One of the very first accessories that I ever reviewed on this website was a portable battery. I actually reviewed two of them at once back in 2008, two different models made by the now-defunct Richard|Solo, a company started by Richard Thalheimer, who started as a lawyer and then turned into an incredibly successful businessman. Most famously, Thalheimer founded The Sharper Image, which he shut down in 2008 but was resurrected in 2010 when a new company bought the brand name. As I noted in my review, I found it incredibly useful to have external portable power for my iPhone, especially when I had long days in depositions or in court. Since that first review in 2008, I used and/or reviewed countless other external portable batteries for the iPhone, iPad, and other devices. As a result, I did not expect to come across a portable battery that seemed special. But I did. I recently purchased the Anker Laptop Power Bank, which is typically around $100 on Amazon (see below), and this thing is awesome. It gets my highest recommendation. In fact, I recently bought a second one as a gift for my brother. I love this battery because it packs a lot of power, cleverly includes two USB-C cords, and has a very helpful display.
Power
Let’s get the important but least interesting part out of the way first. This battery has a lot of power. It includes a huge 25,000 mAh capacity battery that can charge multiple devices multiple times. For example, my iPhone 16 Pro Max has one of the largest internal batteries of any iPhone at 4,685 mAh, so this device could charge it many times over. It also has no trouble recharging my iPad Pro M4 13-inch with its 10,340 mAh internal battery.
One of the main reasons that I purchased this device was to use it with my Apple Vision Pro. That headset comes with an external battery pack with a capacity of 3,166 mAh, and it can go for a little more than two hours before it runs out of power. That is not nearly enough when I sit at a table and use that device to get significant work done. But when I connect it to this Anker device, I essentially have all of the power that I would ever want.
Note that comparing the mAh of this power bank to the mAh of your device’s internal battery is not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison because energy is lost due to inefficiencies in battery cells and circuitry, so you will often see a 30% to 45% capacity reduction. Anker says that you can estimate the number of charges by using this formula: 25,000 (the capacity of this power bank) x 0.65 ÷ device battery capacity. So for my iPhone 16 Pro Max with a 4,685 mAh internal battery, I can expect to recharge it about three and a half times.
Having this much power means that you can also charge multiple devices. And you can do so simultaneously. When I attend a deposition, I typically use my iPad throughout the deposition (which can last all day) and I typically use my iPhone at the same time—including as a mobile hot spot to provide Wi-Fi for my iPad. I can connect both of those devices to this battery to make sure that they both can go all day long. With this device with me, I don’t have to worry about finding an outlet and a long cord that will reach up to my devices. I just put this battery right next to my iPhone and iPad. It works great. I haven’t been in trial since I purchased this battery, but I’m sure it would be great for that purpose as well.
The name of this Anker device—the Anker Laptop Power Bank—tells you that Anker had laptop charging in mind when it designed this thing. I virtually always use an iPad, not a laptop, when I am away from my office, so I haven’t tested this Anker device with a laptop, but I’m sure that the ample power it contains would be very useful for charging a laptop. Anker says that this product can get a 16-inch MacBook Pro (M3) to 50% in 33 minutes and an iPhone 16 to 50% in 25 minutes.
Even though this is a large and powerful battery, Anker says that it is approved for flight.
The only real downside of having a battery this big is that it makes this Anker device somewhat heavy at 21 ounces (just over 1.3 pounds). When I put this device in my bag, I can definitely notice that it is there. It weighs about the same as my iPad Pro M4 13-inch, which weighs 1.28 pounds.
When it comes time to recharge this power bank, it supports 100W ultra-fast recharging that can recharge the power bank to 30% in only 20 minutes and to 100% in about two hours. It even supports pass-through charging if you use a charger rated at 20W or higher and if the input power exceeds the output power.
Two built-in USB-C cords + two ports
One of the reasons that I was a big fan of that Richard|Solo battery that I reviewed back in 2008 was that it had a built-in 30-pin connector that could directly connect to the bottom of my iPhone. I could just carry the battery without worrying about carrying a cord. The same is true with this Anker power bank because it has not one but two built-in USB-C cords. (And reading that old review reminds me that we have come a long way from 30-pin to USB-C!)
The first built-in USB-C cord is on the very top of the power bank. It is retractable so that it stays out of the way when you don’t need it. It extends to up to 2.3 feet, but you can extend it less if you don’t need that much cord. Anker says that it is tested to withstand over 20,000 retractions.
The second built-in USB-C cord cleverly becomes a lanyard so you can use it to carry around the power bank. Anker says it is strong enough to support up to 44 pounds, so it can definitely support the 1.3 pounds of this power bank when used as a carrying strap. When you use it as a USB-C cord, it extends to almost one foot.
