Cue music

No one man should have all that power

• Power by Kanye West

You know you’re a serious gadget freak (yeah, I believe freak is the appropriate word now) if you end up needing portable power packs for the gadgets in your EDC (Every Day Carry)

Have you ever run out of juice on your cellphone and wished you had some way to charge them at that instant? Of course you have. And as you may have guessed, portable power packs ¹ Otherwise known as powerbanks, portable batteries, external batteries, or whatever else phrase can describe a portable power source are “universal batteries” that can be used to power/charge [small] electronic devices.

These things are starting to be one of the necessities to us gadget freaks who have multiple electronic devices that need to be on all the time.

I just got my new powerbank the other day; the NewTrent IMP70D – which brings my total of powerbanks to 4. I thought doing a comparison would be helpful for readers that are interested in getting one of these nifty little things. I’ll be discussing the 3000mAh Opt PortaPower, the 6600mAh MiPow Power Tube 6600, the 6000mAh ZAGGsparq 2.0, and the 7000mAh New Trent IMP70D.

Necessities

When in the market for a powerbank, apart from the price (obviously), one must assess their “needs” in two aspects: “practicality” (size, weight, accessibility, etc) and “capacity.”

Juice

In the case of powerbanks, capacity directly translates to how much “spare juice” a person thinks they’ll need on a given day. That “juice” is represented by milliamp hours (mAh). The more mAh capacity your powerbank has, the more power you can pour into your [dying] gadget.

For example, the battery capacity of recent iPhones are [roughly] in the 1400mAh range. So getting a 3000mAh powerbank allows you to charge a completely discharged iPhone back to full power two times (2.8k mAh total).

The mAh amount you’ll need can also be affected by the number of gadgets you have; having multiple gadgets tapping into your powerbank on any given time will obviously require more juice for it to be worth anything.

Lesson here is to know the power requirements your gadgets have – and simply do the math 🙂

Ports

Another concern is how many charge ports you’ll be needing. Do you see yourself needing to charge devices simultaneously? Or can you afford to let one gadget temporarily die while waiting for the other to complete its charge?

And as if that wasn’t already enough to worry about – there’s the matter of connector types you’ll be needing. Are they proprietary, will you have trouble looking for spare connectors should you lose the ones that came with your powerbank, etc?

Rechargeability

I’m now talking about the practicality of recharging the powerbank itself. ² In case you didn’t know, you have to put power into it before anything else. Imagine you’ve just emptied out your powerbank – and will need to use it again soon. Do you imagine yourself being home when that happens – that you can just plug it to your wall, or would you need to carry a special adaptor to charge it elsewhere, etc.?

Size / Weight

We all know that the heaviest part of most mobile devices is usually the battery. Sure, you can have a monstrous battery that can power even a laptop, but do you want to be lugging around all that weight? And would it’s form factor even fit the bag you are using?

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The four units I’m going to share about have different characteristics in relation all factors I’ve mentioned above. So make sure you know what you need and decide if any of the four work for you – or if you need another option altogether.

Opt PortaPower (3000mAh)

This was my first-ever powerbank.

My iPhone’s battery performance then was pretty good – so I didn’t have to worry about recharging it during the day no matter how I used it.

It was my MiFi that was the battery vampire. When persistently connected, ³ Even when constantly on, its battery usage decreases drastically when you’re not actually surfing it would only last about 4-7 hours depending on how heavy the usage is.

That amount of “usage time” is usually too short even for non-power users. Go to a place where there’s no internet at all – and you’ll know exactly how “useful” 4-7 hours of mobile internet is – you’d probably end up draining the unit before you even get to doing anything remotely productive.

So the PortaPower allowed me to charge the MiFi about twice. Still not enough to last the day, but definitely enough, at least on average, to keep the unit working until I get to ride my car again (and charge it while driving).

Pros

1. To this day, it’s the most compact PowerBank I have.
2. Lights that show you the percentage (in quarters) of juice left on the battery.
3. Comes with multiple swappable heads/data connectors for different types of gadgets.

Cons

1. The connector is proprietary (as seen in the picture). It’s an annoying point of failure that can be avoided by simply standardizing the port to something that’s more “common.” I’ve already lost one of the connectors and because it’s proprietary, there’s no replacement to be found anywhere.
2. The powerbank needs a specific adaptor to charge with.
3. Does not deliver enough current to charge an iPad properly

MiPow Power Tube 6600 (6600mAh)

Disclaimer: the picture above doesn’t belong to me. I forgot to take pictures of the MiPow and was too lazy to do so after realizing my omission 😉

It’s basically a thin stick that’s got an impressive 6600mAh capacity – and is able to drive a current that can charge an iPad properly. I got it because I wanted to have a comfortable capacity which I knew could get me through the day even if I charged all devices within the day.

