Sometimes better products happen when manufacturers simplify their designs. That’s what I found when I tried ChargeKeys and ChargeCards from Nomad Goods, LLC. These slim connectors let you charge and synchronize products equipped with Lightning ports (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) or micro-USB ports (a wide variety of mobile phones, tablets and other products).
ChargeKey
Imagine a charging cable made in the image of a key, and you have the ChargeKey. Made of rubber and silicon, it can be twisted in various ways even while charging, with no ill effects. It’s basically a very short, slim cable that you don’t need a separate cable pouch for.
This is the natural bend of the ChargeKey.
The bent part is made to bend, while the ends are rigid.
I haven’t tried this with any of my devices.
I wouldn’t put the ChargeKey on my keychain since I carry all sorts of actual keys on it, plus a Swiss Army Knife that comes in handy every now and then.
That knife got me thinking about whether Nomad might one day license the ChargeKey’s design to companies like Victorinox. The ChargeKey seems a natural addition to a convenient pocket-sized multi-tool, especially in this mobile device age of ours.
ChargeCard
Think of a charging cable made to the length, width and (for the most part) thickness of a credit card and you have the ChargeCard. Mostly made of stiff plastic, the ChargeCard holds a Lightning or micro USB port at one corner. A USB connector is attached to a band of rubber in the middle of the card that snaps out of the plastic casing and bends to hook up to a computer or charger.
Only the band in the middle of the card flexes.
The ChargeCard fits in the plastic sleeves typically found in credit-card wallets, but it’s a tight squeeze in an actual wallet. While the outside lengthwise edges are as narrow as a credit card, the inside of the card widens to house the USB connection.
Conclusions
If you carry a computer or battery pack that accepts USB connections, ChargeKeys and ChargeCards ($29.00 each) let you forgo cable pouches or the tangle of cables typically found in Targus-like device bags.
The ChargeKey and ChargeCard fall short if you need to connect to a power outlet to charge a device. In that case, you would need a device that accepts a USB connection on one end and plugs into an outlet at the other. In spite of the thinness of prongs that go into outlets, other engineering challenges doubtlessly await the company if it decides to create a ChargeCard that offers both USB and power outlet connections. (I couldn’t see prongs fitting on a ChargeKey, but I’m open to being proved wrong.)
Nomad’s simple devices delight in their simplicity. Their designs aim to create convenience for the people who use them, and they succeed. That doesn’t happen often enough, so I’m looking forward to whatever Nomad comes up with next.