SpareOne emergency phone: One battery, 15-year charge, now in waterproof bag

When you can't rely on your smartphone battery to last forever, use the SpareOne emergency phone as backup.

Tis the season for new smartphone announcements. Whether you are a diehard gadgeteer or a general consumer shopping for a new phone, one of the most important thing you want to learn about a product is how long the battery lasts. You never know when you will need to make calls during emergency situations. Luckily, you don’t always have to rely on smartphones in case of long term power outages. The SpareOne emergency cellphone is your perfect backup, running on a single AA battery and can reportedly last up to 15 years with 10 hours of talk time.

We received a demo unit of the SpareOne phone and it’s as bare as an emergency phone gets. The candybar style device has all the buttons in the front, is extremely lightweight, and comes complete with the one AA battery it needs to power on. You’ll need to insert your own micro SIM card to make calls, but 911 will always work with or without a SIM. SpareOne recently released the device with a new waterproof, floating bag so your one emergency won’t get destroyed, making it durable in an all-weather situation.

While it’s not a particularly fancy gadget, it does seem like a fairly useful one to have sitting in your emergency shelf. If necessary, the phone also doubles as an torchlight and and last up to 24 hours with the single AA battery. Though the idea is for SpareOne to be an emergency backup phone, the device could make for a good starter phone for younger kids whom you don’t believe has the responsibility of owning a smartphone just yet — but should still have cellphone access at the minimum. It could also make for a good rugged, traveling phone for when you take outdoor trips and don’t want to ruin your fancy iPhone 5. Of course, the only problem you’ll run into in these situations is having to actually remember your contacts’ phone numbers or carry a phonebook … and when was the last time anyone did either?

If you’re intrigued, SpareOne emergency phone is available for purchase now at $120 apiece.