Few months ago I posted a review on a digital multimeter for USB charging called Legion Meter. It was an interesting product with tiny OLED display to show various information. I loved that product and decided to get another product from the same maker. This time, I got myself a backup battery with the same OLED display with 10,000:1 contrast ratio.
In most other backup batteries, we can only guess how much power is still stored in the battery, especially if we do not use it frequently. The best we can get is 3 or 4 LEDs which indicate the remaining power. With Legion Gen2 intelligent battery, we get so much more information from our battery. We can quickly see the remaining power in percentage and in exact mAh number. The battery displays the estimated time to discharge. When we recharge the battery, it tells us the estimated time until it gets full. It shows the battery health so we know its wear and tear. It also shows the number of charge cycles, battery age and battery temperature.
When we use this battery for charging our devices, the display tells us the battery voltage, the amount of current being discharged out of Legion, and the amount of power (in Watts) currently being delivered to our device.
The total capacity of Legion Battery Gen2 is 11,000 mAh. It is available in black and white. With two available USB ports, we can charge 2 devices at the same time. According to its website, Legion can deliver up to 4 Amp output. It also allows quick recharge thanks to its 2.5 Amp input, so a full recharge would only take about 4 hours and 25 minutes (depending on our wall charger’s capability). A single button does all the control, from on/off switch to choose display modes. The improved Gen2 offers optimized Apple and Android charge circuits as well as other revisions from the first generation.
The size of this battery is not bad for 11,000 mAh capacity. The battery dimension is 14 cm x 9.8 cm x 1.4 cm. It is thin and small enough to fit in a pocked inside my bag.
Reading all the specs, this is an great product. So when I actually received the product, I had such high expectations. The battery enclosure looks nice and solid. The OLED display is as crisp as the one I got in my Legion Meter. I can toggle between display modes to see various information without much problem. However, I quickly noticed that the button on the battery does not feel right. My button always seems to be half-pressed all the time, even when I do not even touch it.
Another issue I quickly encountered was extreme temperature when I use the battery to charge my Toshiba Encore tablet. The battery got hot beyond the normal temperature of any backup battery I owned. I quickly contacted their customer support, reporting my two issues: half-sunk button and high temperature. They told me to do a factory reset, followed by fully charge the battery, fully use it for charging devices, then fully charge it again. I did, and the temperature issue does not disappear.
To be fair, after few tests I discovered that the extreme hot temperature does not always happen. It happens randomly. At first, I thought it has something to do with the device being charged. I tried different devices in different situations and failed to conclude any pattern. Randomly the battery still becomes too hot, but in most other cases it was okay.
Someone from customer support acknowledged the problem and asked me to give some information for their repairs/returns department. This is the worst part of my experience. They ignored multiple messages from me for more than a month. Only after I chased them repeatedly they finally send me a return authorization form. Now here comes the next problem. I checked with AusPost, sending the product back to USA will cost me almost half the price of the battery. I got a product that is not built right, it’s their mistake, their manufacturing problem, and I suddenly need to pay an additional half the cost of the product for them to fix THEIR mistake? I tried to contact them again. This time I was ignored completely.
So, in the end, this is a decent product (or even good product) IF there is no manufacturing issues. IF I get a good unit, I would probably rate this battery 9 out of 10. The manufacturing issues and random hot temperature would decrease my rating into 7 out of 10. However, their after-sales service is the WORST I have ever dealt with. After experiencing such a bad after-sales service, I would rate this product 3 out of 10.
If you live in the USA, this battery is still probably worth buying because it will not be too expensive for you to send it back (just in case). If you live in any other countries, think twice before getting this battery.
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