Over the past couple years, I’ve tested around 60 different power banks for Engadget. In that time, battery manufacturers have given their products features with varying degrees of usefulness, ranging from smart (straps and built-in cables) to handy (displays and wireless charging pads) to really not necessary (Bluetooth connectivity, specialized recharging bases).
Anker’s Laptop Power Bank (25K, 165W) manages to combine all the cleverest new features into one sleek-looking charging brick — and it costs less than some other banks in its class. There’s a built-in display that not only lets you know how much charge the bank has left, it also tells you how many watts are flowing through each port to your devices. Pressing the button on the side cycles through the battery’s current temperature and the overall health of the bank, including how many charge cycles it’s gone through. All of those bits of info should help prolong and gauge the bank’s longevity.
Anker/Engadget
Anker’s Laptop Power Bank is likely the only battery you need. It’s got a high capacity, useful display and built-in cables — plus it looks hot.
- Built-in cables make it ready to charge
- Excellent charging speeds and capacity
- The screen accumulates scuffs over time
$120 at Amazon
Big capacity in a tidy package
The 25,000 mAh capacity puts it well within the TSA’s 100Wh capacity limit and I have taken this battery on two flights in my carry-on with no issue. The capacity is enough to fill my tester smartphones (an iPhone 15 and a Galaxy S23 Ultra) around four times each. Separately, it pushed my aging 16-inch MacBook Pro from 10 percent to 78 percent. That translates to around nine additional hours of use for my typical workload (Wi-Fi, VPN, too many Chrome tabs and other basic productivity apps).
My only gripe with the design is that the very shiny screen has become slightly dull with use. It doesn’t look bad, just not as mint-fresh as when it was unboxed. That’s to be expected, and I’ll take the luxe finish over some ruggedized enclosure any day.
Two built-in cables and a big capacity let you charge two devices at once. (Amy Skorheim for Engadget)
Sure, forget your cables at home
Possibly the power bank’s most useful features are the two built-in USB-C cables, and one even loops around to create a handy carry strap. It feels robust and well-anchored enough that I don’t fear lugging it around like that. The other cable retracts into the unit and extends up to two feet when needed. The end stays neatly tucked into a well in the body and stays magnetically in place. The cords not only look tidy, their inclusion means you’ll never find yourself in the ironic position of having a dead device and a full battery pack, but no way to connect the two.
Both cables serve in-out functions so you can easily plug them into any USB-C power adapter for a refill. There are also two additional USB (one Type-A and one Type-C) ports, so if you’ve got a specialized cable, such as Lightning, smartwatch or microUSB connector, you’ll be able to charge those devices too.
Admirable speeds
The 165-watt rating, as with any power bank, doesn’t mean you’ll get that power out of a single port. The rating is a combined, almost theoretical total, achieved with all four ports engaged. The three USB-C outlets are rated at a max of 100W, but to get to that speed, you’ll need a device capable of taking it — my biggest energy hog is my laptop and it maxed out at around 90 watts using the power bank. But for all but the most extreme cases, that’s plenty fast.
My tester iPhone 15 went from near-dead to 70 percent refilled in around 40 minutes. The Galaxy S23 Ultra powered up from five to 100 percent in under an hour, and my 16-inch MacBook got a 68 percent refill in just over 50 minutes. That’s not the fastest performance I’ve tested, but it’s better than most other banks and plenty quick enough to get you back in action in a decent amount of time.
Amy Skorheim for Engadget
Wrap-up
It’s gratifying when, after years of testing one type of product, you get one that is, more or less, an ideal example of the category. This is the battery I grab when I’m heading to get some work done at the coffee shop. I’ve taken it with me on road trips and on flights, and it hasn’t let me down once. The fact that you don’t need to remember to grab a cable takes away an extra bit of stress, and the accurate display means you know just about how much more you can squeeze out of the bank’s rather sizable depths.
