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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2022
Anker's new GaNPrime series debuted with an Apple-like presentation that laid out all of its advanced technologies. The products in the GaNPrime lineup are impressive, though this 733 is the least impressive in the lineup.
Why do I say that? Anker advertises this as a 65W product. But read the fine print. It is only 65W when plugged into the wall. Even then, if you've got two devices plugged in and they happen to be plugged into the bottom two ports, you get 15W. That's total, not per device. But this isn't the worst of it. Performance drops off a cliff when the 733 is used as a Power Bank. With one device connected and the 733 *not* plugged in, you get 30W—less than half of the advertised 65W. With more than one device plugged in on battery power, you're sharing 15W between all your devices. That works out to be a laughable 5 watts per device if three devices are drawing equal power.
But wait, there's more. Anker advertises this as a 10,000mAh power bank. They get that figure from the raw capacity of its two internal 5,000mAh batteries. But if you read the fine print on the unit itself, the actual in-use capacity is around 6,500mAh. The missing 3,500mAh is lost to heat and voltage conversion. What this means in practical terms is that the unit is unable to fully charge a 2018 iPad Pro's 7800 mAh battery even once. Anker extols the 95% efficiency of these new GaNPrime units but the 65% efficiency of this unit as a Power Bank is unchanged from earlier, lower end Anker power banks. Very disappointing.
In fairness to Anker, this device is a complicated set of trade offs, and I don't know of a better alternative at this time. Anker isn't the only company to advertise the raw capacity of its Power Banks. If Anker used the actual in-use capacity while their competition did not, they would put themselves at a disadvantage.
So what to do? If you don't have to buy now, then wait. This product class gets better every year. If you do have to buy now and its 6,500mAh capacity is good enough, then I'm not aware of a better option *from a reliable brand*. Anker is a class-leading brand. But if 6500mAh is just not enough, there is no higher capacity hybrid charger/battery bank available from Anker. You'll have to go with two separate devices.
Why do I say that? Anker advertises this as a 65W product. But read the fine print. It is only 65W when plugged into the wall. Even then, if you've got two devices plugged in and they happen to be plugged into the bottom two ports, you get 15W. That's total, not per device. But this isn't the worst of it. Performance drops off a cliff when the 733 is used as a Power Bank. With one device connected and the 733 *not* plugged in, you get 30W—less than half of the advertised 65W. With more than one device plugged in on battery power, you're sharing 15W between all your devices. That works out to be a laughable 5 watts per device if three devices are drawing equal power.
But wait, there's more. Anker advertises this as a 10,000mAh power bank. They get that figure from the raw capacity of its two internal 5,000mAh batteries. But if you read the fine print on the unit itself, the actual in-use capacity is around 6,500mAh. The missing 3,500mAh is lost to heat and voltage conversion. What this means in practical terms is that the unit is unable to fully charge a 2018 iPad Pro's 7800 mAh battery even once. Anker extols the 95% efficiency of these new GaNPrime units but the 65% efficiency of this unit as a Power Bank is unchanged from earlier, lower end Anker power banks. Very disappointing.
In fairness to Anker, this device is a complicated set of trade offs, and I don't know of a better alternative at this time. Anker isn't the only company to advertise the raw capacity of its Power Banks. If Anker used the actual in-use capacity while their competition did not, they would put themselves at a disadvantage.
So what to do? If you don't have to buy now, then wait. This product class gets better every year. If you do have to buy now and its 6,500mAh capacity is good enough, then I'm not aware of a better option *from a reliable brand*. Anker is a class-leading brand. But if 6500mAh is just not enough, there is no higher capacity hybrid charger/battery bank available from Anker. You'll have to go with two separate devices.
