Pronto: The Fast-Charge Battery Pack

Only have a few minutes before you go on a shoot? half an hour between connection flights? a new type of external battery called Pronto can be charged fast enough so that you can continue using your smartphone, tablet, camera or even laptop on the go.

Until all our devices will have fast charging batteries like the one Israeli based startup StoreDot is working on (which can fully charge a smartphone in 30 seconds), we need a solution that will enable us to quickly store power when we are running out of time. A new kickstarter project called Pronto is promising just that – 5 min charge of their battery will give you the equivalent of a fully charged iPhone 5.

So how does it work? Pronto designers – Power Practical (a young team from Salt Lake City who already had a cool successful project on kickstarter called powerpot) state that they were able to achieve a new battery design that can charge up to 12 times as fast as existing Li-Ion batteries (they have done so using a custom circuit boards that quickly charge up cells with a dedicated AC wall charger).

The two Pronto versions

Pronto is made out of Hard-Anodized Aluminum and comes in two sizes – Pronto 5 (4500 mAh) and Pronto 12 (13,500 mAh). Both fully charge in an hour but the Pronto 5 gains enough power to fully charge in iPhone 5 in 15 min while the larger Pronto 12 does the same in 5 min. The Pronto 5 can store up to 3 charges of an iPhone5 and has 1 USB connection (through which it can charge itself as well as the special AC charger), the larger Pronto 12 can hold up to 9 iPhone 5 charges and has 2 USB ports (for simultaneous charging) as well as the option to connect a 12V charger (included) that can charge a laptop or camera battery with the right adapter.

3 iPhone charges with the Pronto 5 (and up to 9 with the Pronto 12) in an hour

The project already raised close to $300k with 10 more days to go on Kickstarter. Pricing starts at $80 for the Pronto 5 and $120 for the Pronto 12 on the Kickstarter page.

Charge your DSLR battery in the field with the Pronto 12

Make sure you wont miss any Kickstarter photography projects on our dedicated Kickstarter page here on LensVid.

Charge 2 devices at once – Pronto 12

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.