Choiix Power Fort Review

Choiix? Who's Choiix you ask? Choiix is a new subsidiary of Cooler Master, providing, as they describe it, "simple and practical yet stylish notebook accessories." Strange brand title aside, they do provide some decent accessories, and today we have the Choiix Power Fort accessory, aimed at road warriors with limited access to an outlet and tons of USB gadgets. Sounds like a fairly big market, right? That appears to be what Cooler Master was thinking too.

Ok... so its a shiny black brick. What does it do? The Power Fort is a USB battery. It ships with an AC-USB adapter that you can plug into the wall. You can then run this USB cable from the adapter to the Power Fort's USB In port, which charges the integrated Li-ion battery. The Power Fort then includes a 1A (!) USB out port. 1A is an excellent amount to put out, because this means it is well within the power spec of USB 3.0 devices (900mA), and that it is double the USB 2.0 power requirements, meaning that it can charge upcoming USB 3.0 devices or two USB 2.0 devices at once. It also claims to be able to do this while it is charging and while it is untethered.

This ability was tested and it was able to power both a 500mA USB fan and a USB-powered external DVD drive at the same time even while unplugged. This is good news, as the single USB out is a bit spartan, but it can be expanded to two ports with a cheap unpowered 2-port USB hub.