There is also a USB-C port on the side of the power bank. I typically use that to recharge this power bank at night, but you can also use it to charge another device. For example, this past Saturday, I realized that I had not charged my Apple Watch since Thursday night, so the battery was running low. I used the USB-C charging cord that came with my Apple Watch to recharge my watch using this battery while I was sitting on my couch and using my iPad. That saved me the trouble of walking upstairs to charge my watch on my regular Apple Watch charger on my nightstand.
Finally, there is a USB-A port, which is useful for recharging older devices that don’t support USB-C.
Each of the USB-C ports can send up to a 100W charge. The USB-A port can send up to a 33W charge. The maximum total output is 165W, and you can get that much if you are charging either one or two USB-C devices. (If you are charging one USB-C and one USB-A, you will get up to 100W on the USB-C and up to 33W on the USB-A.) If you are charging three or four devices, the maximum total output drops to 130W. The retractable cord on the top, which is designated USB-C1, will get up to 100W and the other ports will get up to 30W. If you are not using the USB-C1 cord, you will get up to 100W on the USB-C2 cord (the one that doubles as a carrying cord) and up to 30W each on the USB-C3 and USB-A ports on the side. If you are using all four ports at once, which I haven’t had a reason to do yet, you get up to 100W on USB-C1 and up to 30W on each of the other three ports. Note that the power bank has to have at least 25% of its power to achieve the 100W peak recharging rate for a single port.
There are a lot of numbers in that last paragraph, and it is good that Anker disclosed all of this, but when I have been using this power bank, I haven’t had a need to think about any of those numbers. I just know that it does a great job of keeping multiple devices powered.
Having one built-in cord would have been really nice. But having two of them built in is decadent. I love that this power bank is all that I need to have with me, and then when I need to charge one or two devices, which is virtually always all that I need, the cords are right there. I figured that this would be handy when I bought this power bank, but now that I have been using it for a while, I realize that this feature is even more valuable than I expected. And then having a regular USB-C port and a regular USB-A port means that I have everything that I might need.
Display
Every other external battery that I have ever used either doesn’t have an interface at all or perhaps has a few lights that roughly indicate things like the amount of battery power remaining. This Anker power bank has an awesome display that gives you precise information about everything that you might want to know.
Normally, the display is black. If you press a button on the left side of the power bank, the display comes on for a few seconds to tell you how much battery life you have left.
If you start charging a device, the circle on the display indicating battery life changes from green to blue and, just above the remaining battery life number, you see an indication of how much power is going out of the power bank.
While you are charging one or more devices, you can press the button on the side to see which ports are being used and how much power is going out of each port. After a few seconds, it returns to the main display.
If you are charging the power bank, the display shows you how much charge the battery is getting, how much charge the battery has, and how much longer it is estimated to take to fully recharge the power bank. I find that third number to be particularly helpful.
But that’s not all. Press the side button twice when you are looking at the main display and you will see the current battery temperature and whether it is a safe temperature. The reason for this is that when the power bank outputs high power, its temperature increases, so if the battery senses that it is getting too hot it will slow things down a bit to cool down. There are many batteries smart enough to regulate power for safety reasons, but I like that this Anker battery lets you see what is going on.
If you press the side button three times, you will see the battery health and the total number of times that power has been cycled. I’ve only had mine for a month so the battery health is still 100%. But if it doesn’t seem to be at top performance in a few years, it will be interesting to check out that number again.
I really like all of the information that this display provides.
Etc.
[Update on cost] The cost is $109.99 on the Anker website, but as noted above, you can often buy it for less on Amazon. When I bought mine, and at the time that this review was first posted, it was $94.99 on Amazon. However, a reader alerted me that the price on Amazon increased a few hours after this review was published. And yet another reader alerted me that on the afternoon of March 17, 2025, Amazon added a a coupon code to the listing that lets you get it for $99.99. According to Camel Camel Camel, the Amazon price for this product has fluctuated between $89.99 and $109.99. In my opinion, at any of those prices, this product is worth it.
The height is just over six inches, and the sides are about two inches. Anker says that the size is comparable to a soda can, which I suppose is a fair comparison.
Although in most of the pictures in this post I show the Anker battery on its side, the bottom of the battery is rubber so you can stand it up straight on a desk and it stays in one place.
The model that I purchased is silver, but Anker also sells a space black one.
Conclusion
I am so glad that I purchased this Anker power bank. I have been using it frequently, and every time that I do so, it is a delight to use. Not only is this easily my all-time favorite external battery, it is such a useful and clever device that it is also currently one of my favorite accessories. As noted above, I was so impressed that when it was my brother’s birthday—he is a doctor who has always made good use of mobile technology—I bought him one too. The only downside is that at just over a pound, it is a little heavy, and it is larger than other batteries that I own. Thus, this is not a battery that you would want to carry around in a pants pocket. But the Anker Laptop Power Bank is so powerful, useful, and well-designed that it still gets my highest recommendation.
Click here to purchase the Anker Laptop Power Bank from Amazon ($109.99 or less).