Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 stars(Update: it's dead) Good for laptops -- anything else, not so much
Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2023
Feb 16, 2024 -Update to original review: It randomly stopped working today, after 4 months of light use. Yeah don't buy this.
original review at time of purchase:
The good:
Good for laptops. the power bank is advertised to be 88.5Wh, as per the numbers on the back (other reviewers have pictures of that). In my testing, with a dell latitude laptop via usb c, I used the laptop for 3h, 50m before the power bank died, and the laptop consumed an average power of 20w in the process.
3.83 hrs * 20w gives us 76wh, thereabout. So based on those numbers, you can expect to get roughly 85% of the stated capacity if you're using this to power a laptop (or whatever other thing) **at 20v**.
The 5 cells in the power bank are presumably arranged in series, wherein the voltages of each cell would be added together. Nominally, that'd be 18.45v (again, also printed on the back). So, if the voltage is already in the 18-20v ballpark, then outputting 20v should (and does) come very easily for this power bank, as no steep step ups/downs in voltage would be required. This makes the device ideal for laptops.
During use with my laptop, it did not get very warm. I'd wager that its temperature rose to about 6 degrees celsius above ambient.
The bad:
If you're planning on using this primarily for smaller devices like a phone or a tablet, then you may want to look elsewhere. As I explained above, the power bank is best suited for laptops. Hey, "for laptops" is in the product title, after all.
at the basic 5v (which many smaller devices charge at) you can only expect about 60% of the 88Wh in real life. Considering that the cells are arranged for a native 20v, that 20v will have to be stepped down to 5v, and there's where a whole 40% of your energy gets wasted. Granted, most phones fast charge at 8-12v nowadays, so that's a little better than just 5v, but still. You may want to choose a 3.7v or a 7.4v power bank if you're primarily interested in charging phones.
In the end, this product definitely will still charge your phone, and it'll do it as fast as possible, but it just won't be very efficient.
Oh another bad thing is that... the powerbank seems to not charge itself fully, if you interrupt it while it's charging. Could be a fluke, could be an issue. I'm unsure at this time.
Also, anker pulled a fast one and didn't include an e-marked cable. That's needed for 65w (or more if you have it) power delivery over usb c. Regular cables like the included one top out at 60w -- which is still more than enough for me, but still. Thought you should know.
Also, also, please buy the black version. The white gets dirty like a pig in mud. Gosh.