Tag: USB-C

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Anker PowerCore 10000 PD Redux Review

Anker has a relatively new powerbank on the market with the PowerCore 10000 PD Redux powerbank. This powerbank supports has a premium feel and a cross hatch texture on top. It supports USB-C in and out at a maximum of 18W, as well as USB-A out, and a low power trickle charging mode as well. Thanks to Anker for sending this to me to take a quick look at. 

 

The YouTube Version of this Review

 

Packaging & Accessories

The packaging was standard blue and white and as a compact premium feel. In the box you get the powerbank, a mesh bag, and a USB-C to C cable that’s approximately 3ft long. Everything is covered by Ankers 18 month warranty too.

 

Power

Let’s talk about the specs of the powerbank here and then I will go into a few more details.

 

Specs

Total Output Power 18W

USB-C Input (PD): DC 5V=3A, 9V=2A, 15V=1.2A

USB-C Output (PD): DC 5V=3A, 9V=2A, 15V=1.2A

USB Output : DC 5V=2.4A

 

On first glance 18W of total power is a good thing. Given the capacity this will charge most smartphones twice and I have to agree. In charging my Note 8 which recognizes it as fast charging I got 2 charges from between 15-100% no problem. It charges my iPad as well with a USB-C to Lightning cable, and if the charger is above 2 bars, it does so at AC wall speeds. However when the powerbank drops below 2 bars charging speed will decrease down to a much slower rate.

 

While I don’t have a Nintendo switch to test this myself, this powerbank will charge one, but isn’t compatible with the Switches Charge and Play TV setting. Unfortunately the PowerCore 10000 PD Redux doesn’t have enough wattage to charge most laptops. 

 

Trickle charge mode here is a nice touch. Often times on low power devices like some wireless headphones, fitness tracker, and some small low power keychain style flashlights. Some powerbanks will interpret the small power draw on these devices as the battery being full and shutting off prematurely. This is easy to turn on, just long press on the button before plugging in your device and you will get a green LED light up on the powerbank. Repeat this process to turn it off.

 

While I don’t have a way to take apart the powerbank I believe what’s inside is 2x 21700 5000mAh batteries. The size is just about right for that. Measured Capacity 5956mAh @ 5v 2A load using my EB Tester for a total of 30.64Wh energy. The stated 10,000mAh capacity doesn’t take into account the losses due to voltage step up or battery sag which really means under absolute idea conditions the capacity would be around an actual 7,500mAh of real energy assuming it’s one battery at a nominal voltage of 3.7V. I am not sure how 2 batteries in series changes that calculation.

 

Recharging the Powerbank.

You have 1 option to charge the Powerbank and that’s via USB-C. That said it supports input of power via USB-A to C cable (not included) at a rather slow rate of speed of 9 hours, or what I recommend is recharging via a charger that supports USB-C PD and doing so gets you a full powerbank in about 3 hours 23 minutes. During this time I saw the charging speed of 15v @ 1.2A for a total of 18W. While it’s nice to see the backwards compatibility of non PD supported, 9 hours is crazy long time for 10k capacity. I have reviewed a few USB-C chargers with PD support, make sure to check those reviews out if you need one.

 

Pro’s

  • Low Power Device Mode (Great for charging up devices pulling small amounts of current like wireless headphones)
  • 15V mode here is hard to find on a 10k mAh powerbank but works here
  • Makes a great travel package with the Anker PowerPort Atom III Slim

 

Con’s

  • Slightly less efficient when compared with other 10k mAh powerbanks I have.
  • Rather expensive for 10,000mAh in late 2019.
  • No Qualcomm 3 support for the latest model Android phones.

 

Conclusion

The PowerCore 10000 PD Redux is a good powerbank and is one of the few that market that supports 15V needed for faster charging of the Nintendo Switch and some laptops. While this isn’t super practical for laptops it’s a much better fit for your smartphones, tablets, and other smaller portable devices. Full and primary support for USB-C here is a nice touch. 

 

Anker has made an update to improve compatibility with some Anker chargers in May so now that thats fixed you should have pretty good compatibility other than Qualcom QC 3 support. This does pair perfectly with the Anker PowerPort Atom III Slim that I reviewed earlier, both fit in the powebanks bag and make a perfect traveling pair. 

