Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Power banks are a necessary immorality , and even if you do n’t consider yourself a “ power drug user ” who ’s likely to drain a earpiece ’s stamp battery in less than a solar day , there will be time when one fall in handy . And when I am forced to hold one , I require it to be as helpful and various as possible .
I ’ve been trying Anker ’s MagGo Power Bank 10 K — meaning it has a 10,000mAh cell inside it — and there are three reasons why I ’m all right with it take up valuable space in my bag .
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
It has a screen on it
I never expected to like if my power banking company had a screen . After all , all I require it to do is charge the battery in my headphone when required , and a blind seems relatively superfluous to this undertaking . I was faulty . The Anker MagGo Power Bank has a small CRT screen on the side that provides so much more selective information at a glance than the usual regalia of LEDs you notice on other power banks .
There ’s a single button on the low half of the power bank , which , when press , lights up the screen to show the current charge status of the barrage . This is already quite helpful , as I ’ve used plenty of great power savings bank with three or four LEDs to illustrate the amount of charge inside . It ’s a viable alternative , but hardly exact , and leave quite a little of guesswork for you to do . But the screen ’s utility goes beyond this , as when you charge the battery battalion , it also shows how long it ’ll take to reload .
The great power bank use Qi2 , the wireless charging standard behind MagSafe , to saddle your iPhone ’s shelling at 15 watt ( it ’s compatible with every iPhone since theiPhone 12 ) . And when you attach the phone to it , the display then shows the precise amount of energy remain in the power bank ’s cell . It ’s a expectant gain to a power banking concern , and I would love to see more models with a display . But it ’s not a complete success , as I ’ll come back to in a while . Thankfully , though , it ’s not the only good thing about the MagGo Power Bank .
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Fast wired charging and a kickstand
While the screen is very helpful and will be the feature that attract the most attention , it wo n’t make your phone bearing any faster . Also , while Qi2 ’s 15W wireless charging is quick than the old 7.5W radio charging standard , it ’s still not great . Anker knows it , and that ’s why you could plug a USB - C cable into the port on the power bank and into your telephone set to enable 27W wired fast charging .
This is the MagGo Power Bank ’s secret artillery ; sometimes you just want as much juice institutionalize to your phone ’s battery as potential in as brusk a time as possible . But its overall utility does n’t end at charging . There ’s a kickstand built onto the back of the battery clique and it support the headphone at an approximately 45 - degree slant , making it great for screen background use . It activatesStandBy modetoo . Because the big businessman bank expend MagSafe to concur on to the phone , the kickstand can be tie to it in either portrait or landscape orientation . The kickstand is spring - loaded and holds itself in station when closed , but does n’t offer so much resistance that it ’s difficult to open up .
The MagGo Power Bank 10 K is far more versatile than an ordinary battery pack because of all this . Yes , it ’s a pretty heavy piece of kit , but what big battery pack is n’t ? I ’d rather it served multiple functions if I ’m fail to transport it around , and this one work out as a wireless charge stand and as a fast wired courser , too .
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
What about charging performance?
To see how tight the Qi2 wireless charging can be , I accuse myiPhone 15 Pro Maxfrom 50 % assault and battery to full using the amply charged Anker MagGo Power Bank . It took about an hour to reach 90 % and an additional 40 minutes to accomplish 100 % . The battery pack itself went from 100 % to 58 % , hint you’re able to nip a single full guardianship plus a little more from the 10,000mAh cubicle . Both the headphone and the bombardment pack got quick , but not hot , which is what you ’d expect when using a profligate charger .
I charged the iPhone without a case , which is n’t essential , but Anker does warn that some casing may affect the charging efficiency . The attraction in the subject are strong , but if you are go to use a font on the telephone set , it must have MagSafe built in — otherwise , the phone wo n’t charge at all . According to Anker , if you use the 27W wired charging , it will take 30 minutes for a flat battery to reach 60 % , which should be enough for a full mean solar day ’s medium use from an iPhone 15 Pro Max . you’re able to also apply the wired port to consign the internal battery at the same metre as charging your iPhone wirelessly .
It ’s made of aluminum , so it has a really high quality , substantial sense to it .
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
have ’s go back to the screen , as it ’s not a complete success . When charging , it also show a metre in hours and second . When I placed my earpiece on it to charge , the screen showed 1 hour and 50 minutes , and by the close of the guardianship , it showed seven minute and 44 proceedings . The time designate also fluctuate during the charging process , and it will show longer and shorter time throughout . I hadno ideawhat these times mean either , so I checked with Anker . Apparently , it ’s the amount of sentence you’re able to will the phone on charge based on the stay push in the tycoon bank ’s cell .
My psyche does n’t really do numbers , so this makes it spite a bit when I examine to work out how this would be helpful to jazz when there is a absolutely understandable portion readout right away above it , and I feel it say fundamentally the same thing . I ’d really prefer something more obvious ( and helpful ) to be shown , like an rough charge prison term , but I ’ll accept this as the MagGo Power Bank ’s only major downside .
Is it only for the iPhone?
That ’s three classifiable features that make the MagGo Power Bank more than just a simple external electric battery for your iPhone . Currently , the iPhone is the only smartphone to use Qi2 charge engineering , but it will beavailable for Android phonesin the future . The MagGo Power Bank 10 K is still compatible with other phones , though , and it wirelessly charge theSamsung Galaxy S24 Ultra , OnePlus 12,Nothing Phone 2 , and theXiaomi 14 Ultrawhen I tried them . However , it will only do so at the slowest swiftness .
Now that you know why the Anker MagGo Power Bank is so helpful , what about the rest of it ? It ’s a rectangular box that ’s about two - tierce of the duration of your iPhone 15 Pro Max , but it ’s twice as thick and even heavier at nearly 20 mm and 250 grams . However , it ’s made of Al , so it has a really gamy - quality , substantial feel to it . You know it ’s in your udder , but at least when you go to apply it , the power bank itself never feels flash or poorly put together .
Anker ’s Wireless PowerIQ charge organisation uses an ARM processor and limited algorithms to monitor charging velocity and temperatures to assure everything run safely and efficiently . The Anker MagGo Power Bank with a 10,000mAh battery inside costs $ 90 . If I must transmit a battery pack around with me , I ’d rather it did n’t tot its own annoyances . Outside of the confusing extra datum shown on the screenland , the Anker MagGo Power Bank earn its stripe by doing more than keeping my phone ’s shelling reload .
