Taking care of business doesn\u2019t always happen within range of an outlet. Traveling, working off-site and decamping to a coffee shop are all situations where a laptop power bank could come in handy. These high-capacity batteries can recharge your devices \u2014 from tiny earbuds to power-hungry laptops \u2014 and can even top off more than one at a time. There aren\u2019t quite as many laptop power banks on the market as there are standard portable chargers<\/a>, but you\u2019ll still find a fair number to consider. I tested out a handful and can recommend three that cover different needs when you\u2019re far from an outlet but still need extra power.<\/p>\n If you just need to keep a smartphone from dying before you can make it home, just about any power bank will do. But if you need to revive multiple devices or the substantial battery of a laptop, you\u2019ll want something with a high milliamp-hour\u200b\u200b (mAh) capacity. A power bank capable of delivering a meaningful charge to a laptop will have a capacity between 20,000 and 27,000 mAh.<\/p>\n Go higher than 27K mAh and you won\u2019t be able to take it on an airplane, which is why most portable chargers top out around that number. Since the voltage for most portable power banks is around 3.7 volts, a 27,000mAh battery translates to 99.9 watt hours \u2014 which is the maximum capacity the TSA will allow<\/a> for carry-on luggage. (And note that these batteries can\u2019t be checked, regardless of size).<\/p>\n If you want something even bigger than a laptop power bank, and don\u2019t need to fly with it, you\u2019ll likely want to look into portable power stations. These can be the size of a car battery or larger and can potentially fuel an entire weekend away.<\/p>\n Another thing to keep in mind is that the capacity listed on a power bank is not what will be delivered to your devices. As I mentioned, the voltage of most of these batteries is 3.7 volts. Most devices prefer their juice in a 5-volt flavor, so internal mechanisms convert the charge. That conversion lowers the deliverable capacity (it also dissipates some energy, as all conversions do). You can think about it like water in a bucket: water will stream out of a small (3.7 volt) hose for an hour, but that same amount of water will only pour out of a larger (5 volt) hose for 45 minutes. Just looking at conversion rates, a 20,000mAh battery should deliver around 14,000mAh to your various devices, but other factors like energy dissipation bring it down further. In my tests, I\u2019ve averaged about a 60-percent efficiency rate between listed mAh capacity and actual charge delivered.<\/p>\n Every large power bank I\u2019ve tested has at least three USB ports, with a mix of USB-C and USB-A, which should cover nearly any portable device you need to recharge \u2014 earbuds, phones, tablets, laptops, you name it. In addition to the different plug formats, some ports supply power at different wattages. For example, one USB-C port might be rated for 60 watts, while the one next to it is rated for 100 watts. So if you\u2019ve got a device that\u2019s capable of 70W fast charging, such as the new MacBook Air, you\u2019d want to opt for the 100W port to get the best charging speeds possible. Note that devices with a smaller wattage draw won\u2019t be negatively affected by connecting to ports with high ratings. For example, a Galaxy S24 Ultra, capable of 45W super fast charging, can happily plug into the 100W port. A device will only draw what it can take, regardless of what a port can supply. Just remember that the port, device and<\/em> cable need to be at or above the desired wattage rating to achieve maximum charging rates.<\/p>\n Some of these larger batteries also have AC ports. It might seem like a natural fit to plug in your laptop\u2019s power adapter for a recharge. But really, the AC port should only be for devices that can\u2019t use USB \u2014 such as a lamp or a printer. Plugging a power adapter into the AC port only wastes energy through conversion. First, the battery converts its DC power to supply the port with AC power, then the power adapter converts that AC power back to DC so your laptop can take it in. And as you\u2019ll remember from physics class, each time energy is converted, some is lost to heat and other dissipations. Better to cut out the middleman and just send that DC power straight from the battery to the device.<\/p>\n Also, you can use more than one port at a time with these devices; just remember that the speed of whatever you\u2019re charging will likely go down, and of course, the battery is going to drain proportionally to what you\u2019re refilling.<\/p>\n Just in the last year and a half that I\u2019ve been testing portable power banks, wireless charging capabilities have noticeably improved. The first few I tried were painfully slow and not worth recommending. Now the wireless pads built into power banks are impressively fast \u2014 particularly, in my experience, when charging Samsung Galaxy phones (though the lack of a stabilizing magnetic connection like Apple\u2019s MagSafe means they only work when rested flat on a pad). Most wireless charging connections can be used while other ports are also being employed, making them convenient for some mobile battlestation setups.<\/p>\n Of course, wireless charging is always less efficient than wired, and recharging from a portable battery is less efficient in general. If you want to waste as little energy as possible, you\u2019re better off sticking to wired connections.<\/p>\n All power banks are designed to be portable, but there\u2019s a big difference between a pocket-friendly 5,000mAh battery and one of these laptop-compatible bruisers. Most of the latter weigh between a pound and a half to two pounds, which is a considerable addition to a backpack. Many of the options listed here have a display to tell you how much charge remains in the battery, which is helpful when you\u2019re trying to judiciously meet out charges to your devices. If a bank has a wireless connection, the pad is usually on the flat top and any available AC connection is usually at one end. Both may require you to engage those charging methods. Don\u2019t be like me and grumble loudly that you got a bum unit without pressing (and sometimes double pressing) all the buttons first.