I’m the Envy of the Coffee Shop With This Laptop Power Bank
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your account’s‘Saved for Later’section.
Comment
Up until recently, I found myself waking up half an hour early in order to beat the 8 a.m. rush at my local café, where the Wi-Fi is fast and laptop-friendly spots are highly competitive. Now, thanks to apower bankthat’s small enough to toss into a tote bag but powerful enough to keep my aging MacBook up and running, I’m sleeping later and then working remotely from tables that aren’t within even an extension cord’s reach of an outlet.
Anker’s Laptop Power Bank is a surprisingly svelte 165-watt portable battery with enough juice to bring a completely dead laptop — alongside a smartphone and pair of wireless headphones — back to life and then keep it charged all day without plugging into a main power supply.
New! You can now save this product for later.
About the size of a Coke can but significantly heavier at 1.31 pounds, the brick has two retractable USB-C cables, as well as a USB-A and USB-C slots that you can plug your own cables into. A large LCD screen lets you know how much battery is left and how much power is coming in and out, and if the brick is plugged into a power source, it’ll also show an estimate for how long it’ll take to charge back up to 100 percent — typically at least a couple of hours, but built-in fast charging means you can get to a decent 30 percent within 22 minutes. Which is about the time it takes me to get dressed in one million winter layers, ready for my walk to a $6 coffee.
What makes the difference between a normal portable charger and one that’s capable of powering a laptop is wattage. Laptops require 60 to 80W speeds for charging, as our tech writer Jordan McMahon explains in his guide to thebest portable chargers, so this brick’s three 100W USB-C ports have you more than covered. And its 25,000 milliamp hour (mAh) capacity means it stores around five times more power than the average 5,000 mAh portable charger. This thing can go for days if you’re just charging small devices like phones and tablets.
A big ol’ portable battery is useful for all sorts of people: frequentbusiness travelers(it’s airline-approved), hikers and campers, college students who are spending entire days on campus and are sick of trying to find somewhere to plug in, photographers on long shoots, and friend-group moms who are always helping out their type-B pals with a portable charger at the club. I’ll even just use mine while watching TV shows around different spaces in my apartment, during moments of laziness when I can’t be bothered figuring out a good cable setup.
As a semi-remote worker, owning a laptop power bank has freed me from the anxiety of constantly having to find somewhere to charge my MacBook, especially as my job does often involve a lot of moving around the city to test out new products, attend launches, and interview experts. In terms of highly specific laptop tools, it’s right up there with thisportable screen coverthat I use during summer to prevent glare. Is there anything I won’t do to avoid sitting in an actual office? Apparently not.
More From The Strategist
- The Back-to-School Hall of Fame
- The Best Things Strategist Editors Have Bought This Year (So Far)
- Everything You Need to Outfit Your College Dorm
- The Strategist Summer 100
The Strategistis designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read abouthere. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
