgets for a little while now and if we’re honest, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The general premise is a good idea, you’ll always be able to charge your phone or tablet with a ChargeKey or ChargeCard on your person, which is true as it’s never that hard to find a USB port if you travel with a laptop, carry the brick with your or have a portable battery with you. We like the ChargeKey, and I myself have already used it a couple of times to give my phone a little extra juice from my Chromebook, and it’s no longer than any of the keys on my set and I hardly ever notice it. The fact that the ChargeKey blends in so well is what makes it so great, there when you need it, but not an inconvenience when you don’t need it.
The ChargeCard however, isn’t as useful as the ChargeKey in my opinion, it takes up a fair bit of room in your wallet and is just fiddly to use in the first place. It’s nowhere near as convenient, however if you don’t have much in your wallet, you’ll not notice the extra space being taken up and if you’re not on the train or your device is going to be stationary for a while, then the ChargeCard will serve you just fine without any issues. To take a look at more images of the ChargeKey and the ChargeCard, take a look in the gallery below and you can purchase your own from Amazon.
