Power Bank Feature Creep is Out of Control

The humble power bank has transformed from a simple pocket-sized battery into a feature-laden gadget that now sometimes includes screensavers, Bluetooth connectivity and built-in Wi-Fi hotspots. The Verge's Thomas Ricker highlighted the $270 EcoFlow Rapid Pro X Power Bank 27k at CES 2026 as a prime offender -- a device he declared "too expensive, too big, too slow, and too heavy." Its giant display takes 30 seconds to wake from sleep, plays swirly graphics and blinking eyeballs, and requires a screensaver while slowly draining the battery it's meant to preserve.

The feature creep is industry-wide. Anker no longer lists a display-less model in its 20,000mAh range, and both companies sell proprietary desk chargers. Basic alternatives exist -- Anker's PowerCore 10k runs $26 -- but they're becoming harder to find.

Screens are way to far.

[gurps_npc]

Phones already do 99% of the stuff you might want to carry with you. Screen, GPS, radio, etc. are already in your phones.

You want a power bank, get a flashlight/power bank combo. It gives you something a standard phone cannot reasonably replicate, but can also act as the powerbank to recharge your phone.

Re:Screens are way to far.

[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

The best power banks are actually the car jump-starters which all now have USB and a higher capacity for a lower cost. Bonus - they can jump-start a dead ICE vehicle.

Re:

[Luckyo]

Those are way overspec for power banks, as their primary purpose is to deliver several hundred amps at 12V for a few seconds.

That requires capabilities that power banks using for recharging devices do not need. Capabilities that make those things significantly heavier and more expensive than needed.

Re:Screens are way to far.

[alvinrod]

I bought one of those for $100 a few years ago. Yeah it's big and bulky, but I've used it to jump start vehicles on five occasions since then. It paid for itself as far as I'm concerned and the other incidental uses I've gotten out of it. Apparently I saved $170 buying it instead of some PoS designed to attract idiots.

Re:Screens are way to far.

[Bradac_55]

You've obviously not seen a modern jump-starter then.

1.) They are tiny.
2.) They are smart enough to step down voltage.
3.) They come with USB C ports for purpose charging phones.

Stand alone power banks were a thing 20 years ago but in 2026 they have been replaced with actual useful chargers that can do multiple things other than to charge a phone because the owner is to dumb to buy a real flash light.

Take a look at an entry level jump-starter like the NOCO GB40 for instance. It also has a built in flash light with actual throw not just flood.
Double that price ($200 still cheaper than the EcoFlow Rapid Pro X) and halve the size.

Re:Screens are way to far.

[toxonix]

They claim to be able to jump 60 dead cars at 1000 amps on a single charge. That's bonkers. They could have a built-in defibrillator for those 007 moments where your martini gets spiked with Digitalis and you need a good jolt.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

They claim to be able to jump 60 dead cars at 1000 amps on a single charge. That's bonkers.

Not really. It doesn't take that much energy to start a car - a normal LSI (lighting, starting, ignition - aka car battery) battery is only drained about 1% per start.

It's just that the starter needs a lot of current for a very brief period of time, so a weak battery may not be able to provide the necessary current to crank the engine. Modern cars with push-button start usually only crank the engine for a second or so

Re:

[itsme1234]

They claim to be able to jump 60 dead cars at 1000 amps on a single charge. That's bonkers. They could have a built-in defibrillator for those 007 moments where your martini gets spiked with Digitalis and you need a good jolt.

Amps are an instantaneous measure, unless you want to jumpstart 60 cars simultaneously the current delivered will always be "up to" 1000A (in practice about a few hundred amps peak). Now if you want to discuss the ENERGY needed for each crank (as opposed to the instant current capacity

Re:

[mjwx]

They claim to be able to jump 60 dead cars at 1000 amps on a single charge. That's bonkers. They could have a built-in defibrillator for those 007 moments where your martini gets spiked with Digitalis and you need a good jolt.

Honestly, if you need to jump start a car that many times you really need a more reliable car. Frequent dead batteries usually mean the battery is toast (replace battery), is not being charged (usually the alternator/belt) or left long periods of time with a slow drain (this is an utter PITA to diagnose, had an old MR2 with this exact problem which I never figured out but it wasn't my daily driver).

