Remember the Energizer P18K, that smartphone that debuted at MWC with a whopping 18,000mAh battery? Well, it turns out that while having a battery that big in a phone may sound great, not many people actually want one.
The Indiegogo campaign for the Energizer Power Max P18K Pop has officially come to an end, and its finally tally isn't great. As noted by The Verge, the fundraising effort brought in 11 backers that pledged $15,005 of the campaign's $1,200,000 goal. Since it was a Fixed Goal campaign, none of the 11 backers will actually spend any of their money.
In its campaign, the Energizer Power Max P18K Pop was available at an early bird price of $549, which was $150 off its regular price. The phones were expected to ship in October 2019.
Avenir Telecom, the company who licenses the Energizer name to make the P18K Pop, commented on the campaign after it failed to reach its goal, saying that it plans to continue to work on and improve the phone. "Although it didn’t reach its goal, we will work on further improvement on the P18K (design, thickness, etc.) as we do believe there is a rising interest for smartphones with incredible battery life, which can also be used as power banks," Avenir explained.
The headline feature of the Energizer Power Max P18K Pop was the 18,000mAh battery that could get you 50 days of standby battery life. What's more, you could use that big battery as a power bank, sharing the massive 18,000mAh capacity to recharge other devices. As you might expect, having such a large battery made the P18K Pop thick, with the device coming in at 18mm thick. To compare, the Galaxy S10 is 7.8mm thick and the iPhone XS is 7.7mm thick.
Other features of the P18K Pop include a 6.2-inch 2280x1080 display, octa-core MediaTek Helio P70 processor, and 6GB of RAM. There's a triple rear camera setup included, too, with 12MP, 5MP, and 2MP snappers, and a pop-up mechanism with dual 16MP and 2MP front cameras. Rounding things out is 128GB of built-in storage, a microSD slot, dual SIM slots, and Android 9.0 Pie.
Many folks want longer battery life out of their phone, but the Energizer Power Max P18K Pop takes that desire for extended battery life to the extreme. Most of those consumers that want longer smartphone battery life probably don't want to carry a phone that's nearly as thick as three iPhones. It'll be interesting to see if Avenir does refine the P18K Pop and how it can improve the device's design and thickness to make it more appealing.