 

Value here isn’t what I typically expect from Anker unfortunately. This updated model has a significant premium over the older model without a ton of change. If your using it for a Laptop or Nintendo Switch then it’s worth the premium, but if your charging your smartphone or tablet while out on the go, I would struggle with paying the premium. That said I can recommend this charger with reservations. 

 

Pickup this charger on Amazon at https://amzn.to/3686eVB

 

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AUKEY 10000mAh USB-C PD Power Bank Review (18W USB-C Quick Charge 3.0)

Today I have a new powerbank to look at by Aukey, if you have been frustrated with the lack of ports or options in what your current powerbank has, this one fixes that by supporting nearly everything you would want in one small 10,000mAh powerbank. It supports USB-C PD for upto 18W charge, Qualcomm Quickcharge 3.0, and good old MicroUSB if you want too. Thanks to Aukey for sending this to me to take a look at.

Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/DTHgZCV

Youtube:

Specs

Model: PB-Y13

Capacity: 10,000mAh (37Wh)

Micro-USB in: 5V 2A

USB-C In: (18W PD), 5V 1.5A, 5V 2A

USB-C Out: (18W PD), 5V 3A,  9V 2A, 12V 1.5A

USB Out 1: (Quick Charge 3.0) 5V-6V 3A, 6V-9V 2A, 9V-12V 1.5A

USB Out 2: 5V 2.4A

 

Packaging

Packaging is simple on this powerbank, and not too big. It’s a simple brown cardboard box with the name and an outline drawing of the powerbank along with a few of the things it supports. On the inside the powerbank came in the semi transparent plastic bag, and you got a USB-A to C cable included as well for recharging or charging your supported device.

Construction

Predictably the powerbank is made of black plastic. The top and bottom cover are a lightly textured mat plastic. The ring around the edges are a glossy black plastic. Both seem to scratch fairly easily. Length came in at 146mm, width at 74mm, and width at 14mm. I weighed it at 193.9 grams. The powerbank is rigid and didn’t crack or creek. On the top edge you have a button to turn the powerbank on, and check battery power level from it’s 4 white LED’s. On the top you have the Quick Charge 3.0 port with orange internals, the USB-C port in the middle, the standard USB-A port on the other edge, then around the corner you have the microUSB for charging if you wish.

Protocol support

As I mentioned in my opening, this Powerbank supports all the standards you hope for in a modern powerbank to charge a wide variety of devices as fast as your device allows. First and most important to me on a modern powerbank is the support for USB-C Power Delivery. In this case it’s good for 18W. That is a good amount of power to charge your phones, gaming systems, etc fast, but it would  take considerable time to charge your laptop assuming your laptop can trickle charge at 18W. This also works for recharging the powerbank itself if you have a compatible charger. It also supports Qualcomm Quickcharge 3.0 on a USB-A port for supported devices. You can recharge the powerbank via USB-C or via microUSB on it’s side at 2A speed.

For my runtime info I used my EB Tester, and put a load on the battery at 3A at 5V (15W load) and the powerbank did this at a steady state for 112 minutes, I then reduced load, to be 1A at 5V (5W) where it ran for another 20 minutes. Total measured capacity was 6086mAh or 30.57Wh, the stated total capacity was 10,000mAhh or 37Wh. So my measured efficiency was just about 83% which isn’t too bad with the losses due to voltage changes.

 

The charger is capable of charging multiple devices as well. I can pull at 2A load on the USB-A port while fast charging my Note 8 via USB-C. 18W however isn’t enough power for my Dell XPS 13 9350 to begin charging via USB-C.

 

Conclusion

For me this is my new medium capacity lightweight powerbank for traveling. I like the thin size, as it makes it easy to slip in a pocket with my Note 8 or other large screen phone. It also has the protocol support I am looking for with devices that don’t support USB-C PD and the flexibility to recharge via USB-C PD or MicroUSB for legacy support. These things along with a fair price add up to be a great little powerbank across a large spread of devices. Aukey has a pretty good reputation for customer service and product quality, if there is a problem they will take care of you, so I have an expectation this will be a reliable powerbank for many years to come.