Re:

[anoncoward69]

Lithium jump starters don't have a huge mAh capacity. They just have low resistance Lithium packs that can dump hundreds of amps for just long enough to crank over an engine. It's still not good for the battery packs for long term cranking. The NOCO GB40 has a 2150mAh battery in it, that's going to be 4 lithium cells in series to get the 12v to crank over an engine. That's basically 2x the capacity of your average cell phone these days. Lithium cells is what makes these tiny jump starters possible, the insa

Re:

[anoncoward69]

These jump packs also work off the fact that as soon as you connect to the dead battery it's going to dump a portion of it's energy into the car's battery. Then when you crank on the starter the car is pulling from both the car's battery and the jump pack, not just solely trying to pull 6-700 amps out of the tiny jump pack.

Re:

[WaffleMonster]

These jump packs also work off the fact that as soon as you connect to the dead battery it's going to dump a portion of it's energy into the car's battery. Then when you crank on the starter the car is pulling from both the car's battery and the jump pack, not just solely trying to pull 6-700 amps out of the tiny jump pack.

This isn't the case. The only thing they need battery for is idiot proofing to detect polarity reversal. Some of the jump starters have a bypass mode that disables this safety mechanism if the battery is so dead there are less than two volts present. In this case all of the current to start the car is coming from four tiny series connected pouch cells.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Take a look at an entry level jump-starter like the NOCO GB40 for instance. It also has a built in flash light with actual throw not just flood.

Yeah and? We're talking about powerbanks, and this one is fucking rubbish at that.

For your example $100 gets you: 12W USB output without a listed mAh spec.
For a real charger example $100 gets you an Anker 737: 140W USB output spreadable across three devices (2x USB-C with proper PD negotiation, and 1x USB-A with a low limit) with at 24000mAh spec. And if I really needed a light I'd just turn on the one on my phone.

Jump starters make great jump starters. They are absolutely rubbish powerbanks for USB devices

Re:

[cmseagle]

For a real charger example $100 gets you an Anker 737

I have one and love the thing. It charges my laptop faster than the power adapter it came with.

Re:

[Luckyo]

They are also:

1. Massively overpriced in terms of capacity compared to alternatives.
2. Burn out fast. Cranking up the engine uses lithium batteries in a highly destructive high current discharge mode. There's a reason why actual power banks don't let you do that.
3. Tend to have way less ports and ports they have are way underspec for the price.

P.S. No, they cannot do 1000 amps at 12 volts advertised on that low end NOCO. This is chinesium marketing. Most of them are in a standard 200-400 amp range and crash

Re:

[ctilsie242]

A few years ago, I tried the jump starters. It was a joke, and a bad one at that, trying to jump a relatively tiny engine (5.4L V8). Fast forward to recently. I picked up a "Gooloo" brand jump starter, because a good friend recommended it. Well, it easily jump started almost anything I put to it, provided the battery was not completely dead.

I now have a big brother model which does tire inflation, and was able to get all four tires of a travel trailer to 50 PSI in a fairly short time, even factoring in

Re:

[cmseagle]

a relatively tiny engine (5.4L V8)

What do you consider a "normal" sized engine? Even in America, big car capital of the world, I can't imagine your typical new car having more than a 4L engine.

Re:

[Junta]

But to their point, that GB40 has the capacity of power banks that are under $20.

It can do the job, and it isn't big, but it's kind of low capacity for the price as far as power banks go. It's worth it to me to have the jump starter capability, but if I wanted exclusively a power bank, then the jump starter ones aren't going to be high on my list.

Re:

[redback]

I bought a jump pack because I needed a jump pack. But I was careful to get one that could do 65w USB-C PD to power a laptop.

I wanted it to be able to do multiple things.

Re:

[Junta]

Yes, they are priced higher, but they aren't really significantly heavier or bigger. Some keep the 'jump starter' components as a plug-in to basically make the main unit nothing more than a battery bank with a special extra connector, and those components are not exactly big anyway.

Re:

[larwe]

If you have a vehicle at hand, you already have a better charging solution than a power bank. A power bank is a portable, pocketable backup power supply for your phone for when you're walking around out of range of fixed charging or vehicles with power outlets.

Re: Screens are way to far.

[dj245]

Depends on the size of them. Small ones are definitely for charging up phones on the go, or I've seen people use them on the couch if there is no convenient outlet. The big power banks are not the same. They are rivaling gasoline generators in power output. For around the same price as a 2000w gas generator you can get a power bank big enough to run a fridge for 8 hours. They have obvious disadvantages too, but for people who don't have the capacity to operate a gasoline generator it's a very convenient so

Re:

[larwe]

OK, I consider the Jackery et al "size of a gas can" type devices (which btw are awesome, I am saving up to buy another one, and the solar addon) - to be not a power bank, but a backup power supply. When people say "power bank" and I think specifically in the context of this conversation, I'm thinking of pocketable devices that can charge a phone.

