Power Bank
TravelCard Charger
With integrated cables to charge itself and a device, the TravelCard is the most convenient pack we tested—but it has a low capacity considering its high price.
If all you need is to get a few extra hours out of your phone in a pinch, the TravelCard Charger is the credit-card-sized choice to keep with you all the time. The TravelCard has a built-in Micro-USB or Lightning-connector plug to charge your phone, plus a built-in USB cable with a full-size USB Type-A plug to recharge the TravelCard itself. The combination gives you power wherever you are without your having to carry any cables. It packs only enough power to add 30 to 50 percent of a charge to the battery of a large smartphone, but even that can feel life-saving when you’re faced with low-battery warnings. Unfortunately, you’ll pay a big premium for the convenience and small size: Though this model is often on sale, it’s the most expensive of the pocketable packs we tested. If you have a little more space, you might want to trade the convenience of built-in cables for the extra capacity of a larger unit.
EasyAcc 6000mAh Ultra Slim Power Bank
If you’re away from an outlet all day or you forget to charge your phone, the EasyAcc has the most power in its class, plus both an integrated Micro-USB cable and a high-speed port.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $18.
If you can make just a little more room in your pocket or bag, you can step up to a lot more power and a better value. The EasyAcc 6000mAh Ultra Slim Power Bank is about the size and thickness of an average smartphone, and it’s the best-performing model in this class, standing out because of its integrated cable and high-speed charging port. In our tests, this EasyAcc model had the most available power, enough to fully charge a smartphone—depending on size—two or three times. You could even charge a tablet more than halfway from its 2.4-amp port.
AmazonBasics Portable Power Bank 16,100 mAh
If you’ll be away from an outlet for more than a day, or if you have just a couple of devices to charge, this pack will provide plenty of power in a compact shape.
The AmazonBasics Portable Power Bank 16,100 mAh is our pick if you have to charge a phone repeatedly, want to keep a full-size tablet and phone topped up through a week of commuting, or need to keep your gadgets going on a long flight. In previous tests, this battery had enough capacity to charge an average smartphone almost every day of the workweek or fill a full-size tablet twice. Now that Amazon has updated the power output on this model (though not the specs stamped on the back), it puts out enough juice to charge two devices at or near their full speed. In our tests, the new version was capable of 2.4 A from either port, topping out at 4 A combined. Though that total is lower than the 4.8 A listed on the product page, it meets our basic criteria. With plenty of power packed into a unit the size of a portable hard drive, this battery is the most flexible of all our picks, and the one to get if you want something that can work for commuting and for travel.
RAVPower 26800mAh Xtreme Portable Charger
An off-the-grid lifeline, this model can charge a handful of devices for a day or a compact device for a week.
If none of the smaller picks meet your charging demands, get the RAVPower 26800mAh Xtreme Portable Charger, which beat out our other large contenders by offering more power, more ports, and faster charging, all at a reasonable price. In our tests, its three ports—rated at 2.4 A, 2.1 A, and 1 A—allowed it to charge a large tablet, a large smartphone, and a small phone simultaneously at full power. We found it had 19,107 mAh of available power, enough to charge your smartphone every night on a weeklong camping excursion. But at 21 ounces it’s pretty heavy, and it takes up the space of a large paperback. Still, if you need this much power, it’s the battery for you.
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