 

Pickup the Aukey USB-C PD Power Bank at https://amzn.to/2XMrZX5

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RavPower 20100mAh Power Bank with QC 3.0 & USB-C Review

Ravpower has a new large capacity 20100mAh powerbank that’s QuickCharge 3.0 capable, and has USB-C. Thanks to them for sending it to me to take a closer look at. If you are interested I have links to their new online direct store in the video description below.

Packaging

RavPower has done a nice job with the packaging of this power bank. Everything comes in a decorated cardboard box, inside the cables and bag are in one small box, and the powerbank is in another. You get the manual and Happy/Not Happy card as well as warranty info. Accessories include a mesh bag, a short USB-A to MicroUSB cable, as well as a longer one and a micro to USB-C adapter. A native USB-C cable would have been a nice touch here.

 

Construction

The powerbank is built from black plastic, with some mild texture on it. With the size of this powerbank I don’t think it has 18650’s inside, instead I think it’s a large Lithium pouch or series of pouches. If only I had an xray machine to see in side.

 

Size

Very closer to the size of my Note 8 with a case on it in terms of foot print. It’s a bit thicker. I measured it at 80mm in width, 172mm long, and 22mm thick. Weight comes in at 374.7 grams.

 

The Qualcomm Quickcharge 3.0 format was adopted in 2016 and is able to charge up to 18W (9V @ 2A), it’s big selling point is charging a large percentage of the battery in a short amount of time. QC 3 speeds this up a bit over older versions but also adds a lot of smaller steps. To be work both the charger and device your charging need to be QC 3 compliant. While QC 3 is a proprietary format, several manufacture specific charging specs seem to be unofficially supported.

 

Discharge

Depending on which port you use the battery is capable of quite a few output modes. Using the iSmart Output port it’s capable of 5V at 2.4A, using the QC3 output it’s capable of 5-6.5V @ 3A, 6.5-9V @ 2A, or 9V-12V at 1.5A. I was able to test the regular USB ports and replicate these numbers

 

So for my runtime test I ran a test a 5V @ 3A until it stopped then moved to .25A till it stopped and I got a total  capacity of 12.25Ah, for a total energy of 60.95Wh. This is decent efficiency from the labeled 74.3Wh after considering voltage step up. Voltage was very stable during this test with average voltage being 4.97V which is good. This was all over 4.71 hours.

 

Recharging

Recharging of this powerbank can be done more than one way. You have the USB-C port which does work to charge it but not particularly fast at only 7W or so in my test despite it saying it can accept 3A at 5V. It’s not USB-C PD compliant for the input. It also offers MicroUSB input that supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 and this is the fastest way to charge the powerbank. It’s capable of  5V-12v at 2A. In my testing I used an Anker PowerPort+ charger with QC3. Charge rate for most of the charge was 21.14 total watts or (2.899A at 7.295V) this still took quite a while to charge up 20100mAh, about 6 hours. While not the fastest charging powerbank of this size I have, it’s pretty respectable for such a large capacity without having USB-C PD charging.

 

The manual isn’t great on this powerbank and doesn’t have a full list of specs, but specs are listed on the powerbank itself.  

 

Pro’s

  • Good value for the money on this capacity with USB-C and QC3 support
  • Simple but I like that this has all the output modes and input modes supported on the back. Not all power banks do this.
  • QC 3.0 really makes a difference when charging or discharging. If you don’t have one I definitely recommend picking one up from Ravpower, Anker, or Aukey, or another reliable brand.

 

Con’s

  • Not USB-C PD compliant for recharging. So it only charges at 7W.
  • No USB-C Cable included

 

Conclusion

The RavPower 20100mAh QC3.0 powerbank is a good powerbank from a brand with a good reputation for quality. It offers huge capacity in not a huge footprint. While I would like to see USB-C PD compliant power bank for faster charging/recharging you do have to upgrade to a different model to get that. Charging and recharging with QC 3.0 means it’s pretty quick assuming you have a compliant charger (Not all will be).

https://www.ravpower.com/p/ravpower-turbo-20100mah-power-bank-with-usb-c-and-qc-3.0.html