<\/p>\n For the past year and a half, I\u2019ve been testing and using dozens of portable batteries for our other battery guide. Some of those batteries include the higher-capacity laptop power banks you see here. I also got a hold of a few extra banks just for this guide to make sure we covered what\u2019s available. I went for brands I\u2019m already familiar with, as well as battery packs from well-received manufacturers I hadn\u2019t tried before (like UGREEN and Lion Energy). I only considered banks with at least a 20,000mAh capacity and mostly stuck with those that rated 25,000mAh and higher.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s everything we tested:<\/p>\n Due to shipping and travel issues, I wasn\u2019t able to test two of the batteries I had slated: the HyperJuice 245W<\/a> and the UGREEN Power Bank 25,000mAh<\/a>. Once I\u2019ve had a chance to see how these two perform \u2014 as well as any new worthy contenders that hit the market \u2014 I\u2019ll update this guide accordingly.<\/p>\n I tested each power bank with an iPhone 15, a Galaxy S23 Ultra, an iPad Air (M1) and a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip. Even though these banks can charge multiple devices at once, I refilled one at a time, to make side-by-side comparisons more straightforward. I drained the batteries of the phones and tablets to between zero and five percent and then didn\u2019t use any device as it refilled.<\/p>\n For the MacBook, I let it run down to 10 percent (which is when it gives you the \u201cconnect to power\u201d warning) before plugging in the power bank. I then used it as one might in a mobile office, with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, while connected to Wi-Fi and a VPN.<\/p>\n For each test, I noted how long a completely charged battery took to get a device back to full and how much of the battery\u2019s capacity was used up in one charge. I also noted things like portability, apparent durability, helpful features and overall design.<\/p>\n For reference, here are the battery capacities of the devices I used:<\/p>\n iPhone 15: 3,349mAh<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Galaxy S23 Ultra: 4,855mAh<\/p>\n<\/li>\n iPad Air (5th gen): 7,729mAh<\/p>\n<\/li>\n 16-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro: 27,027mAh<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Photo by Amy Skorheim \/ Engadget<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Capacity<\/strong>: 27,000 mAh, 99.9 Wh | Ports<\/strong>: One USB-C in\/out, two USB-A out and three wireless pads | Cable included<\/strong>: USB-C to USB-C and wall adapter | Charge time iPhone 15<\/strong>: 5 to 100% in 2h 56m (wireless) 5 – 100% 2h 22m (wired) | Remaining charge after iPhone<\/strong>: ~ 81% | Charge time Galaxy S23 Ultra<\/strong>: 5 to 100% in 1h 20m | Remaining charge after S23 Ultra<\/strong>: ~ 77% | Charge time iPad Air<\/strong>: 5 to 100% in 1h 55m | Remaining charge after iPad<\/strong>: ~ 64% | Charge time MacBook Pro<\/strong>: 10% to 89% in 1h 18m<\/p>\n Traveling is one of the top reasons people need to use a portable laptop charger \u2014 planes, trains, buses and airports aren\u2019t exactly the easiest places to recharge stuff. <\/a> battery pack has a big 27,000 capacity, which is enough to power a laptop through a couple days of use. I also like how its three wireless charging pads cut down on cable chaos, letting you charge a Qi-enabled phone, earbuds case and Apple Watch at the same time.<\/p>\n You certainly could charge all three of those accessories and<\/em> a laptop at one time, but as with all batteries, that increased drain will quickly empty it and your charge times will slow down quite a bit. From what I\u2019ve seen, the unit works best as an as-needed power supply when you\u2019re out and about, then, after a recharge, it can moonlight as a three-in-one wireless charger in your hotel room. You can even power up the battery while using the wireless pads, making it a sort of travel-ready multi-device<\/a>.<\/p>\n At two pounds, no one would call this light, but the angled corners and narrow design make it feel more compact than other big batteries. There\u2019s no display to tell you how much charge is left, just four lighted pips at one edge, but I found them to provide a fairly accurate estimate. One thing to note is that the wireless watch pad only works with Apple Watches. Since Pixel watches don\u2019t support wireless charging and Samsung only recommends its own chargers for Galaxy Watches, that’s not surprising. The only other drawback is the single USB-C port. The three wireless pads and the two USB-A ports will likely be enough for a days\u2019 work, but one more type-C port would be ideal.<\/p>\n Compared to other 27,000 maAh battery packs, the $149 price tag on the Eclipse Mag is a good deal. Anker\u2019s biggest (27,650 mAh) <\/a> is also an excellent travel companion. The battery itself has two USB-C and one USB-A ports and a handy display to indicate remaining charge and output. Plus the base provides two more type-C and one more type-A ports for charging other devices when you\u2019re back at the hotel \u2014 and plonking the battery on the base makes for the easiest power bank recharge I’ve tried. But at $235 for the set, it\u2019s a bit of a luxury buy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nWhat to look for in a laptop power bank<\/h2>\n
Capacity<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Ports<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Wireless charging<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Design<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How we test portable laptop chargers<\/h2>\n
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Best laptop power banks for 2024<\/h2>\n
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