Re:

[larwe]

Also, gasoline generators - I got rid of mine and replaced it with batteries because gasoline generators are a horrible, horrible emergency power solution. You can't store gasoline indefinitely. You can't store a primed gasoline generator indefinitely. The fuel goes bad and the fueling system gets contaminated. Emergencies don't happen often and I don't have time to do a carb clean and rebuild when the power goes out and I need my freezer to keep running. Solar-charged battery solutions are about seventeen

Re:

[WaffleMonster]

The best power banks are actually the car jump-starters which all now have USB and a higher capacity for a lower cost. Bonus - they can jump-start a dead ICE vehicle.

Car starters tend to have less capacity vs normal power banks. They tend to be bulky /w a big ass relay and pouch cells layered in a screwy 4S configuration adding unnecessary cost and complexity for cell balancing..etc.

To put it into perspective one can stack three normal power banks each with more capacity in the same footprint as a single low end noco.

Re:

[MachineShedFred]

Sure, I'll just put this thing the size of a small satchel in my jacket pocket in case I need to juice up on the go...

Oh wait, it's so fucking big I can't do that.

Not the best power bank.

Re:

[sjames]

You're about 15 years out of date. They will fit in a pocket now.

Re:

[thegarbz]

So will a deck of cards, that is only mildly less useful than a USB jump starter used as a battery bank. They universally have fucking rubbish USB outputs. One of the proponents raving about them above linked a $100 jump starter that is pocketable and has USB and can do a whopppppping 12W to one device. Thanks but I'll spend $70 and get 45W spread across two devices, or $100 to give me 140W across 3 for a normal actually purpose built device.

Re:

[thegarbz]

And yet are still larger, and they are rubbish compared to a normal USB-C battery bank you can put in your pocket.

Re:

[itsme1234]

The powerbanks that can jumpstart cars aren't "best" for most metrics, in fact they're usually just the last "powerbank slop" you can find. Just check any real capacity test for one of these (if you can even find one!) and compare with a table showing "regular" powerbanks. It'll be absolutely abysmal, not only because of pure technical requirements - they need to have some thicker connectors (and some extra high current components, maybe some fuse, etc.) - but also because everyone is astroturfing about cap

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

I rather like my power banks. No display or other gimmicks, just a charging LED. The brand is Enphase if anyone else is thinking of getting one.

Re:

[thegarbz]

The best power banks are actually the car jump-starters which all now have USB and a higher capacity for a lower cost. Bonus - they can jump-start a dead ICE vehicle.

They are absolutely not. These things treat USB connectivity as an absolute afterthought and almost universally suck at negotiating USB-PD properly. If all you do is plug in one device via USB-B they are fine. But completely useless for laptops, phones, fast/slow charging multiple devices, etc.

Re:

[Luckyo]

Most modern phones had LED flashes that function well as flashlights.

The age of LEDs that burned out if you used them in always-on mode is long past.

Re:

[Zeratul2k]

I've found the problem of using phone LED flashes as flashlights isn't really the possibility of them burning out, but the fact that they are designed to flood. A good flashlight should have a combination of flood AND throw to really be useful. Even small, keychain-sized flashlights can do this, so I rarely use my phone as a flashlight, these days.

Re:

[anoncoward69]

Using a cell phone flash as a flashlight is a flashlight of last resort for me. They are designed to flood rather than giving you a decent throw. It's also still not good for the LED for them to be left on for a long time. aside from the heating it also degrades the phosphors. Just a minute of usage is the equivalent to probably a hundred photo flashes. Plus the ergonomics are just horrible. I really wouldn't want to change a battery on the side of the road using my phone as a flashlight when I could have a

Re: Screens are way to far.

[Khyber]

Only shit leds use phosphors now days. We use slices of synthetic garnet in modern leds for white light generation.

Re:Screens are way to far.

[Local ID10T]

Agreed.

I bought one with a solar panel on one side, wireless charging on the other, USB-A & USB-C on one end, and flashlight on the other end. It has a few LEDs to indicate charge level. It has a built-in rubber case for durability, and rubber plugs on the ports for water-resistance. It is slightly larger than my phone. It came with a keyring/carabiner attachment, and short (~3") USB-A and USB-C cables.

