Case-Mate Fuel Review And Giveaway!!

Posted on 14. Jan, 2010 by John in Product Reviews

For the last two weeks I have been using the Case-Mate Fuel for BlackBerry Tour.  What is it exactly?  It’s simple, the Case-Mate Fuel is a holster which has a rechargeable battery built into it.  When your BlackBerry’s battery is running a little low simply place it in the holster and press the power button on the holster.  It will charge your BlackBerry right on your hip!  Pretty neat if you ask me.

We have one Case-Mate Tour Fuel 9630 to give away to our readers. Please leave a comment to enter.  Contest ends at 11:59PM on Sunday PST.  (Oh, and we have to approve comments before they show up, we don’t sit here all day long waiting to approve comments, so leave your comment and check back the next day.  We will approve all comments!)

Read on for my review and pictures.

When I first received the case I was a little taken back thinking the size of the case was too big.  The battery on the bottom of the case is what gives this perception.  After wearing the case all throughout CES last week and even a couple days back here at home, the size of the case is not an issue.  My Tour snapped snugly into the case and felt secure, I never thought it might pop out due it being loose.  The material of the case is high quality and I would expect it take a lot of abuse.

The biggest issue I ran into, which will not effect the majority of users and I place no blame on Case-Mate for, was due to the fact that my Tour having had the ColorWare treatment the charging contacts on the back of the phone sat down lower.  Low enough that the contacts on the Case-Mate Fuel would not make contact with the phone, thus not being able to charge it.  The timing of this was great, it was fairly easy to find a standard back at CES in order to fully use the case. So with a completely different color back on my Tour I was off to wonder around CES.  I had my Tour with the standard 2 extra batteries I carry daily.  To my surprise, I did not have to use an extra battery once at CES.  I was able to monitor my battery and if it was getting low I would just power on the Fuel case and let it charge my Tour.  It was that simple, and I loved it!  I found that I could get about 1.5 full battery charges off of a single charge to the Fuel battery, and it would fully charge my battery from 20% in roughly an hour. There are three bright LED lights on the case itself to let the user know what kind of charge the case has left.

This is a great case for heavy users who don’t want to carry around multiple batteries (as well as the spare battery charger) everyday.  Just remember to charge up the Fuel case at night and you are good to go for the next days use and abuse of your BlackBerry battery.  In fact, I have to say that it is easily in my top 3 accessories of all time, it saddens me to have to give it away.  That is alright though, one of you lucky readers will be able to enjoy it as much as I did.  The Case-Mate Fuel can be purchased directly from Case-Mate’s website for $79.99 and is well worth the investment.  They have the same product for many more models as well, make sure to check them out!  Official specs from Case-Mate below.

Extended Battery Life Features

• Talk time: up to 9 additional hours beyond standard BlackBerry Tour 9630 battery life
• Stand by time: up to 250 additional hours beyond standard BlackBerry Tour 9630 battery life
• Internet Use: up to 7 additional hours beyond standard BlackBerry Tour 9630 battery life
• Video Playback: up to 8 additional hours beyond standard BlackBerry Tour 9630 battery life
• Audio Playback: up to 24 additional hours beyond standard BlackBerry Tour 9630 battery life

Additional Features

• Power on/off button makes more efficient usage of the fuel by only engaging when you decide to
• Fully ratcheting 180-degree belt clip
• Rechargeable through a standard micro USB cable
• Easy slide in/out access to your BlackBerry Tour 9630

Tags: accessories, Case-Mate, Review