Charge Alert Lite is an iPhone app developed by the delicious sounding developers Electric French Fries. This app offers a whole host of alerts related to your battery life, and also lets you know how long your next full charge should take.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

Charge Alert Lite talks out loud, letting you know when your charge is done. You can choose a human voice, or one of a couple different alarm chimes. You can also turn on notifications to get battery alerts while you’re playing games, listening to music or using other apps.

Pros

• Beautiful design
• Works while you multitask in other apps
• Selection of different charge alert noises
• 12 or 24 hour clock
• Estimates the time it will take for your next full charge
• Alerts can be customized to go off every minute, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, every 5%, every 25%, or only when 100% full

Cons

• Hasn’t been updated since 2010 (the iTunes page proudly boasts of the app being “Built for iOS 4”)
• Banner ad along the bottom ruins the look of the app
• All three alert settings are very quiet. Even with the volume on my phone turned all the way up, even a little background noise drowns the alert sound out almost completely

Discussion

One of the things that drew me to Charge Alert Lite was its gorgeous design. I love the black and blue color scheme, and the whole app is just lovely in terms of its layout. The banner ads ruin the look, though.

If you want to get rid of the annoying banner ad that completely spoils the look of the app, prepare to jump through a few hoops first. The in-app upgrade takes you to the App Store, alright…but the upgraded version of Charge Alert isn’t available in the US App Store anymore. It is available in the Canadian App Store, however. You can change your store settings, but it’s kind of a pain.

Despite the fact that Charge Alert Lite is (mostly) easy on the eyes, it’s not so easy on the ears. Or maybe the problem is that it’s TOO easy on the ears. Even with my volume settings turned all the way up, I had to struggle to hear the various alert sounds the app makes over even the most minor of background noises.

So if you had any plans of using this app to alert you when your phone is charged while you’re busy watching TV or getting ready for a night out on the town, you might want to think twice.

Conclusion and download link

Charge Alert Lite is a decent app, if a bit in need of some updates. While it is an attractive, functional app, I just wish the sounds were louder, and that the upgraded version of the app was available for users on the US App Store.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 1.0.1

Requires iPhone/iPod touch/iPad, iOS 4.0 or later.

Download size: 9.1 MB

Charge Alert Lite on Apple App Store