NewerTech Battery Charger / Conditioner for MacBook Pro

I’d chanced upon this product sometime ago, but never thought of picking one up until recently.

I use my MacBook Pro 15″ for tethered shooting both outdoors and in the studio. And, let’s admit it; the battery duration on the MacBook Pro isn’t all that great, especially when compared to that of a Sony VAIO T series notebook. Having been spoilt for choice with the latter, I keep a spare battery for my MacBook Pro. Also, having a spare battery relives charge/discharge fatigue on the main battery and helps prolong its lifespan.

When it comes to shoots, charging batteries is a very time-consuming process; I’d have to wait for one to charge up completely and then swap it for the other. At the end of a long day, the last thing I’d want to do is to mill around a hotel room waiting for batteries to charge up.

This is why I always opt for dual chargers whenever available. While such options are plentiful for both my photography and film/video equipment, there isn’t a dual charger for my laptop batteries I can get off the shelf.

Until the NewerTech Battery Charger/Conditioner came along.

Available for the MacBook Pro, Macbook, PowerBook G4, and iBook G3/G4, the NewerTech Battery Charger/Conditioner sports two bays for you to charge a pair of batteries at one go. The only limitation is that it charges one battery after the other, and not concurrently; most dual chargers behave this way, any way.

What is particularly useful is the conditioning feature. All Lithium-Ion batteries require conditioning/calibration after prolonged usage. You can either follow these tedious steps as recommended by Apple, or you can simply plug it into the NewerTech Battery Charger/Conditioner and, at the press of a button, let it do the work for you.

In a production environment, in which the working hours are long and every minute of turnaround time can impact the production budget, dual chargers are the way to go. The time you will save and the convenience you will gain makes its US$149.95 price tag a real bargain. I highly recommend this product for any one whose livelihood depends on his or her Mac laptop.