Basically, you’re trying to balance four factors: size, speed, capacity and price. The rules are simple enough: the less you spend, the lower the capacity and the slower the power bank will charge.
Cheap power banks
The cheapest and smallest power banks will have a capacity of between 2,500mAh and 10,000mAh. These days we’d avoid anything below 5,000mAh, as it won’t have enough charge to refuel most recent smartphones. At the upper end of this range, though, you’ll have sufficient capacity to recharge your phone or give a tablet a decent boost – and you can find one the size of a smartphone or a Mars Bar for around £12 to £18.
Mid-range power banks
Spend £18 to £30 and you’re looking at power banks with a 10,000-20,000mAh capacity and better connectivity, with USB-C connections now pretty much standard. You may get an increase in size and weight to match; 20,000mAh batteries can be roughly the size of a big-screen smartphone, but they’re also a good 50% heavier. However, you’ll also have much faster charging, with Quick Charge 4 and USB PD.
Expensive power banks
Splash out more than £30 and you can bag an even bigger power bank, with capacities starting out at 20,000mAh and going all the way up to 26,800mAh or more. USB-C with Quick Charge 4 and USB-PD will be a given, making up for the fact that you’re carrying a heavier brick of a charger. The advantage is that you’ll be able to top up multiple devices, often simultaneously, and you’ll have enough charge to keep them going for a whole weekend or even longer.
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Most power banks now use a USB-C port to recharge, although some models will have a micro-USB port as well to ensure compatibility with older chargers. Don’t worry if you don’t have the required cable, as one will usually be provided in the box.
One advantage of this shift to USB-C is that power banks now support USB PD for faster charging. This means your power bank will often recharge faster when connected to a suitable fast charger, at anywhere from 20W to 60W. At those speeds, even a high-capacity charger can recharge fully in three to four hours.
As for charging your devices, you’ll usually have a choice of USB-A and USB-C ports, with the latter supporting the fastest USB PD charging standards. All power banks and smartphones support the USB BC 1.2 standard, which can deliver up to 7.5W over USB-A or 15W over USB-C. Most also support the USB Power Delivery (PD) 3 standard, which increases the maximum voltage and current to deliver up to 100W of power – enough to charge a lightweight laptop at a decent speed. Not all USB PD power banks can push out that much juice; you’ll often find them limited to 15W, 27W, 45W or the maximum 100W, but even 27W will cover you for fast charging on a wide range of smartphones and tablets.
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