What Battery Bank Should You Buy?
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2017-05-06
·
1,048 words · ~5 min read
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so you've left your phone plugged into the wall all night you wake up with it
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fully charged and ready for a full day of selfies catching pokemon and selfies
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of catching pokemon but just a few hours in you get the
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dreaded low battery warning and there's narian outlet in sight
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this is where portable battery banks can save the day you just
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whip it out of your pocket and bam no solar panel or flashbacks to playing
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with the scary jack-in-the-box to get the juice you so desperately need but
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with all the options out there how do you know which one to pick well
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aside from the usual reading reviews and checking manufacturer reputations just
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as you would do with a graphics card a webcam or an extra large hamster wheel
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the most obvious place to start is with the battery's capacity it's typically
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expressed in milliamp hours which despite the name is actually not a unit
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of time scientists must hate us right but rather a unit that describes the
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amount of electrical energy a device can
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hold so you can think of a device whose
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battery is rated for fewer milliamp hours like an iphone
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as a cup of water and a battery bank rated for more milliamp hours as a
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bucket of water so a battery pack with a high milliamp
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hour rating can hold enough energy that it can power up your devices multiple
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times or power up devices like tablets
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with a higher battery capacity themselves
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so consumer grade battery banks start around 2000 milliamp hours and go all
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the way up to over 9000 these devices at the higher end of that
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range are capable of charging your average smartphone eight times or even
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more but if you've had a few of them you might
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have noticed that battery banks with the same milliamp hour rating can vary quite
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a lot in terms of performance so what gives
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for one thing not all batteries discharge at the same rate all the time
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this is especially true if you're charging devices that draw a lot of
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current such as high-end tablets this lowers the effective capacity to below
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what it would be if you were just charging low current electronics
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there's also more to life than just battery size there are features to
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consider in this video here we compared
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five rugged battery banks that advertised everything from built-in led
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flashlights to shock and water resistance though it should be noted
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that some of these claims didn't end up panning out in the real world
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and while we're on that subject there's more to life than manufacturers ratings
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for capacity too line has published a video that's me comparing how many times
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six different brands of battery banks could recharge an iphone se and while
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most reputable brands were within 15 percent of each other the worst one
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tested was less than one third as effective as some of the others
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and it doesn't get easier charging rate
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going back to our water analogy is how quickly you can pour from your bucket to
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your cup and is a huge factor for folks who want to plug in for 20 minutes while
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getting ready for that big date and not have to carry their charger around for
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the rest of the night typically battery banks have either 1 amp or 2 amp outputs
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both of which are running at the standard usb 5 volts if you have a
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device that can accept 2 amps of current as many newer ones can then a 2 amp
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output on your battery bank will not only charge your device faster but it
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will also keep it running if you need to use it while it's charging keep in mind
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though that chargers labeled as 4.8 amp
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or some other high number are usually referring to total current across all of
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the ports which is great if you're going to be plugging in multiple power hungry
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devices at once if the regular usb spec isn't enough for
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you though there are even some battery banks that support rapid charging
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technologies like qualcomm quick charge and samsung fast charge that can power
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up your devices even more quickly by increasing from 5 volts up to as high as
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20 volts but those require both a device
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and a charger that support it now go forth with this knowledge and find
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yourself a battery bank that gives you all the power you've ever wanted
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just don't use it to try and invade russia in the winter time we all know
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how that works out speaking of working out that's yet another fantastic use for
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audiobooks from audible.com
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while you're driving while you're trying to sleep while you're sitting there at a
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family meal pretending to actually be interested in what you know crazy uncle
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howard is talking about audiobooks are a great solution for a
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passing the time or b finding the time to catch up on the
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reading that you want to do but you don't have time to sit and stare at a
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book for audible has literally tens of thousands
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of audio books including periodicals
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fiction non-fiction and their platform
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is super easy to use and compatible with a wide variety of devices including your
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smartphone audible is offering a free audio book with a 30-day trial of their
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membership service i've been listening to outlaws kiss by nicole snow
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a tantalizing romantic tale about a girl
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that falls for her captor who also happens to be the leader of a renegade
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motorcycle gang we've got the link in the video description to get a free
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audio book with a 30-day free trial of their membership that's audible.com
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quickie so thanks for watching guys if you liked the video hit do this if you
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