A Little Sharing - Power Banks

                                       

How often you come across the photo above? Well, I guess if you are a typical smartphone user, you will see this almost everyday. The next Question is, what will you do? Of course if you are near a power point, all you need is to charge your phone/tablet. Am I right? But what if you are not? What if there is no electricity? Nowadays in Malaysia, you wouldn't know when it's going to be blackout again, right?

What are your options? We have a lot of options, the most simple and cheap is, let it be. No battery? Off phone Lor.. As simple as that. But to those who need to be reachable, this is not the best solution. What else? 

Today we will go into another option, which is the power bank. The gadget most smartphones and tablets user will probably own or intend to own.

What is a "Power Bank" ?

A power bank means a bank which have a lot of power? Haha. Hell no. It's a portable battery bank  that provides energy to keep your gadgets "alive" whenever you need to. The standard capacity of power bank range from 500mAh up to 30000mAh (which I highly doubt. Why? Read on)

                                   

                                           Samples of power banks in the market

If you Google "power bank" , you will see thousands or millions of hit. Reason being, almost all the manufacturer in China are producing power bank! Reason? It's currently the highest demand accessories for smartphones and tablets. And to win the Rat Race, they even sell fake power banks or over claims the capacity of the power bank!

Today, I will share on how to choose a power bank.

Battery

Like I mentioned, power bank is a device that contained batteries. Currently in the market, there are few types of commonly use batteries in power.

Korean batteries (Samsung)

Japanese batteries (Sanyo, Panasonic)

Chinese batteries (china OEM)

The quality of Li-Ion battery differs.

Branded made-in-Japan (eg. Sanyo, Panasonic) one normally has capacity of at least 3100mAh, and comes with 1 year warranty. They have higher price too and won't be chosen to make the cheap power bank selling in the Internet stores. Normally sold in brand such as Sanyo Eneloop power bank in premium store.

Branded made-in-Korea (eg. Samsung) one is quite reliable too. Part number could be ICR18650-30A, ICR18650-28A, ICR18650-26F, ICR18650-26D, ICR18650-24E, ICR18650-24F, ICE18650-22F, etc. 30F means capacity is 3000mAh, 22F means capacity is 2200mAh, and so on. Normally used by Samsung in their own power bank which are sold in Authorized Samsung Store / we store. Find it in www.connect2u.my

Samsung OEM made-in-China Li-Ion battery has 4 grades. The highest A01 grade normally reserved for Samsung own use, while A02, A03 and A04 are made available for customers. Part number could be ICR18650-20, ICR18650-22, ICR18650-24, ICR18650-26, etc. If a power bank claimed to use Samsung batteries, the batteries inside are probably the A02~A04 type. Normally used by Manufacturer to increase the quality of the power banks as its more reliable than the china OEM batteries.

Certain unbranded made-in-china battery were found to have only 1600-1800mAh but also put in the 18650 code and claimed to have 3000mAh. The cheap power banks probably are using this kind of Li-Ion battery. You can find most of these selling in most discounted website such as dealmates, groupons, ebays, Lelong, mudah and various forums.

                                           

                                  Feelook Power Bank using Samsung battery

So the next time you planning to get a power bank, you can ask about the type of battery. Next, the battery capacity.

This is the part that confuses a lot of people. In the market, you can find up to 30,000mAh. Problem is, if a battery can only store up to 3,000mAh, how many do you think they will need to put in a 30,000mAh Battery Pack? 10 batteries? Now, show me a power bank that can store 10 batteries and you will still buy. 

So, what comes to your mind? The over claimed the capacity. Ya. And most people fell for it. It's so nice to have a 30,000mAh with to only RM99 to RM129. "Mana mau cari?"

You have doubt on what I said? You think I am just sour grape cos I do not own a big capacity power bank, right? Read on...

Calculation of the Capacity. 

For your information, although you have a 30,000mAh batteries, due to the leakage and voltage conversion, you can only use about 80% of the maximum capacity. Which means, for a 30,000mAh, you only have around 24,000mAh to charge your devices. But again, 24,000mAh is already a very high capacity and allowed you to fully charge more than 2 times for your iPad or 10 times your galaxy S3. But how many times your power bank can charge? You try and let me know? Full charge means from 0 to 100%.

Battery capacity:

Galaxy S3 - 2100mAh

Galaxy S4 - 2600mAh

Galaxy Note - 2500mAh

IPhone 5 - 1450mAh

iPad 4 - 10,000 mAh

For an iPhone 5, with a 30,000mAh capacity power bank, you should able to fully charge at least up to 15 times! But most of us only able to charge let say 3-4 times? 

Your next Question. Then how come my power bank weight as heavy?

My answer? Nah, I can't give you a definite answer unless you open up the power bank but you will end up voiding the warranty, if any. 

                         6 pcs of batteries which looks like a damaged recycle batteries.

                                     

                                        Worse, you might even find 2 packs of sand!

You think it's a prank? Yes it is. From the manufacturer it is. This is taken by one if the unlucky owner from Taiwan who bought his power bank in china. The source of articles will be posted at the end of this topic. 

So, ladies and gentlemen, hope this will help you on making decision on your next power bank. As much as we wanted to get the most value for our money, this are some of the areas I would like you to  consider.

For purchasing of power banks, kindly visit www.connect2u.my

Sources: 

http://voyager8.blogspot.com/2013/03/beware-of-dishonest-cheap-power-bank.html

http://www.gizmochina.com/2013/04/12/beware-of-fake-2400-mah-powerbank/