Pros

1. 6600mAh is a pretty big reserve – and makes one feel pretty safe when on the go
2. It’s pretty long – but thin (that’s what she said!) so it’s not as obtrusive as one might think. It takes very little space on your bag when propped vertically or horizontally.
3. Comes with multiple swappable heads for different types of charging ports.
4. iPad compatible

Cons

1. Proprietary connectors – if you lose any of the tips, then you’re out of luck
2. The powerbank needs a proprietary adaptor to charge with.
3. No battery level indicator!

In fairness to MiPow, they’ve got newer models out that seem to deal with most if not all the cons I’ve mentioned – so if you’re in the market today, I’d suggest you include them in your list of things to consider looking at.

ZAGGsparq 2.0 (6000mAh)

While having a slightly smaller capacity (6000mAh) than the MiPow 6600, The Sparq ups the ante by allowing 2 simultaneously connected devices.

I bought this because while the MiPow was very portable when not in use (either at the bottom of the bag, etc.) when it WAS in use, it was a pain in the ass to store – I’d constantly have to figure out how to angle it so it wouldn’t stick out while having enough clearance for the cables to reach the device plugged into it. In short, it worked great assuming you planned to take it out of your bag to charge stuff in a stationary place.

The Sparq, is quite well desiged. Standard USB ports eliminate the issue of losing “connectors” – you can always buy a USB connector for your particular device at any mall. It comfortably fits any of the Grid-it organizers I have, and best of all it can be plugged directly to a wall – since the wall-wart prongs are built right in.

Pros

1. Well designed
2. Ideal size/weight for transport
3. Dual USB ports
4. iPad compatible
5. Built-in charging plug

Cons

There’s only one, but MAJOR flaw this thing has – it doesn’t work as advertised. The ZAGGsparq 1.0 had issues of inaccurate battery readouts, and that the capacity immediately drops to half or 25% after a few minutes of use.

Version 2 (which is what I have) was supposed to have solved those issues – but the issues persist. To ZAGG’s credit, the sheer capacity of the unit allows me to charge comfortably during the day – so I wouldn’t consider it as an utter failure. But it’s just too unreliable to trust if you’re going on a really long trip and would need to know exactly how much juice you have left.

New Trent IMP70D (7000mAh)

This is my newest pack, just got it a few days ago thanks to a friend 🙂

As far as “well-designed” goes, it’s similar to the Sparq – but better in almost every aspect. For the dimensions, just compare it with the other gadgets next to it in the picture below. From left to right: PortaPower, iPhone (with case) IMP70D, Sparq, PowerTube.

As you can see, it’s not that much different from the dimensions of an iPhone (just wider, actually). As far as juice goes, it’s the biggest capacity I’ve got so far at 7000mAh – more power than I [hopefully] would ever need in a single day.

It’s also got dual ports, and supports the iPad’s more demanding charging current.

Pros

1. Well designed
2. More surface area than the Sparq, but less than half its width.
3. Dual USB ports
4. Charged by standard USB current.
5. iPad Compatible
6. While it ultimately uses standard USB ports, it comes with an optional USB cable with replaceable tips

Cons

1. Only has 3 replaceable tips: Mini and Micro USB, and a USB extender

Honestly, as of this moment, I can’t really find any cons on this thing apart from that one I mentioned above (and I don’t even think that’s a con as much as it’s just nitpicking) And I just discovered that the “tip” architecture is compatible with the PowerTube tips – so that means I’ve got a complete set of tips I can use with the IMP70D’s “optional” cable.

But overall, its got good reviews, it works as advertised (so far), it’s thin, light, and has got a monstrous capacity to boot.

The only nuance I would point out is that unlike the Sparq, this doesn’t have built-in charging prongs – so you can’t directly charge it from a wall like you do with the Sparq.

But it makes up for it by being “chargeable” via standard USB. So you gain the advantage of being able to charge it in the car, or a wall as well if you have a USB AC adaptor/wall charger handy.

I believe the issue of which way is “best” for charging the unit would boil down to a matter of preference. And that the Sparq and IMP70D have their advantages and disadvantages. But personally, I’d prefer the IMP70D by the sheer universality of the USB standard.