When the time comes to buy a portable external battery, you have to choose between the largest one you can afford or going for a smaller one. I’m here to argue that smaller is better.
Don’t get me wrong—big batteries are great. I have portable batteries big enough to power my house. But I’ve surrounded those batteries with a bunch of small ones.
You won’t want to carry that big battery around
The reason is in the name. These are portable battery banks, and their utility depends first and foremost on how portable they actually are.
Battery banks with larger capacities aren’t carrying around the same size “tank” with more energy poured inside. That’s not how this works. They’re typically made with the same size batteries, just more of them. This is often why they are called battery banks, because they’re a bank of batteries.
Larger battery banks weigh more, and they are thicker. A battery that is twice as heavy and thick is one that takes up more space in your everyday carry bag, feels like more of a burden to lug around, isn’t as comfortable to hold, and may no longer fit in a pants pocket.
A small battery and phone can fit in one hand
But a larger battery will leave you anchored to a table
Many smaller battery banks are roughly the size of smartphones. They’re thin and light enough that you can hold both at the same time. You sandwich the two together, with the back of your phone pressed against the battery. You won’t want to carry your phone around like this long-term, but it’s not insufferable if this is required to finish a long video you and a friend are watching together.
Some batteries are designed with this type of use in mind. Anker MagGo batteries use magnets to latch on to the back of a phone.
Anker also makes a Nano line of small batteries that plug into the bottom of your phone without needing a cable, remaining in place almost like a fanny pack for phones. The goal is the same, to be portable power you can depend on without having to put your phone down.
Have more batteries in multiple places
Small batteries cost less money, so you can buy more of them
Batteries are often priced in a way where you’re paying a consistent amount for storage capacity. If 10,000mAh costs $20, then 20,000mAh costs $40. So, if you want 20,000mAh of storage, you can buy either one big battery or two small ones. Personally, I find there are a lot of benefits that come with having multiples.
My wife and I sleep with our bed floating in the middle of the room. The only downside of this is that we don’t have easy access to power outlets. After long setting up a trip wire whenever we wanted to charge at night, we recently started using portable battery banks instead.
I live in a family of four, so it helps for us to have at least four. That’s enough to provide for the worst-case scenario of everyone needing to charge something at the same time during a power outage or on a trip. It’s also enough to leave one in any of the places we frequently like to charge that isn’t near a wall, like our coffee table or in the dining room.
- Ports
-
USB-A (x2), USB-C output, USB-C input
- Weight
-
0.4lbs
- Wireless Charging
-
No
- Capacity
-
10,000mAh
- Flight safe
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Yes
This portable power bank weighs less than half a pound and can charge three devices at once. Its 10,000mAh capacity and 12-watt output are modest, but still excellent for the price.
There’s less at stake when a small battery fails
It was a cheap investment
When you throw your money all at one massive battery, that battery better work. You’ve put all your eggs in one basket, so you don’t have much room for failure.
This happened to me. I paid well over $100 for a 26,800mAh battery powerful enough to charge a laptop. My wife and I bought two, and both failed around the same time. They still came on, but their USB ports appeared to stop working. They would no longer take power in or send power out. They were useless.
Now the batteries I buy are cheap enough that it isn’t that big a deal if one fails. I can buy six of them and still haven’t spent as much money as I would on something like the Anker Power Bank 25K.
Anker Power Bank 25K (165W, Built-In and Retractable Cables) Review: An Advanced Battery
Don’t worry about finding an outlet with this fast-charging battery.
Now that I’ve replaced my laptop with my phone, I don’t need the 60W charging speeds that are on the more expensive portable batteries. 20W charging is not that far from the max charging speed of my Galaxy Z Fold 6 anyway.
They’re cheap enough to be impulse buys
You’ve spent more money on less useful things
The 10,000mAh batteries I purchased this month only set me back $15 each. That’s not much more than buying two chai lattes on a road trip (which is why I prefer to make mine at home). For a family the size of mine, a couple batteries is way less than the price of stopping for fast food.
In the world of consumer tech, a small battery bank is one of the cheapest accessories you can buy. One costs less than a Bluetooth controller, a Bluetooth speaker, or even a decent pair of earbuds. One of the few accessories that costs less and similarly won’t steer you wrong is a cheap phone stand. Those are similarly handy no matter how much you spend on one.
Why My Must-Have Phone Accessory Is a Cheap Stand
They’re so affordable, you can place one everywhere.
As long as you buy your battery from a reputable brand that’s less likely to catch fire (or more likely to be recalled and replaced if it does), you’re fine.
More batteries, fewer problems
Often enough, it’s the more expensive batteries that have issues these days, since they’re pushing the limits of what current technology can do. Smaller batteries tend to use older, more mature tech. They’re dependable, they’re affordable, and they’re always handy to have around. The more the merrier.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
