Energizer's 18000 mAh Battery Phone Fundraising Campaign Was An Epic Fail

One of the strangest devices spied during Mobile World Congress 2019 was the insanely fat Energizer 18,000 mAh phone. The official name was the Power Max P18k Pop, and while it was Energizer branded, the device was actually to be made by Avenir Telecom. Shortly after the show, Avenir took to Indiegogo for funding to build the device.

Anyone who looked at the incredibly fat profile and imagined themselves holding a power brick up to their face may have thought twice about such a thick smartphone. The Indiegogo campaign was seeking $1.2 million in funding for the device and missed by a long shot. The Indiegogo campaign raised a scant $15,005, and honestly it's a surprise the campaign raised that much money.

The smartphone was priced at $549 for early-bird backers and was aiming for an October 2019 delivery window. For many who saw the device, it seemed as if it might have been a marketing stunt all along. It's hard to imagine a company thinking in a world where people want thinner and less bulky devices that a super fat battery with phone capability would have been popular.

It's likely that Avenir never expected to fund the project and only wanted to get its name out there. If that was the goal the Energizer Power Max P18K Pop was a success. Energizer's licensing department has to be unhappy having such a flop tied to its brand.

To put the fat 18,000 mAh device in perspective, it was about twice as thick as an iPhone. It also offered about five times the battery capacity of the iPhone XS Max. The device had promised to run on a MediaTek Helio P70 SoC paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while the screen was a 6.2-inch unit with a 19:9 aspect ratio.