Eton Blackout Buddy Swivel Vs. Charge Vs. Connect Charge

I have seen the Eton Balckout Buddies over the years, but, frankly, never gave them much thought. Today, however, I was in Mill's Fleet Farm and looked at one a bit closer. I like the fact that it is an LED nightlight and comes on when the power goes out.

So, when I got home, I checked their webpage. I see that they now have several versions of the Eton Blackout Buddy. The Swivel appears to be the original that Fleet Farm had in stock.

They also have another one that adds two USB ports. The design will also swivel. It looks like a nice upgrade over the original. I think it will also serve as a battery pack for any devices connected via USB.

Finally, they have a Connect Charge, it is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Apple Homekit or Google Home.

https://etoncorp.com/collections/connected-protected-prepared/products/blackout-buddy-swivel

https://etoncorp.com/collections/connected-protected-prepared/products/blackout-buddy-charge

https://etoncorp.com/collections/co...ect-charge-apple-homekit-amazon-alexa-version

Anyway, for anybody familiar with these, how well do they work out for you?

Also, are there any competing products that work better?

That Charge model looks pretty clever; since it's already a battery, you have the option to put the power elsewhere. Not enough for a full phone charge there, but once the power's out, every little bit helps..

The Blackout Buddy seems to be one of the most common of the emergency plug-in lights. I wouldn't have any major concerns about it.

My personal preference is not to spend much extra on lights like this, since my main plan is for the emergency light to just make it easy to find my other lights. If it were me, I'd just get the basic version.

That said, the Charge version looks like a reasonable value - just $10 more to get a relatively high capacity battery for this type of light, plus the ability serve as a powerbank.

I don't really get why the Connect Charge exists. It probably uses more electricity just monitoring WiFi for instructions than is saved versus leaving a dumb LED night light on all the time.

For competing products, Energizer has a similar light that costs a bit less.

I also recently saw one that is designed primarily as a night light, since that is how it will spend most of its time, so then when the power is out is more of a lantern (full flood beam) than a flashlight. If I remember where I saw that before, I'll come back and post a link.