There’s no cellphone owner who doesn’t understand intimately the special agony of watching their device drain and then … die. It’s a universal. Most people have a plan B: Use a Mophie juice pack, bring along a charger and pray for an outlet—or this reporter’s favorite, hang out in a bar for an hour and use the bartender’s charger. There’s always one behind the counter.
A new startup called Q Designs is hoping to make juicing on the go a bit more convenient. The company just launched pre-orders for its first product, a sleek bracelet that conceals enough rechargeable lithium-ion battery to give your phone a 60% charge. The bangle, available for both Android and iOS devices, unhooks to reveal the connector.
We took a look at one of the prototypes a few weeks ago, and it’s really, truly not bad-looking. It comes in black, silver and gold, the last of which co-founders James Kernan and Alessandro Libani say they spent a lot of time getting exactly right. The bracelet is still fairly thick—according to Kernan, making it any thinner would reduce the charging potential significantly —so it’s a statement, but a clean one.
It’s also not terribly expensive. Pre-orders run at $79, and the bracelet will eventually retail for $99, hopefully in time for the holiday season. Although frankly it’s the type of thing we’d like to have for September’s various fashion weeks, a.k.a. the month of dead phones.
