My wife will be traveling in the UK in the fall (we’re in the US), and she asked me to get her a portable power bank. Her priority is size/weight over capacity. She primarily wants it to charge her iPhone when not near a wall plug, but she’ll also have her MBA and AirPods Pro 3 with her as well. All devices are USB-C. Looking for recommendations from others who have used and would recommend such a device, as there are seemingly 100s to choose from. Thanks!
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https://kuxiu.co/collections/power-bank/products/kuxiu-k1-ultra-power-bank
Not had mine very long but chose this one for MagSafe charging of iphone, and watch or AirPods at the same time. Has USB-C in/out port so can charge MBA but if charging MBA is a requirement a bigger powerbank might be better.
This powerbank has pass thru charging so can charge attached iPhone, watch and AirPods while bing charged itself.
I discovered this after reading this Macworld review. As far as I can tell this is a unique product. There are power banks with built in watch chargers like the Anker one in the article, but not that will charge iPhone by MagSafe.
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You might already know this but I would check the airline’s power bank policy—assuming the power bank is for in-flight use—before buying. Many have banned power bank use and charging during flights.
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You might already know this but I would check the airline’s power bank policy—assuming the power bank is for in-flight use—before buying. Many have banned power bank use and charging during flights
The usual limit for airlines is 100Wh, as per this article for example. Powerbanks marketed as 26,000Mah are 96Wh, presumably to stay inside the airline limit, and are quite large in comparison to the 10,000Mah I mentioned above.
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I’ve used the Anker powerbanks for years with great satisfaction, especially this one:
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Check out the TravelCard Plus. Highly rated by NYT Wirecutter: https://www.travelcardcharger.com/
3000 mAh battery, built in USB A & C, smaller than an iPhone 13, easily fits in shirt pocket.
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Second vote for Anker power banks. I use this one Anker Prime Power Bank (26K, 300W) - Anker US Can charge a 16” MBPro or a few iPads or a bunch of phones. Handy display of the percentages.
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Just want to add the 100 Wh limit applies to carrying, not using, power banks on many airlines. For example:
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One critical point from this article is that the computation is based on the voltage of the internal battery not of the power bank’s output.
It says that most power banks use 3.7v cells, but you definitely need to double-check if its spec sheet doesn’t explicitly state the capacity in Wh.
For example, the battery for my MacBook Air says that it is a 7.6v battery pack. So its 5100 mAh rating translates to 38.76 Wh, not 18.87. (Printing on the battery says 39 Wh).
I did notice that that product page doesn’t mention the Wh rating, nor does it mention the voltage of the cells. A quick web search didn’t reveal a datasheet or even a teardown. One of the info-graphics says “flight approved”, but that won’t help if someone from the airline starts asking questions.
It may be just fine. It probably will be. But after their big document about flight requirements, you’d think that they’d publish the corresponding specs for their own products.
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it says that most power banks use 3.7v cells, but you definitely need to double-check if its spec sheet doesn’t explicitly state the capacity in Wh.
Indeed…as explained in the Anker article, “mAh” is not a measure of battery capacity as it depends on voltage. Marketing material usually quotes mAh values assuming something like 3.7V, which gives nice large sounding numbers but is highly misleading.
All my power banks (four Anker, one RAV and the Kuxio) have the true Wh capacity marked on them, usually in very difficult to read small writing. The Kuxio power bank I mentioned in my first reply is marked as 38.7 Wh and marketed as 10000mAh. The Wh rating is basically independent of voltage. I wouldn’t like to have to show an airline official the marked Wh values, which mostly need a magnifying glass and very good light.
I haven’t heard of Airlines worrying about internal batteries on laptops. I thought the regs of concern were only about separate powerbanks. Or maybe they know that internal laptop batteries are less than 100Wh. From this article even the largest laptop batteries (in the 16" MBP) are 99.6Wh.
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Only because all the laptop manufacturers have agreed to not include larger internal batteries. I seem to remember it making news when Apple released a MacBook Pro (ca. 2013) with a 99 Wh battery, saying that airlines won’t let them use anything larger.
Back in the days when laptop batteries were replaceable, and you could snap-on an external battery pack for extended run-time, you could get packs with more than 100 Wh. But once incidents of burning batteries started happening, they were banned from airlines and PC manufacturers stopped selling them.
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If you’re interested in really getting into the weeds, Lufthansa has a very detailed guide to its rules for batteries and battery powered items:
https://www.lufthansa.com/gb/en/prepare-for-your-trip/baggage/electronic-devices-and-batteries
Note that AirTags and similar trackers have their own section…maybe because there was a lot of social media-driven confusion around them a few years back.
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I like power banks I can plug straight into an outlet. This one works for both my iPhone 15 and my 14" M4 Pro.
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I have a Nimble Champ charger and have been very happy with it. Would recommend.
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Thanks for all the great recommendations. I (and my wife) really appreciate it!
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Most important thing when traveling by air is that you have to keep batteries/power-banks in your carry-on not in your checked luggage.