By Marlo Anderson – The Tech Ranch
Here’s a stat that stopped me in my tracks on the CES 2026 show floor: according to Liion Power, one in three devices in the world gets thrown away because of a bad battery. Not a cracked screen. Not a dead processor. The battery.
That’s exactly the problem Ibad and the team from Liion Power, a startup out of Amsterdam, came to Las Vegas to solve. Their answer is a little gadget called Leo, and it might be the easiest way I’ve seen to get more out of the tech you already own.
Meet Leo: The Battery Life Extender
Leo plugs in between your charger and your device. That’s it. There’s no app to set up and nothing to learn. You plug it in, plug your phone, headphones, game controller, mouse or beard trimmer into it, and it charges in a smarter way that’s easier on your battery.
Liion Power says that in its lab testing, Leo can help a battery last up to 63% longer. The company launched on Kickstarter, raised about €250,000, won a CES Innovation Award honor last year, and Ibad told me they now have more than 5,000 users in over 60 countries.
Tesla-Style Battery Smarts for the Rest of Us
If you drive an electric car or fly a drone, you already own something with serious battery management built in. My question for Ibad was simple: are you taking that kind of technology and bringing it to the everyday stuff the rest of us carry around? His answer: yes. The team leaned on Tesla’s battery research when they were building Leo.
And when a smartphone can cost $1,500, squeezing another year out of it is real money. According to a Liion Power customer survey, the average user plugs about seven different devices into Leo, and the company estimates it pays for itself in about six months.
Three Modes, One Button
- Smart mode (white light): slower, gentler charging that’s the healthiest for your battery. Perfect for overnight.
- Ghost mode (double-click): for when fast charging is non-negotiable. You still get the rest of Leo’s smart charging features.
- Safe mode (triple-click): blocks data transfer, so plugging into a public charging port at the airport doesn’t put your information at risk.
Leo also conditions the power coming in, handles devices up to 100 watts, and comes with a USB-C cable made with fair-trade gold. Ibad said a V2 is in the works that will support up to 240 watts, enough for laptops, e-bikes and e-scooters.
What We Talked About
- Why bad batteries are a huge e-waste problem
- How Leo extends battery life on almost anything that charges by USB
- Borrowing battery-management ideas from Tesla
- Smart mode vs. ghost mode vs. safe mode
- What’s next with Leo V2 and 240-watt charging
Final Thoughts
We spend a lot of time at CES looking at the next big thing. Leo is about making the things we already have last longer, and that’s a message I can get behind. It’s simple, it’s sustainable, and it keeps money in your pocket.
Learn more and order at liionpower.tech. They ship worldwide.
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