Hulkman Alpha jump starter ZDNET's key takeaways The Hulkman Alpha is on sale now for $66.
It's a compact jump starter that can go from starting your car's engine to charging your phone, and has performed better than some far more expensive jump starters.
The port covers are very difficult to remove. View now at Amazon
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I've always said nothing beats real-world testing to inform a product's review. Every once in a while a device that I'm reviewing gets put to the test with the perfect scenario.
Such is the case with the Hulkman Alpha 1,000A/37Wh jump starter. I had just started the usual tests that I carry out on a power bank, and using it to jumpstart my vehicle a couple of times, and hadn't even fully finished the review before heading off on a trip.
Also: They told me even a dog can't chew through this USB-C cable - so I tested it with something sharper
It was to be a near-thousand-mile round trip with some friends to the town of St. Ives, on the southwest coast of England. We were traveling down in multiple vehicles, and I threw the Hulkman into my friend's car as one of those "just in case" things.
Well, as it turns out, I was glad I did -- because it saved the day.
The Alpha is like a big, pound and a half power bank that packs some serious battery power, modest dual 18W USB-A and USB-C outputs. It has the circuitry needed to amplify the power through the 12V cables to start 6.5L gas or 3.0L diesel engines about 25 times (a claim I didn't think I'd be able to test, but turned out I did). There's also a light on the front, a big display, a couple of buttons, and a couple of outputs.
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