Charging GoPro batteries is a big part of owning a GoPro. The cameras are tiny and so must be the batteries.
(Check out our GoPro 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Comparison)
Plugging in your GoPro isn’t easy if you’re out in the woods or on the ski hill so it’s nice have something that can store and charge GoPro batteries in your pack with you.
GoPro’s don’t ship with any external charger or battery case. You have to plug the whole camera in. Thankfully there’s a whole industry dedicated to GoPro accessories.
Artman have a sleek battery charger case that holds your batteries and can charge them at the same time. We tested one with Artman Enduro batteries that claim to have the same runtime as the GoPro version. Here’s the results.
Charging and Storage Case
The 3 battery case is a small black box about 5.5 x 6 x 6.5 cm. A lid on top is held down by a small magnet. Inside has three battery slots and three micro SD card slots.
The magnet holds the lid shut but only just. With a good shake the lid can come open. The batteries are fairly snug on the charging pins but I’d prefer the magnet be a little stronger.
A 15 cm USB-A cable is wrapped around the bottom and permanently attached so you don’t have go looking for it every time. USB-A is the rectangle on almost all battery packs right now so it’s easy to find something compatible. The flat cable sits in a groove in the side of the case case and snaps snugly into a slot on the back.
Under the USB-A cable is a USB-C port if you’d rather use that. The case does come with a C to A cable if you don’t have one already.
A small screen on the front of the charger shows the charging status of all 3 batteries with a small picture and percent number. Popping batteries into the charger is a quick way to see the state of charge when rooting through batteries.
Three SD card slots sit around the battery slots inside. Two of the SD card slots are only plastic, with no metal hardware inside. The third has a pressure clip to hold the card and seems to have metal in it but plugging the case in doesn’t show up as a reader on the computer. It would make it more expensive but it would be nice to an actual card reader when you are charging batteries off a computer.
Batteries
The case came with 3 batteries that fit the Hero 12, 11, 10 and 9. They claim to have the same 1800 mAh size and cold resistance as the GoPro Enduro battery. That is one of the reasons for this test.
(Check out our GoPro Hero 12 Review)
So far after more than 10 tests charging the batteries and then running them until they die on a GoPro 12 at 5.3k (8:7 aspect) we’ve got some pretty consistent results.
GoPro Enduro Average Usage Time: 76 min
Artman Enduro Battery Average Usage Time: 66 min
So while the GoPro batteries do get a little longer runtimes, the Artman batteries are close. Good enough for my purposes.
Charging
This case charges all the batteries at the same time, sending a bit of juice to each. This means they’ll all be ready at the same time. I prefer cases that charge the highest one to 100% and then moves on to the next. It gets you back filming faster. If you’re looking for one to get to 100% the fastest, you’ll have to charge one at a time.
I found the charge times exactly as advertised.
- 2.5 hours to charge 1 Enduro battery
- 3 hours for 2 batteries
- 3.5 for all 3 batteries
Price
One Enduro battery goes for about $35 (CAD) from GoPro. You can probably find them on sale here and there. They don’t sell an enclosed charging case.
The Artman 3 battery charger with 3 batteries came to $40. So for a little more than 1 OEM battery, you can get 3 and a charging case.
The original Artman 3 battery charger with 3 batteries came to $40 when I first found it but it doesn’t seem to be available any more.
There is the same thing in white for $54 when I looked at it last.
Or there is a similar 3 battery charger without the screen at $40 with no built-in USB cord.
Recommendation
Some things you can get cheap away with cheap knock-off brands and some you can’t. Compared to GoPros, cheap action cameras don’t work well, break faster and aren’t as waterproof.
Batteries on the other hand, might not work quite as well the OEM GoPro batteries but they’re close and for a fraction of the cost, it’s pretty good value.
The charger works well and has both USB-A and C. I like the built in cable so I don’t have to go looking for one. The lid could use a stronger magnet but mostly stays closed. It hasn’t come open in my backpack as things are usually packed around it.
If you you need another charger and batteries for your GoPro, Artman is a good deal.