It can fast-charge my phone multiple times per-charge, has flashlight modes, charges quickly via USB-C and in a few hours via solar.

It is useful as-is. It doesn't need to do more.

Ask me in a few years how well the battery holds up.. so far so good.

Re:Screens are way to far.

[larwe]

There is no way whatsoever that a PV cell on the side of a pocketable power bank is large enough to receive enough energy to be meaningful. These are joke features. The areas of the world with the highest insolation offer about 300W/m2. The size of a solar cell you can fit in your pocket is perhaps 0.01m^2. So you're looking at 3W of available solar energy - if you are in a subtropical desert at the right time of day and year and with the panel aimed optimally. Take out conversion efficiency of at most 20% if you've got a really good panel (which a cheap power bank will not - probably more like 10%). So, somewhere between 300-600mW. Even ignoring losses in the charger circuit, a typical 10,000mWh bank would require somwhere between 17~33 hours of continuous optimal illumination to charge.

Re:

[redback]

I feel like solar on power banks is just a way to keep them maintained.

Re:

[larwe]

Probably not even that, for most places that people actually live. It's January and I'm in southwest Indiana. 83 W/m2 at the best time of day and best weather conditions.

Remember when VW vehicles used to ship with a solar cell in them to keep the battery charged while in transit and on the dealer lot? Early 2000s I think.

Re:

[Local ID10T]

Oddly enough, it does work. I expected something that could do a partial recharge if left in direct sunlight all day... but it picks up a significant amount of charge in just a couple hours on my desk at work getting sunlight thru the window (thru glass).

That is nothing compared to the rate it charges when plugged in to a real charger, but it is significant.

Re:

[toxonix]

I have an Anker Solix 30w. It folds out to about 12"x36" and can charge both of my power banks to full in ~2 hours. Shit gets hot though, a bit afraid it will blow up one of the power banks. I'm guessing a little 5w panel could charge a small bank in a day.

Re:

[larwe]

I have a couple of fold out three-leaf panels also, they are designed to hang from a backpack while you walk around and charge. This is wayyyyyy more surface area than just the side of a power bank, though.

Re:

[MachineShedFred]

Not arguing with your math, but that 500mW could be the difference between life and death if you need to send an SOS and have two dead batteries.

Yes, this is an incredibly slim edge case.

Re:

[larwe]

Actually I messed up the math a bit :) but the premise is sound. Yeah I hear ya. I've just seen too many reviews of these that pointed out that the PV cells were barely there (in some cases actually fake).

Re:

[anoncoward69]

The problem with power banks with solar cells in them is the fact that the battery is DIRECTLY behind the solar cell. You're going to bake your battery in the process of barely charging it. You'd be better off to have a fordable 5-20w solar panel that you can prop up and then put your battery bank behind it in the shadow to help keep it cooler.

Re:

[larwe]

Didn't even think of this but you're absolutely right. And even worse - phones generally have a thermal cutoff for charging ("This iPhone is too hot. Charging has been suspended until it cools down"). But I bet power banks do not - the ones I've disassemble don't even have a thermistor on the battery.

Chargers too

[cerberusss]

It's not just powerbanks that have unnecessary features. Chargers are affected too: the new Anker Nano 45W (A121D) doesn't support AVS, and PPS is limited up to 16V (not 20, what most laptops want). But it has a smart interactive display... you could argue that the old version is better.

Re:

[itsme1234]

Isn't AVS just PPS when you have under 100W (which of course is where a 45W charger is?). And PPS is supported.

Now sure, it's not the maximal range, but I think you're making a confusion about most laptops needing PPS, most need just the fixed 20V USB-PD level, which this charger has. In fact I don't know about a single PPS laptop (there might be, sure, but I bet they'll be needing WAY more than 45W anyway). PPS is usually for the phones, most notoriously Samsungs that need around 9-11V or so, up to 16V is

Ecoflow needs to get in the UPS rack game

[BeepBoopBeep]

They need to kick the crap out of the legacy acid battery game for rack UPS gear. Come on now.

Re:Ecoflow needs to get in the UPS rack game

[jacks smirking reven]

The big UPS vendors (Eaton, Vertiv, APC, etc) have a lithium option these days, they're just about 1.5-2x the price but on the other hand you don't have to swap the pack until 10 years. My back also appreciates them, they're not light by any stretch but there's enough savings to take that edge off the lead ones.

