Your
guide to the latest and best power banks of 2017. What is a best power bank? It
should have some innovative function and it is just what you need.
Phones
get faster every year, but the more powerful they become the less their
batteries can keep everything going. And, of course, all batteries will degrade
over time. If you need extra battery power for your smartphone, tablet or other
USB-powered device, you need a power bank.
You
might assume all power banks are much the same thing, but you would be wrong.
You can get compact power banks that will charge your phone once, slightly
larger portable chargers that might offer two or three charges, or
high-capacity banks that can charge your phone in excess of 10 times!
Working
out how many times a power bank will charge your phone depends on more than the
mAh rating on the packaging. No power bank is 100 percent energy-efficient,
with every portable charger losing power through voltage conversion and heat
generated.
The
industry standard for energy efficiency is between 60- and 70 percent, and if
it doesn't expressly state otherwise on the packaging this is likely what
you'll get. But some of the best power banks can offer as high as 90 percent
energy efficiency, which equates to more full charges for your phone.
Power
banks can also vary greatly on their inputs and outputs. We're seeing an
increasing number of power banks with support for the latest Quick Charge 3.0
and USB-C standards, and in some cases these are supported on the input as well
as the output, making them as fast to refill as they are to charge your phone.
Some
power banks may offer these in place of or alongside full-size USB, Micro-USB
and even Lightning ports - which you choose entirely depends on which
connection your phone uses, and for how long you intend to keep that phone
until you upgrade. (Most power banks are guaranteed for 500 recharges.)
How a power bank
looks like?
Design
is important when it comes to choosing a power bank, and some batteries are
more compact than others at the same capacity. You can also buy those protected
from the elements, but be sure to check whether they are probably waterproof or
simply rainproof before leaving them out in the cold.
The
ideal power bank is one that's small enough to slip into a pocket or bag
without it weighing you down, but with enough juice to keep your phone going
all day long.
Advanced features
to look out for in a power bank
Next
we come on to the more advanced features that are useful to have but not always
found in cheaper power banks. Passthrough charging is something we always look
for, and is the ability to charge a connected smartphone at the same time as
the device itself.
For
example, we have our eye keenly on MAGFAST, a new system of wireless chargers
that are available for pre-order now. They clip together to form a charging
hub, or you can use them separately.
You
can use LifeCharger on its own as a powerbank, with a crazy-good four inputs
and five outputs. We'll have a full review when they are available.
Some
power banks say they support passthrough charging, but will actually prioritise
the connected device until its battery is full, all the while trickle-charging
the power bank itself with whatever power is going spare, then turn their
attention to the bank itself. Others will charge both devices at full-speed at
once.
Auto-on
and auto-off is another sought after feature, though it's worth pointing out
that sometimes a power bank can support this but your phone won't. It means you
can plug in a phone or tablet to charge and the power bank will instantly begin
doing its thing without you pressing any buttons. And when charging is complete
it will put itself into standby mode in order to conserve energy.
Some
power banks, though it's an increasingly rare feature, also come with an LED
torch that will usually be activated by double-pressing a button somewhere on
the casing.
We're
not massive fans of the built-in torch, though we do understand it can come in
useful in certain situations, such as camping.
Get the fastest
charging and recharging rates
The
input rating is key when it comes to recharging the power bank - the higher is
this figure the more quickly it will charge.
You'll
usually see a figure in Amps, for instance 1A. You multiply this number by the
voltage (5V for USB) to find the rating in Watts.
A
1A input can charge at 5W, therefore, but you'd do better to look for a device
that can charge at 2A (10W).
Don’t
expect to get a USB charger in the box - you can use that which was supplied
with your phone or tablet. Do note, however, that a power bank with a 2A (10W)
input will not recharge its own battery any faster than one with a 1A (5W)
input when used with an underspecified USB charger.
The
reverse is also true when it comes to charging your devices - a phone that
supports only a 1A (5W) input won’t charge faster from a 2A (10W) output.
The
output rating refers to how quickly a power bank will charge your devices. In
most cases you’ll find 1A (5W), 2A (10W) and often even 2.5A (12.5W) outputs,
the former intended for smartphones and the latter two for tablets or for
fast-charging phones that support the feature. (This is not the same as the
Qualcomm Quick Charge feature supported by several flagship phones.)
You
can use either output to charge any USB device - it will draw only the power it
needs. However, you might find some tablets - usually iPads - will refuse to
charge from lower-specified outputs.
Increasingly
power banks feature clever technology which is often referred to as PowerIQ or
similar. This allows the power bank to recognise the type of device you have
connected for charging and deliver the optimum amount of power for that device.
If
a power bank has several outputs then the maximum total output capacity is key.
For example, the LimeFuel Blast Pro L240X has four 2.4A (12W) outputs, but
delivers only 4.2A (21W) total output. With four USB devices attached you will
find that each charges much more slowly.
Can a power bank
charge your phone in 5 minutes?
No.
Recently, some power banks have started hitting the headlines for their
apparent ability to charge your phone in five minutes. It sounds preposterous
because it is.
What
these power banks are actually able to do is refill their own batteries
sufficiently within five minutes that they can then fully charge your phone
(which is still awesome, but not quite as awesome as how you first read that
news).
How
quickly they can supply that power to your phone depends firstly on how much
power they are able to output, and secondly how much power your phone can
accept.
As
an example, the Simpiz iTron, uses DUBI 1.0 technology to refill its own
9000mAh battery in 18 minutes. If you consider that as 3000mAh per six minutes,
it would certainly have enough power to fully charge most phones within five
minutes.
When
it comes to then transferring that power to your phone, the Simpiz iTron's
fastest output is Quick Charge 2.0. This is incredibly fast, but if you have or
will have one of the latest devices that support Quick Charge 4.0, it's not
actually the fastest charge they are able to accept.
If
you are interested in these innovative functions of a power bank, follow on FB or search Heloideo
on Google or Amazon.
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