We found that the C10002Y gets warm to the touch when plugged into the wall, but this is likely just a result of the thin plastic casing — not a major concern. Speaking of the casing, this definitely isn’t the most rugged power bank on our list. It feels like one significant chest-height drop onto a hard surface would be the end of it. We held our breath during the 2-foot drop test, and though it did survive, it sustained minor visible damage. Testing this unit involved the use of my Rohde & Schwarz NGM202 Power Supply, Rohde & Schwarz RTM3004 Oscilloscope, a modified car fridge to try and maintain temperatures to the standard 25 degrees Celsius and a home-built set of four-wire breakouts for USB. Regardless of the average temperature, cycle efficiency remained at about 73.1% on energy efficiency and 72.55% Coulombic efficiency, the discrepancy related to the output voltage being slightly above 5V while the charging voltage supplied is almost exactly 5V from the NGM202. Conclusion While fast charging is highly sought after, it can also be a detriment to your long-term battery health. Certain small devices such as headphones and fitness watches have relatively low maximum tolerable power delivery. It’s a small charger that has a very similar design to other cylindrical power banks. It stands toe to toe with more known small chargers, so it shouldn’t be dismissed without knowing what makes this RAVPower Luster Mini so important.

This all means that you’re eventually going to be able to charge your laptop and smartphone with basically the same charger. Well, you basically can now if you own something like a Google Pixel 2 and a USB-C compatible MacBook. With that said, this Aukey 5,000mAh power bank is quite important. The discharge data plotted against time showed that as long as you respected the power bank’s advertised maximum current, the output voltage was very consistent throughout the discharge, with the output voltage being fairly accurately set. The output voltage does elevate slightly when there is light loading, but the voltage is well within specifications. When overloaded, however, the voltage is below expectations and the unit may continue to operate depending on the level of overloading. At the full rated 2.1A load, it was able to run for 1h 22m 54s. If you’re still not sold on the idea of purchasing a slim power bank, here are a few pros that will help you decide. This is their PowerCore Fusion 5000 portable charger. It, of course, has a 5,000mAh power capacity that can charge most smartphones to their full power about 1.5 times. You can buy the Tylt Bottle with just a power bank attached, but our review sample from AT&T had the full wireless charging treatment. It's easy to set up a phone to charge while studying, working out, or working away from home: all places we take a water bottle and need a full phone battery.The 5,000mAh power capacity is still only enough to charge most smartphones to full power only once, but the main highlight is that you can get your phone to its full power at a faster charging speed. The Power Delivery port has an 18W charging speed, which is mostly useful for charging smartphones, but you can charge it with a MacBook, however, it will charge slowly. These portable power banks are popular among phone users for a good reason—they offer enough capacity. They are also quite lightweight and easy to carry. The discharge-only efficiency is estimated from the ratio of the output energy versus the claimed 18.5Wh capacity of the battery. This results in an estimated conversion efficiency peaking at about 91.3% under a 200mA load. It may seem surprising that this was not the peak for the round-trip efficiency which may have to do with the fact that the internal resistance of the cell may prevent higher-rate discharges from actually extracting the full capacity of the battery as the output voltage is depressed. Charging Current Profile Brand Reliability: When it comes to portable power banks, it's essential to choose a trustworthy brand. Brands like Anker have a solid reputation for producing safe and high-quality products, ensuring your devices are charged efficiently and without any risks. It’s a new breed of small power banks that’s being ushered in with its larger capacity of 5,000mAh of power, that can charge many smartphones twice, some other smartphones can even charge more times.

There are plenty of combination power bank and some other device, but the Tylt Bottle 2 actually makes sense because we're usually carrying an insulated water bottle anyway, so we might as well screw a battery onto the bottom. With a 5,700mAh capacity, the Tylt Bottle 2 is just enough to get us through a very busy day, or keep the phone powered while we play games at the cafe. For instance, a power bank with a higher mAh rating will have a larger capacity and can hold more charge. This means it can provide power to your devices for a longer time before running out of juice. On the other hand, a power bank with a lower mAh rating will have a smaller capacity and may require more frequent recharging. In simple terms, mAh represents the amount of current a power bank can deliver over a specific period of time. It is an important specification to consider when purchasing a power bank as it directly impacts the duration of use before needing to be recharged.That app is essential because there's a Find My feature built into the battery. It doesn't work like an AirTag over UWB, it's only Bluetooth, but it's useful if you misplace your battery in your office (or you have multiple batteries, like I do). The Sherpa charged an iPhone 13 from dead to 100% a whopping seven times using a USB-C to USB-C cord. The brand advertised eight full charges, but this figure depends on many variable factors. In any case, the Sherpa is about four times more powerful than most 10k mAh power banks in this regard. Using the wireless charging surface, the phone fully charged in about 100 minutes.

These days, many devices including phones, power banks, tablets, and cables claim to support “fast charging.” In reality, there is no universal standard for what “fast charging” really means. Each individual device has specifications that determine how much wattage delivery it can handle. Every element in the charging system — phone, power bank, and cable — plays a role in the rate of power delivery. We learned that the mAh rating indicates the capacity of a power bank, with higher numbers providing more extended usage time. However, other factors such as battery quality, charging cycles, temperature, usage habits, and charging speed also play vital roles in determining a power bank’s lifespan.For devices with higher energy requirements, such as tablets or larger capacity smartphones, the number of full charges may be slightly lower. Tablets typically have larger batteries, ranging from 5000mAh to 8000mAh or more, which means a 5000mAh power bank may provide around 1-2 full charges.