Re:

[anoncoward69]

For given power density a UPS with ANY lithium chemistry should be significantly lighter than it's old lead acid cousin. I don't see why they would be heavier unless you're buying more power capacity than you had previously.

Re:

[jacks smirking reven]

I didn't say they were heavier?

Re:

[jacks smirking reven]

Interesting, Imma look at some for my home UPS units if possible.

Re: Ecoflow needs to get in the UPS rack game

[paul_engr]

No they don't. They need to not have software and connectivity on their stupid fucking existing products because that shit neverrrrr works right

Re:

[BeepBoopBeep]

They have already dived into this area with Delta 3 Plus and River 3 plus. They support NUT via USB, it appears they are still working out the kinks, but they are diving into UPS. It was a quiet launch of this, barely mentioned. Issue is the form factor isnt that great for a rack.

Re:

[ctilsie242]

If they could get a UPS that is designed to be always on (which means that the inverter always draws from the battery, ensuring zero switching time when power goes down on the charging side), they would be way ahead of the game. I already have to replace the lead-acid cells on the smaller UPS models every few years, so having something lithium (or sodium based) which has a similar replacement cycle, but is happy being always on (compared to a standby UPS) would be a major win. Especially if one lives in a

Re:

[BeepBoopBeep]

They have already dived into this area with Delta 3 Plus and River 3 plus. They support NUT via USB, it appears they are still working out the software kinks, but they are diving into UPS. It was a quiet launch of this, barely mentioned. Issue is the form factor isnt that great for a rack. Both models claim 10ms switchover for UPS specs.

What is this author talking about display only

[proctorg76]

The trusty Powercore 26k with it's 4-blue dot UI and 5 ports is on their website right here https://www.anker.com/products... [anker.com]

Re:

[TwistedGreen]

That's an older line (The 337 has been around since 2020). The newer line has been refreshed to use glossy grey plastic and have a display on everything for some reason. The author is complaining about this trend.

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

Heavens, they released a product with new features?

The author (in the summary) specifically claims "Anker no longer lists a display-less model in its 20,000mAh range." Anker doesn't seem to offer any 20 Ah powerbanks so I assume "20,000mAh range" means 20 Ah or more, making the claim untrue. It's also cherrypicking one company and one specification.

Some people obviously want LCDs on their powerbanks. One of the posters above wants a flashlight. Whatever. There are still lots of black boxes with batteries av

Re:

[TwistedGreen]

Yeah true, I wonder if it's some kind of ad or the author is in another country where this model is discontinued. In the end, I don't really care.

I can use my phone to keep the power bank charged

[jfdavis668]

Since the power bank has all the features I need.

mAh need too die

[ukoda]

I sick of seeing devices specified in thousand thousandths of an A and at an assumed 3.7V, It made sense years ago when power banks were new. We need to move to Wh which are far more meaning full and easier to use. A hall mark of a decent power bank is the specs include a Wh figure, not just mAh.

Re:

[vivian]

One of the driving factors behind showing power in mAh is that marketing gets to print a more impressive big number on the box.
Although Wh would be preferred, I'd be happy if they even just changed to displaying mWh on the box - and it should be a win-win. they get a bigger more impressive number to display and I get a unit of measure that actually gives the total amount of electrical energy the device can store, instead of trying to guess whether the rating is based on whatever the battery cell voltages a

Re:

[ukoda]

Yea, agree, the marketing people are too blame. Ideally they would print both figures with equal prominence for a while so non-tech people would get used to Wh, then drop the mAh after a year or two.

USB-C PD has really brought the issue to the fore, but one advantage of products with mAh only is I can instantly eliminate them from buying consideration, saving some time.

Re:

[rossdee]

Energy should be measured in MegaJoules

Re:

[merde]

MegaJoules are for children's toys.
I want Gigawatt-Centuries.

Re:

[anoncoward69]

mAh should be dropped all together. It's a useless rating for power banks when you don't know what the cell configuration is. If its a single cell then it's using a boost circuit to get 5v out of a 3.6v cell. If the battery is rated for 2000mah then you're getting no where near 2000mah out of the battery bank. If its a 2000mah bank with 3 cells in series and using a buck converter to take 10.8v down to 5 then you're going to get significantly more than 2000mah out of the bank. Watt hours is what needs to be

Re:

[anoncoward69]

OR the industry standard should be the mAh actually delivered from the output USB port. Not the mAh capacity of the battery inside the bank.

