Modern smart phones aren’t great when it comes to battery life. This can be blamed on the user as much as the device itself. We tend to use smart phones for everything nowadays. From MP3 playback to calls, texts, social media & maps. The usage is endless. Unfortunately the power life is not.
I often find myself in cities & on trips without access to an outlet & I can be down to 50% before 10AM. I use my iPhone to conduct my business, manage my life, listen to music & take photos. I use it to pay for coffee, to organise meeting friends & reply to business emails on the go. I use it a lot. I don’t tend to kill time with the iPhone, I’m not a Facebook user and tend to limit my social media usage, but I still struggle to maintain battery life.
I was excited when Apple introduced their low power mode, but I’ve mostly found it useless as it manages to save very little power. In the past I’ve used low quality power banks. I had a cheap one from Primark which would give me around a 50% charge on the iPhone 6. I’ve also resorted to dropping into Apple stores in Liverpool, Manchester, London, Amsterdam & San Fransisco on my travels to replace the display iPhones with my own to sneak a charge. It would be handy if Apple provided charging bays at tables for this very purpose.
Anyway, after all of the road warrior action I decided to address the problem. A power outlet isn’t always available. You find them in places like Starbucks, but they normally have someone tethered to them for the long haul. I therefore opted for a high-capacity power bank.
After a search & reading plenty of reviews I decided to buy the Anker PowerCore 20100 power bank from Amazon. It is currently reduced from £59.99 to £29.99 so it is an absolute bargain. This is a 20,000mAH battery pack and I’ve found it can keep my iPhone 6 charged for an entire week. The power bank itself takes a while to charge on a standard USB port or USB charger. I’ve been using my high-capacity 12w iPad charger to charge the power bank much more quickly & find an overnight charge will fill the power bank.
I do like Anker products, the build quality is second to none & the quality in general of their products is superb. I prefer to buy once & buy well & this fits the bill. It’s made from sturdy, rugged plastic and is quite heavy. It has a charge indicator button and four small blue LED’s to show you the current charge level of the power bank, much like that found on Macbook’s.
This particular model has a single micro usb input for charging (with the supplied cable) and two standard USB outputs for charging any USB device. The Power Bank also comes in a great padded sleeve with a draw cord, which is perfect for travelling & throwing into your backpack.
The Anker PowerCore 20100 can charge two devices at the same time & I find it charges my iPhone 6 as quickly as a mains adapter. On a recent trip, it managed to keep my iPhone 6 charged for an entire week, which is crazy.
The Anker PowerCore 20100 can output 4.8 amps and features something they call Power IQ technology, which optimizes charging based on the device it is charging & can rapid charge supported devices. I feel more confident using a device like this over a generic one as I trust the quality of the cells used & trust it won’t burst into flames or fry my devices.
I also found this is the maximum capacity I would go for as anything larger can been troublesome when it comes to airport security & carry on luggage. There is a limit on the size of lithium-ion batteries that can be taken on a plane without scrutiny, so to save the hassle I went with an acceptable battery capacity.
Finally the packaging. I’m a bit of a packaging geek & Anker satisfied my geekiness. The packaging is wonderful & even feels nice. You can see just how good the packaging is in the pictures below.
If you use your smart phone or tablet on the go I would recommend you go & grab one of these before the price increases. It has become a staple in my everyday carry & always sites fully charged in my backpack. No more hunting for sockets. I’ve also been able to bail out friends when their devices have died.
Do you use a power bank? Let me know which ones you use & your experience with them. In the days pokémon Go it would appear more & more people rely on them to keep their devices charged.
