Is the battery of your smartphone or tablet also empty so quickly? Then the power bank offers a solution: a portable battery that you can easily connect to the device via USB. What should you pay attention to when purchasing?
Sooner or later, your tablet’s battery will run out. Time to plug in the standard supplied charger. Although this charger works well enough, you do need an outlet for it. What if, for example, you are traveling and do not have a power grid available? Then it is wise to take a look at a power bank. A power bank is an external portable battery with which you can charge mobile devices without a socket. The connection is usually made via the mini USB connection and with a wire, although some newer models also work wirelessly. You can charge the power bank itself before your trip via the mains or on the road using your car battery. There are also power banks that charge themselves using solar energy. The higher the capacity, the more often you can charge a device with a power bank.
You can buy a power bank for a few tens at, among other things, tablet stores and electronics stores. But… one power bank is just not the other. They come in many shapes and sizes. They are released with different capacities, different connections and also how fast they can charge your phone differs per power bank.
Capacity
The main difference between different power banks is the capacity. Usually the capacity of a power bank is shown in milliampere hours (mAh). If you know how large your phone’s battery is (which is generally also expressed in mAh), you can also calculate how often you can charge your phone on it.
The latest mobile phones are equipped with a battery of about 3000 mAh. If you buy a power bank with a capacity of 10,000 mAh, you can basically fully charge your phone three times. A cheaper power bank of only 2500 mAh will be empty before your phone has even reached 100% once. A power bank where you can charge your phone more often seems more convenient – but beware – it is of course also a bit more expensive, bulkier and heavier.
Speed: Quick Charge
Some chargers work faster than others, and so do power banks. Cheap power banks charge with a power of 5 watts, more expensive power banks can deliver 12 watts or more. So they charge more than twice as fast. A large proportion of phones today support some form of fast charging, such as Quick Charge or USB Power Delivery (PD). Modern smartphones with Qualcomm Snapdragon chips all support Quick Charge and can thus charge faster if the power bank shares that support.
What is the difference between the connections on a power bank?
Most power banks are equipped with two connections: one with which you can charge your power bank and one from which it can supply the power itself. They are almost without exception USB ports. Usually it is Micro-B or the newer USB-C, just like Android smartphones. The connection where the power comes from is usually a regular ‘large’ USB-A port. Some power banks can also supply power from a USB-C port. mIt is useful to take a power bank that charges with the same connection as your own phone, so that you can use its charger to charge your power bank. There are also power banks that can be charged with the charger of your iPhone. Look for power banks with Lightning connection.
Solar panel and wireless charging
Charging your phone wirelessly, or using a solar panel: it sounds very handy and futuristic. However, these features make your power bank more expensive and also have drawbacks. Solar panels are still quite weak and it can take days for your phone to charge, so it’s unsuitable for daily charging, or on vacation, for example.
Wireless chargers only work if your phone is properly placed on the power bank and are about 30% less efficient than an ‘old-fashioned’ cable. If you want to use all the capacity from your power bank, you throw away almost a third of your capacity with wireless charging!
Source: RADAR