Re:

[ukoda]

Yea, nah, mAh at what USB voltage? USB PD means you could be getting 4A at 5V but only 1A at 20V, that just confuses average users. It needs to be one number that directly relates to the energy stored in the pack.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

We need Wh delivered at different output settings, or a worst case scenario.

Re:

[itsme1234]

THIS. As it is you need to multiply the mAh stated value with 3.6V and assume the "losses" from the DC-DC converter+the marketing "padding" are about 15-30% and deduct that too. Assuming one of the "good" manufacturers otherwise you're looking at 50%, 75% or even more that's marketing "exaggeration". And we're still in the "plausible" and "real" powerbanks range, not in X000000000 Ah astroturfing and/or cells filled with sand/clay/etc.

Re:

[gweihir]

Look for Wh. If not specified, walk away.

Re:

[Deal In One]

I think you can blame the airlines for this.

I have heard of 20000 mAH as the max power bank capacity allowed in a airplane. Not heard of a Wh figure. Since I travel a bunch, I just look at the mAH rating to make sure I can fly with it.

Re:

[ukoda]

My understanding is airlines actually use Wh with 100Wh being the currently used size limit. My biggest travel power bank is rated as 99Wh and claimed to be the biggest capacity airlines allowed.

Not sure how they deal with power banks with no Wh spec. I suspect that mAh figures are probably 'fudged' to sound bigger than that actually are when there are cells in series so they are proportional to the Wh figure. For example a power bank with 2 x 3300mAh cells in series is probably advertised as 6600mAh.

Re:

[thegarbz]

We need to move to Wh which are far more meaning full and easier to use. A hall mark of a decent power bank is the specs include a Wh figure, not just mAh.

False. A hall mark of a decent power bank is that its spec is comparable with others so you know what you're getting. mAh at a standard voltage is perfectly fine since it allows comparison of total charge across different banks. If you want to know how long you can charge at what wattage for then do some math, don't give us specs that make the device incomparable with other devices.

Even Wh is a useless figure since the number of watts drawn from a charging bank vary over the charge cycle of a device. You're

Re:

[ukoda]

"mAh at a standard voltage". What standard voltage? The voltage of the cells are 2.8V to 4.2V yet we never use that, we use 5, 12 or 20V and with USB PD we often don't know which a device is using.

Use the right units for the job. There needs to be a transition period where both Wh and mAh are clear on the specs. Once people are used to seeing Wh drop the mAh.

If you really love current that much at least use Ah not mAh. The defense I have seen for still using mAh is the average person will not be

And the demand is probably less.

[Smonster]

My smartwatches battery last a day and half under typical use.
My smartphone lasts almost two days with my typical use.
My laptop lasts around twenty hours if I was using it the whole time. Almost three full work days of typical use.
My drone has three swappable batteries giving it about 120 minutes of flight. I rarely fly it more than 30 minutes at any given time. I’m not racing or shooting a scripted movie.

Batteries have gotten good enough and chips have gotten efficient enough, I rarely use any of the portable charging battery packs I already own any more. Even an overnight or weekend backpacking trip I only bring a small one to charge my watch. But even then I can squeeze a whole weekend out of if I leave the screen off and don’t track any workouts. But then why bring the watch? Turn off the cell radio and Wi-Fi and the phone battery will last about 4 days only periodically using it as a camera.

Portable chargers are not nearly as needed as when a smartphone batteries were often be at 20% by early evening or late afternoon.

Re:

[antdude]

Every electronics I use can drain battery power fast. :P

Re:

[Waccoon]

You find it impressive your smartwatch runs less than 2 days on a single charge? My regular wristwatch runs about 5 years on a single battery. The battery in my game console controller works about 2 weeks. The batteries in my radar detector last about a month.

I once drove with a guy who was using his smartphone to give me directions. It pissed me off that every time I needed to know about a turn, he took out his phone, fiddled with it, and then immediately put it away. Rinse, repeat. It was infuriatin

Re:

[larwe]

My regular wristwatch runs about 5 years on a single battery.

Get a Solios watch. My "nice" dress watch is a Solios. The dial is a PV panel. The device is designed to last 30 years without requiring a battery replacement :D Very nice watches, designed in Quebec.

