If you received mobile electronics as presents this holiday season, congratulations! Now that you’ve added more batteries that need to be charged to your digital tools, let me suggest just one more.
Another battery.
Specifically, I’m talking about a power bank — an external battery that can be used to charge other batteries, or even power a device for use. Power banks typically look like an oversize bar of soap, have multiple USB ports and need to be charged themselves — often slowly. Traditionally, they have been mostly dumb, relatively inexpensive devices: Pay around $15-$35, plug in your stuff, then charge your stuff without having to be connected to an outlet.
That’s changing. Power banks are getting smarter; many now come with screens that display information about the battery’s status, including how fast it’s charging a device. For those of us who obsessively check a smartphone or a laptop’s charge level, advanced power banks satisfy an itch.
Additionally, it no longer takes all day to fully replenish the higher-capacity banks, even those that can charge a big-screen smartphone four or five times. It may only take a couple of hours, compared with eight or nine.
There are downsides, though. They can be pricey and heavy.
Here’s a look at two brands of smarter power banks with very different approaches to design.
Shargeek Storm 2 and Storm 2 Slim
$229 / $199
shargeek.com
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Techies went nuts when these two power banks first debuted in Kickstarter campaigns. When you see them, it’s easy to understand why.
The Storm 2 and its sleeker sibling, the Storm 2 Slim, look like a bomb with a timer on it. While they are conspicuously labeled as “Airline Safe,” taking it through a TSA airport checkpoint in your backpack might result in a tense moment.
That’s because the two power banks’ cases are clear. You can see their system boards, and beneath that a set of cylindrical power cells. A small screen and a power button sits atop each case, and the display provides lots of useful data, including the charging wattage, voltage, temperature and the amount of juice left in the power bank.
The larger and more expensive Storm 2 holds eight cells for a total of 25,600 mAh (milliampere hours) of charge, which is enough to power a laptop or an iPhone 14 Pro Max several times over, and most tablets at least twice. Assuming you’ve got a powerful enough charger, you can juice up the Storm 2 in about 1½ to 2 hours. The 120-watt Anker 737 GaNPrime charger I wrote about in September charged it from just under 50 percent to full in less than an hour.
There are four ports on one end of the bank: A USB-A port capable of charging at 18 watts; a USB-C port for 100-watts of fast charging; a second USB-C port for 30 watts of charging; and a DC port for up to 75 watts. The latter is useful for devices such as laptops that don’t use USB-C for charging, and the wattage is manually configurable to match your device. But you need a male-to-male cable, which may be hard to find for the make and model of your laptop.
The Storm 2 will definitely add heft to your gear bag. It weighs in at just over 1.3 pounds and is chunky, at 5.94 by 2.32 by 1.81 inches. For those who want something (a little bit) lighter, there’s the Storm 2 Slim, which is a little less than pound. And as the name implies, the Slim is less bulky at 6.14 by 2.56 by 1.18 inches, but also more limited.
There are only two ports on the 20,000 mAh Slim: a USB-A that charges up to 30 watts, and a USB-C that goes up to 100 watts. Each can provide their full wattage even when both ports are in use, for a full 130 watts of output. Although it’s not a bargain, it may be the more practical of the two.
A word about the display: Its fonts are tiny, and Shargeek has the bank’s charge indicator flashing when it’s being replenished, making the level hard to read. And you must push the button several times to move between different, including one that lets you schedule a charging session. The process is a little clunky, particularly when you want to get to the 'Off' selection, which is second to last in the menu.
Anker 737 Power Bank
$149
anker.com
If you’d rather your power bank looked more like the monolith from “2001: A Space Odyssey” than an explosive device, consider Anker’s 737 Power Bank. It bears the same model number as the aforementioned 737 GaNPrime charger, and they pair well together.
Unlike the Shargeek products, the Anker model has a more sedate look – a black case with a space-gray plate on one side, above which is a small display. It’s slightly heavier than the Storm 2, at just over 1.5 pounds, and its edges have a slightly rough texture, making for a good grip. It’s not petite, at 6.13 by 2.15 by 1.95 inches.
The Anker has a 24,000 mAh capacity, and there are three ports: Two USB-C ports, each capable of charging up to 140 watts, and a USB-A charger, which supports up to 18 watts.
You can charge up to three devices at once, with the wattage distributed between them.
Individually, it can charge a standard-sized iPhone up to 5 times or a MacBook Air 1.3 times. It charged my 2021 MacBook Pro from 30 to 100 percent in a little more than an hour, with more than 90 watts of power at its maximum rate. (The laptop throttles the rate as it gets closer to 100 percent to protect the battery.) You can also charge it at a full 140 watts of power, so it replenishes quickly.
The display is simpler than that of the Shargeek banks, but gives you the info you need: wattage, voltage, battery cycles and, strangely, the number of times you’ve looked at the display (compulsive much?). Bonus feature: there’s apparently an accelerometer in the Anker, because when you turn it upside down, the display flips accordingly.
For me, the Anker 737 Power Bank is the one to get, mainly because it’s as powerful as the Storm 2 but much less expensive (though all three often see heavy discounts online). The Storm 2 Slim is a good choice if you want something a little less bulky — and a lot less boring to look at.