I once had an issue on the road, and my old Energizer power bank saved the day by giving me enough power to charge my mobile phone and get help. It’s amazing how much we rely on our phones nowadays with navigation, calling, reservations, among other things. Imagine getting into a car where the USB plug does not work, or it does not have one. Add to that the chance that your battery is low after a long flight.
As scuba divers, we have perhaps gotten into the habit of ensuring we have redundancy on our life saving equipment when underwater. Some of the same principles can apply to surviving the urban jungle.
When the battery on our old Energizer device started to get weak, it was time to upgrade. We were amazed at all the options out there.
What to look for in a power bank
Formfactor
If you are going to keep this in your purse or bag, make sure the formfactor makes sense. Some of the larger ones are quite heavy and may even cause you problems on a plane.
There are also round, cylindrical shapes but most are shaped like a thick cell phone. Another option is a charging case, but that makes your phone bigger and heavier at all times.
Charging capacity
Typically, 5,000 or 10,000 with some as high as 20,000mAh (milliampere-hour). Note that anything larger than 20,000mAh is not allowed on a plane so bigger is not better for travel.
A Samsung Galaxy S10 plus battery holds about 4,000mAH, an iPhone about 3,000mAh and an iPad about 8,000mAh. Most also have some loss, so consider about 75% of the storage power would go to charging the battery. This should give you an idea of how much capacity you need.
Bank re-charging speed
Many banks only allow USB charging, and this may be quite long if they are higher capacity. Look for a bank with higher than 5V input for faster charging. Charging a 20,000mAh battery bank using USB could take over 12hrs.
Phone charging speed
This is a function of the ports available. A Standard USB-C port is only 1A, but you can find chargers that can deliver 2.4A or 3A. These will charge your phone faster.
Other features
Multiple outputs and port types. Some may offer two ports to charge two devices at once. Some come with lights, or with wireless charging capabilities. There is a myriad of colors and shapes to choose from.
What did we choose?
I got the POWERADD Slim 2 in pink. It’s approximately 4 in. long with a diameter of 1.25 in. and weighs about 4.2 oz with a 5,000mAh capacity. My husband got the 20,000mAh INIU BI-B42 Power Bank with a light. It measures 5.3 x 2.7 x 1 in. and weighs a whopping 12.5 oz but will provide multiple charges for his business travels.
A few more tips for traveling with power banks
- When traveling with a power bank, do NOT place this in your check in bag. Airlines do NOT allow the transport of power banks (essentially large lithium batteries, and potential fire hazards).
- Do NOT bring more than two power banks on the plane per person, and do not bring anything larger than 20,000mAh capacity.
- When charging your phone, keep it in airplane mode and kill any background apps (or even turn it off to charge faster).
- Before your trip, make sure to charge up your bank, larger banks may take many hours to charge if charging via USB.
Please note that we are not paid for this write-up, we simply want to share our findings in the fast moving field of travel tech and travel gear.