Portable chargers with a traditional USB connector are always useful for anyone with an iPhone or iPad. They are useful when you are away from the home or office, especially when traveling. And as many in the country (including me) were reminded last week, they are also very useful when you lose power at your home as a result of bad weather.
Nowadays, however, many devices can charge faster with a newer USB-C PD connection, which provides more power and can charge more quickly. Some devices even require the extra power that you get with USB-C. Earlier this year, after doing some research on the available portable chargers, I decided to purchase a device made by Anker called the PowerCore 10000 PDF Redux. After using this product for over a month, I’m incredibly happy with it and I highly recommend it. It is great for charging an iPhone or iPad, and it has even made my HomePod mini much more enjoyable.
Design
This device is small and portable. It is just over 4” long, about 2” wide and about 1” tall. Because of the curved sides, it is easy to hold in a hand. The device weighs less than 7 ounces, so it adds a little bit of weight to a briefcase or purse, but not very much. You can definitely walk around with this device in your pocket, if necessary.
The short edge of the device has two ports. One is a traditional USB port, which can provide up to 12.3 watts of power. The other is a USB-C PD port, which can provide 18.8 watts of power.
There is a single button on the top of the device. Press the button to see how much charge the device has, and between one and four blue lights will turn on.
Charging
The Anker PowerCore 10000 PD Redux charges itself using the USB-C port. Just connect a USB-C to USB-C cable (one is included) to any USB-C power adapter (which is not included), such as the power adapter that comes with an iPad Pro or the newer iPhone models. The PowerCore can recharge itself from 0% to 100% in about 3.5 hours. Anker says that you can also charge using a traditional USB charger, but that it will take 9 hours to charge. (I didn’t test that.) When the PowerCore is charging, the blue lights around the button flash, and you can see roughly how much the PowerCore is charged based on how many of the four blue lights are illuminated.
When the PowerCore is fully charged, you can use it to charge other devices using either the USB port or the USB-C port, making it incredibly versatile. I have found the PowerCore to be particularly useful for charging the following three products:
iPhone charging
Use your own USB-C to Lightning cable (the one that comes with newer iPhones) to use the PowerCore to charge an iPhone. As the name indicates, it has a 10,000 mAh battery, which means that it will recharge a typical iPhone almost three times. And because it is USB-C PD charging, it charges my iPhone 12 Pro much faster than a traditional USB-to-Lightning charge. Nobody likes waiting for an iPhone to charge, especially when you only have a short amount of time to charge. Thus, the extra charging speed that you get with USB-C on the PowerCore is quite welcome.
Note that you can use the PowerCore to charge two devices at the same time by using both the USB-C port and the USB port, but when you do this, you lose the ability to fast charge on the USB-C port. Once you are done using both ports, unplug the USB-C cord and plug it in again to go back to the fast charging mode.
iPad Pro charging
With my 12.9" iPad Pro down to almost 0%, this PowerCore was not enough to get back to 100%. It got me to around 60% or so. Critically, however, if I started with a full 100% at the beginning of the day and then plugged in to the PowerCore as the power started to go below 50%, that was enough additional charge for me to make it through the end of the day for those days when I was using my iPad extensively during the day without plugging it into a wall outlet. Using a traditional USB charger with an iPad Pro is sort of a joke; all it really does is slow down somewhat the speed at which your battery goes down. But with USB-C on this PowerCore, I was able to use my iPad while the battery percentage also increased back up to 100%.
For both an iPhone and an iPad, in the past, I’ve found portable chargers most useful when I am traveling. I have not traveled during the past year due to the pandemic, but I find that portable chargers are now useful for another reason: independence. When I am working at home with my wife and two teenagers in the house, I typically use my iPad with an external keyboard. That’s how I am typing this post right now. In the past, I would have to make sure that my iPad (or iPhone) had a sufficient charge before I started to get work done; otherwise, I would need to find a place to work that was close enough to a wall outlet so that I could charge. But with the Anker PowerCore 10000 PD Redux, it really doesn't matter how much charge my iPad has when I start. I can find any corner of the house to call my own, or even someplace in the backyard, to get work done. Whenever I need more power, the PowerCore is there to give it.
HomePod mini
I’ve been using two HomePod mini speakers since my wife gave them to me as a present for Christmas. The HomePod mini has a built-in cord, which you cannot remove from the device, with a USB-C connector at the end. The HomePod mini comes with a 20W power adapter, and at first, it required 20W to power it, but in late 2020, Apple updated the firmware to support 18W charging. That means that you can now use it with the PowerCore, which provides just over 18W.
The Anker PowerCore 10000 PD Redux does a fantastic job charging the HomePod mini, so much so that it actually transforms the HomePod mini into a new device: a portable HomePod mini. I’ll discuss this more in my upcoming review of the HomePod mini, but suffice it to say that I love my HomePod mini much more now that I have the PowerCore.
Using a PowerCore to power a HomePod mini does not seem to take much power. I once played music for eight hours straight with my HomePod mini plugged into the PowerCore. When I started, the battery indicator on the PowerCore was at four out of four lights. When I finished, it was still at four out of four lights. I guess I could have kept the music playing for much, much longer.
Trickle-Charging Mode
This device shines when it provides a lot of power. But sometimes, you want to charge something that takes a very small amount of power, like a Bluetooth headphone or a Fitbit. When a portable battery like the PowerCore senses that not much power is being drawn from it, it may think that it is done charging and it will shut off for safety.
To help with this, Anker includes a Trickle-Charging Mode with this device. To activate it, press the power button twice or press and hold for two seconds. This causes the lights around the button to change color from blue to green. In this mode, this device will output much less power and will know that it is supposed to be doing so. Thus, you get all of the power that you need to charge something small that doesn’t need much power to begin with.
Conclusion
I’ve been very happy with the PowerCore 10000 PD Redux. It provides lots of power when I am on-the-go — which one day will mean when traveling, and for now mostly means just finding a place to get work done. And for my HomePod mini, this charger actually adds a new feature, turning it into a portable speaker that I can bring to the backyard. Because the this device is so powerful, I think it is perfect to keep in a briefcase or purse so that it is always there if you need it. And finally, I’ve had very good experiences with the Anker brand in the past, so this is a name that I trust.
If you are looking for a great, small portable charger for your iPad, your iPhone, or for any other device that can take advantage of USB-C, you should consider the PowerCore 10000 PD Redux. I'm very glad that I have it.
Click here to get the Anker PowerCore 10000 PD Redux from Amazon ($39.99)