Re:

[Smonster]

I have another watch that automatically adjust time zones when entering a new time zone anywhere near a large city. It never needs to charge. It is powered of my wrist and arm swimming motion combined with solar. It looks a lot nice than my iWatch too, but I suppose that is subjective. However, it doesn't do all the other things my smartwatch can do. So I only really wear it when I am "dressing up".

But thanks for the advice.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Batteries have gotten good enough, for me

There I added the bit you missed. Your typical use is not everyone's typical use. My phone needed to be charged twice a day for my typical use for the past 2 weeks. This is something you would know if you were "normal" like me and use your phone in an underwater diving case as an always on camera for 50minutes at a time.
This is something you would know if you were "normal" like my wife who takes her phone to play Pokemon go for hours at a time.
This is something you would know if you were "normal" like the n

Re:

[larwe]

You definitely need a new smartwatch. I wear a $50 smartwatch that has all the usual stuff, I get a LOT of notifications on it, and I only need to recharge it once a week or so (maybe six days).

Pipe to Xi

[boxless]

Don’t forget the special vpn tunnel that sends your data, and any audio picked up in the local area to Xi Jinping’s cell phone.

Re: Pipe to Xi

[paul_engr]

It pipes to a power bank with display, silly

Power Tool Battery

[Jarik C-Bol]

I have a USB adaptor for my cordless power tool batteries. I can charge my phone from dead 3 times off one of them with it, and I have half a dozen of them charged and ready to go for work at any given moment. They are available for every brand of cordless power tool I could remember to look up, and feature: USB ports.

Countdown to "Battery Pilot" in 3...2...1...

[glowworm]

Time one of them releases a battery pack with always on AI integration, maybe to remind you in Skye's voice to recharge your bank if it's a lil flat.

Phone chargers, too

[Yo,dog!]

Anker has a 3-in-1 phone/watch/AirPods charger with a touch display, Bluetooth and an accompanying app. The most important reason I can think of for the app is to track users, especially when away from home, reporting to Anker pings from wifi hotspots and bt devices.

Power station envy

[WaffleMonster]

I get the distinct impression marketeers are out to make power banks more like miniature power stations without understanding the underlying value.

Use a drill battery

[Spacejock]

My powerbank is a Worx drill battery with a two-port USB adaptor. I have a dozen of these batteries for my power tools, and 4 adaptors. Never going to run out of juice.

Re:

[thegarbz]

That sounds great. So does your Worx drill battery provide USB-PD negotiation to multiple devices plugged in at once with a 140W output? If so which model, because mine certainly doesn't. My Worx USB adapter went into the bin because it doesn't even support USB-C and I have better things to do than wait around for my devices to trickle charge.

Also it's hardly pocketable, and if it's not pocketable then there's usually a better option to charge a device than a powerbank.

But do they have AI?

[paul_engr]

Obviously, that must be why nobody wants them.

\o/

[easyTree]

No mention of portable batteries with AI bots so there's still room for... what's the opposite of improvement?

Re:

[ZiggyZiggyZig]

I foresee Microslop going to the market with the Microslop Copilot Power Copilot Bank (Copilot). It will have voice controls where you can ask Copilot (if you have a valid Microslop 365 subscription) to activate the charging of your phone. This will require your Microslop Copilot Power Copilot Bank (Copilot) to communicate with a central AI data center on the internet to process your voice request and hopefully do what you mean, even though every once in a while it will instead create a new PowerPoint sprea

At the same time, no LiFePo4 offerings

[gweihir]

Or almost none. Much lower fire risk, much longer lifetimes, just a bit more heavy (not that much in a power-bank actually). When I looked last week, the only one I found was a 100Wh class one that I already have. But 5...20Wh? Total failure.

Screens aren't automatically bad

[Mr_Silver]

I have an Anker charger with a tiny screen that tells me how much charge I have, how much charging time I have left, the time it'll take to recharge to full and whether low power 5W charging is enabled.

Whilst I don't disagree that some companies appear to be going completely overboard with features, I don't think a small screen showing useful charging related information should be automatically seen as a bad thing.

Re:

[ZiggyZiggyZig]

If it was properly made (for example with eink display) sure why not? Hopefully they thought of the power consumption of their extra functionality... On a power bank...

Re:

[Mr_Silver]

It's not e-ink, but the screen is tiny and a low resolution. In addition, it only comes on when you plug something in or push a button and turns off automatically after about 5 seconds.

I haven't noticed any meaningful impact on the battery, although I don't continually mash the button to keep the display on.