The secret that most companies don’t tell you is that fast charging to 100% actually benefits them rather than the consumer. Sure, you save 10-15 minutes every time you use a fast charger to charge your phone or other device instead of a normal one, but charging at high wattages degrades your battery’s lifespan faster too. A phone that holds its charge for 2 years now begins wearing out faster in 1 year, and that’s great for companies because they can then sell you the newer model… often with an even faster charger!
Leo is a clever little product that prevents that from happening. Sitting between your phone and the power outlet, Leo understands your battery’s health and charges it in a way that keeps it healthier for longer. It optimizes charge speeds to ensure you don’t degrade your battery, ensures you don’t always charge your phone to 100% (that harms the battery too), and automatically pauses charging when you leave your phone plugged in overnight to ensure your battery performs at its best capacity even 2-3 years after you buy a phone… or any battery-powered device for that matter.
Designers: Jaime Camarero & Thijs Faber
Click Here to Buy Now: $58 $85 (31% off). Hurry, only 2/1115 left! Raised over $200,000.
All batteries degrade over time, losing their ability to hold energy the way they previously would… An iPhone right out of the box has a battery that needs charging once a day, but a year or two later, the same iPhone needs to be charged an average of thrice a day because it gets discharged faster. Leo was designed to prolong that eventuality, allowing your Lithium-ion battery-powered gadgets to last longer than ‘they were planned to’. Touted as a Battery Life Extender, Leo simply ensures your battery doesn’t get overcharged every time you plug it in. Designed to work with your smartphones, tablets, headphones, game controllers, handheld consoles, drones, or pretty much any gadget with a built-in battery and charged through a USB cable, Leo manages its power requirements to give you a balance between a ‘full battery’ and a ‘healthy battery’.
Set a Charge Limit – Maintaining your batteries within the range of 10% to 90% can significantly extend their lifespan.
Adaptive Charging Speed – Leo charges at a slower, more sustainable rate when you have the time, such as during the night.
Leo does this using a few clever tricks. All you do is add Leo between your device and its charger (so the power passes through it) and it begins working instantaneously. For starters, it makes sure you don’t always charge your gadget to 100% (which can degrade your battery’s health in the long run). Instead, it sets an optimal charge limit of approximately 90% for all your USB devices, which on itself can increase the lifespan of your battery by a lot.
Ghost-mode Button to Fast-charge to 100% – Simply hold the button to swiftly override Leo and switch to fast charging. This way, there’s no need to unplug Leo.
It also manages those wild 60W to 120W charging speeds touted by most Android makers, setting a power cap to your charger’s power delivery. Sure, that means you don’t get those fast charging speeds, but that also means your phone’s battery lasts for as much as 50% longer than it previously would. In a hurry and want to fast-charge your device? A simple button on Leo helps disable it temporarily so you don’t need to unplug it to fast-charge your phone.
Optimized Night Charging – Leo takes a break at around 80% during night charging, effectively reducing the duration your batteries remain at a high charge percentage and voltage.
If you’re one of those folks who plugs their phone in overnight, Leo ensures it doesn’t constantly get charged for those 7-8 hours while you’re asleep. During night charging, Leo takes a break at around 80%, further reducing the duration your batteries remain at a high charge percentage and voltage. You don’t need to toggle through any settings to activate any of Leo’s features – it intuitively reads your battery’s charging protocol, managing the charging process accordingly based on your device, your charger, and the time of the day.
Universal USB-C Connector – Leo’s adaptability enables implementation on both the charger side and the device side.
Roughly the same size as a USB thumb drive (with an eye-catching light strip running vertically), Leo is designed to work with a wide range of USB-C devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, gaming devices, e-readers, headphones, and other accessories. Its compact form factor allows it to easily act as a bridge between chargers and gadgets, without adding to the clutter of your wired charging solutions. It adapts autonomously based on the device and the charger you’re using, instantly adjusting charging protocols to match your device.
Overall, Leo’s broader pitch is to end (or at least drastically prolong) planned obsolescence. We’re all too familiar with headphones dying out after 1-2 years of using them, or a smartphone not having an ‘all-day’ battery life after a year. While a lot of that boils down just to the fact that lithium-ion batteries aren’t designed to last forever, a portion of it can also be attributed to companies engineering obsolescence into their devices so they can sell newer models every year. Simply by ensuring your products last 50% longer than they originally would, Leo helps drastically cut down e-waste while also saving you money in the long run.
Recycled plastic, Modular & Long Lasting Design – The cable is modular and easily replaceable to ensure longevity since even the best cables can wear out over time.
Its sustainable ethos extends to every part of its design too, from the fact that it comes made using recycled plastic to the fact that it even runs OTA updates to ensure that it stays up to date with charging protocols of new devices that launch in the future. If you’re interested in deep-diving into the analytics of your device batteries, Leo will even offer an optional app that lets you measure the battery health, charging status, and charging cycles of the various devices you plug into it. The app also enables the aforementioned OTA updates to keep your Leo on the cutting edge of battery technology.
On paper, Leo’s $58 price tag justifies itself pretty well. Even if it increases your battery’s overall lifespan by 10-20% (as compared to its touted 50%), that effectively means your gadgets last for at least 4-6 months longer than their intended 2-year life cycle. Account for the fact that each household has approximately 5-10 battery-powered USB gadgets, and that translates to hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars in savings per year because your devices are effectively lasting longer. Sure, that’s great for the planet… but it’s even greater for the pocket! Each Leo ships with its own USB-C to USB-C cable (with a max 100W output if you ever want to toggle fast charging) and comes with a free, optional smartphone app that’s available on both Android and iOS devices.
Click Here to Buy Now: $58 $85 (31% off). Hurry, only 2/1115 left! Raised over $200,000.
