Paleblue lets you keep traditional batteries charged on the go

There's two avenues of portable power that have never really found a way to work together. There's the devices that can recharge over USB and there's devices that use traditional cell batteries that you can swap out for more power. Obviously USB recharge has been winning over the past decade, but there's still plenty of devices that demand classic cells to drive them ever onward.

I've been a long-time user of rechargeables for traditional batteries, with a swag of Panasonic Eneloops serving my needs for over a decade. They're amazing and I'd hate to think how many batteries I'd have had to bin if I wasn't using these.

The big issue I've never managed to deal with in my Eneloop era is still needing a bunch to be always ready to go. If I'm on the road for an event it's a struggle to keep those Eneloops recharged, so I end up with about 16 of them filling a chunk of bag space.

Enter Paleblue and its USB-C rechargeable AA, AAA, C, D and 9V batteries. A pack (four AA/AAA, two C/D/9V)) comes with a single USB-C cable that splits to charge all batteries at once, and the recharge time is pretty much right on one hour. Having two sets and a good USB-C powerbank will keep a device up and running all day long without the added fuss of loads of charged and uncharged batteries rummaging around your bag.

Each Paleblue battery also includes an LED light at the top of the battery that turns green when it is back at a full charge.

This is a category that seemed like it might have hit the end of its evolution. But it's great to see a product like Paleblue come along and give us one of those "it's obvious" updates that makes rechargeable AA and AAA batteries so much easier to use on the go.

Standard packs are 4x AA or AAA batteries or 2x C, D, or 9V, and all are priced at $49.95. There's also some nice bulk kit options at a discount if you're keen to swap out all your existing battery usage at once.

Given they're good for 1000 battery cycles, that's far, far cheaper than always buying standard batteries – and far better for the environment too.