Zagg Sparq 2.0 Review (Replacement for original)

I got a Zagg Sparq in December. It would charge my Droid and 2 different Motorola bluetooth headsets fine, but it would discharge from 100% to 0% in about 2 weeks. This should not happen with a lithium polymer battery. Zagg was good enough to follow up with all the Sparq buyers to see if they were having any problems and I told them about the discharge problem. They sent me a prepaid return envelope about 3 months later and then sent me a new Sparq and a set of Zaggbuds as a gift to make up for the Sparq problems. Excellent service from Zagg. I even got the red and black ones since they ran out of the blue and orange ones they were sending out.


My new Sparq 2.0 arrived last Tuesday. I started the charge before noon that day and allowed it to charge for about 9 ½ hours. The first charge is supposed to be at least 9 hours. After charging, it was at 100% (4 lights). I didn't use it to charge my Droid and would check the charge amount every night. Three nights after the completed charge, the charge showed 75% (3 lights) and today (9 days later) it showed 50% (2 lights). It appears that the discharge problem still exists, unless additional charges will improve that. Additional charges did not improve the self discharge on the original Sparq.


I plugged in my Droid about an hour ago, which was at 30%, and it charged the Droid to 100%. The Sparq still shows 50% charge. I will allow it to discharge some more and then recharge it. It appears that there is still an electrical leakage problem, unless additional full charges improve this. At least I got a pretty good pair of ear buds. They are not as good as my Etymotic HF5, but they are fine for casual listening and they are comfortable.

 

I recharged the Droid again today from 30% to 100% and the Sparq is now at 25% (1 light) 11 days after it's first charge. This is better than the original Sparq was. I'll have to see if the discharge improves after a couple of recharges.

 

I don't need it right now, so I am doing a test to see how long it takes to self discharge. It is now 14 days since I recharged it to 100% (first recharge since original 9 hour charge when new) and the battery shows 50%. My original Sparq would have been down to 0% by now. I'm going to wait until it self discharges to 25% and then see if I can get a complete charge on the Droid. I still don't see why it should self discharge. Zagg said that it was a defective component in the original Sparq that caused it, so I wonder if they are still having that problem. In any case, it should be fine to charge up and then get 3 or 4 charges on the Driod over a few days when I travel.

Even if it doesn't improve, and I don't know why it would, it still ended up being a good purchase for me. I got it for a total of $56, with a sale and a 20% discount coupon. Then I got the Zaggbuds as a gift with the replacement. They are pretty good buds. I certainly wouldn't pay $99 for one knowing what I know now. Some people never had any problems with the original Sparq, so perhaps there is bad quality control on some of the purchased components. If you can get it on a Zagg sale and just plan on using it for a few days between recharges then it should work fine. If you need it to hold a charge for weeks then probably not.