If you find yourself constantly looking for an outlet to charge your phone while on the go, then you probably need to invest in a reliable power bank.
Mobile batteries and power banks have been around for quite a few years. However, in recent years, prices have dropped significantly and features have multiplied.
Most of these devices are made by smaller companies that are well-respected but some mid-market brands are available. And there are also some made by fly-by-night companies that you have never heard of.
Once you figure out your budget, the next step is to go over which features you absolutely need, and which you don’t. This will depend a lot on your use case, but what you will need to know first is the size of your phones battery (which will determine how many times you can recharge your device with the mobile battery), and what type of ports or connectors you will need so that your device can connect to it.
Size
As we mentioned above, the first thing you need to consider is what size power bank or mobile battery you should choose. Most phones today have a battery size of around 3,000 to 4,000mAh. For example, the basic iPhone 11 has a battery size of 3,046mAh and the iPhone 11 Pro has 3,969mAh. Some outliers may have larger or smaller batteries, but this range is the most common. With that in mind, a power bank with 20,000mAh means that you can charge your phone fully at least four times. If that’s enough for you, great. But if you need to charge more than that in between charges of the mobile battery or power bank itself, you’ll obviously need one with a larger capacity.
Connectors
The next point to consider is connectors. If you have a modern iPhone, you will need a way to connect from your phone’s lightning port to the mobile battery. The same is true if you have a device that uses USB-C, a different type of USB, or even a proprietary connector. The good news is practically all mobile batteries and power banks have standard USB ports on them. That means as long as you have a power cable that can connect from your device to standard USB, you shouldn’t have any trouble in this department.
Additional features
The final thing you want to consider is if you need any additional features. One feature that’s becoming more common is some sort of display or LEDs that tell you how much power is left in the power bank. This could be important for heavy users since it lets you know when it’s time to charge the battery and won’t leave you high and dry. A more high-end option would be a display that shows you a percentage, and a more rough solution would be a row of four LEDs that show roughly how much power is left. You may also want to consider the size and weight of the power bank, especially if you intend to travel with it frequently. It might be nice to have lots of power available, but if it bulky or heavy battery is weighing you down, it may not seem quite as nice. Again, this is up to your personal preference. To sum things up, there are a lot of choices out there now – just be sure you pick a battery that meets all your needs and has good reviews and you shouldn’t have any major headaches.
