Target Dollar Bin Electronics: The Good and the Bad

You already know I love the Target dollar bins and recently I’ve noticed a few additions. Besides the fact that the bin now includes $3 items, on a recent visit I saw $5 electronic accessories. ‘m generally leery of going too cheap on the tech front, but I dropped the 5 bucks and took a chance.
I purchased an iConcepts smartphone power boost so I can charge my phone on the go. Hmm, I probably should have left this one at the store.
Target Dollar Bin tech accessories, iConcepts products The former dollar bin at Target is now home to $1, $3 and $5 products. The $5 items seemed to only include pieces from iConcepts, including headphones, charger cables, portable speakers and phone covers.
Though I already have a myCharge portable charger that I love and I hope to buy the Mighty Purse Portable Charger next year, but I wanted to try a smaller charger at a fraction of the cost. The iConcepts smartphone power boost from Target runs off of two AA batteries and is the width of a bottle cap and the length of my phone, which made it perfect to slip in my purse!
As soon as I got home I loaded two batteries in and started using it…but it didn’t work! The charge icon came on my phone to indicate it was charging, but it actually wasn’t. After 40 minutes, my battery had decreased by six percent. I unplugged and tried again, but still, no dice! The little pamphlet warns you it’s totally normal for the device to get hot and it certainly does after a few minutes. I decided to give the power boost charger another try. This time I put in another set of new batteries. Initially my phone went from 64 to 70 percent {yay!} and then it went back down to 69 percent. Boo!
I’m definitely not happy with this product and will be returning it to Target. I’m just glad I tried the charger before I headed out for the night and was left stranded with a dead battery. I should probably stick to my rule of not going too cheap chic with some tech accessories. For now I’ll just rely on the myCharge. It’s bulky, but was $80 well spent and keeps my iPhone charged all day.
I did however find these stylish tablet covers for $5 in the Target bins.

Are you selective with which products you’ll buy from the dollar bin? Have you ever found a quality, tech product at a cheap price?
5 Comments
  • bytesize82
    Posted at 11:23h, 12 August Reply

    I almost bought that portable charger as well. Thanks for the review!

  • Pate C Liver
    Posted at 17:02h, 26 August Reply

    I THINK you may have gotten a dud, I have purchased the same and charged my Iphone5C at least 15% more then it was. I took a while the carger thingy got hot…. but it did increase 15% maybe even more. Just enough to maybe make a phone call or finish out the night.

  • Carm
    Posted at 20:29h, 02 March Reply

    I wish I had seen your review before I purchased this item! I tried it and it
    didn’t work at all the 1st time, so I changed the batteries to try again, and it
    got so hot it burned my hand! I would definitely NOT use this product. It is dangerous!

    • Looking Fly on a Dime
      Posted at 16:05h, 03 March Reply

      Oh no! I hope you didn’t get hurt badly and got your money back.

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