Choosing A Power Bank

It's no longer a surprise when we are introduced with brand new technologies, innovations and gadgets in each single day we pass through. So that was happened when we were getting to know about an unique and small piece of gadget known as Power Bank, comes in various shapes and sizes with one main purpose; to ease each of the users who encounter a crucial situation, such that almost-dying-battery and I-don't-have-any-backup-to-keep-my-gadget-alive.

A power bank is definitely an answer or a life savior when your are in such dying-dreadful situation. There are several factors in which we shouldn't neglect when choosing a power bank.

Knowing what is power bank

Power bank is a gadget usually in small size and shape, acts as a substitute battery charger and power adapter. Implemented by a capacitor-like concept, a power bank works when there are charges stored within. Portable power banks can be a great option for a quick and convenient way to keep electronic devices charged when it’s needed

Shape and size

A bear-shaped power bank

There are various shapes and sizes available. For a satisfaction, one should be really careful and can be really picky in choosing those. There are even power banks that come out with mp3-like shape, an external hard drive shape, a cat-like an even a mango shape. Choose what favors you the most.
Let's move on to their sizes. It is just like when you are choosing a t-shirt, shirt or even a blouse. There are small-size power bank, a large one and even a largy-small (medium size). Once again, it's yours to choose. The size and shape does not really affect your gadgets' charging rate really. It is totally a different thing that need to be taken care of.

Capacity

"the bigger the better"

As the saying goes, the bigger the capacity of a power bank, the better it will be, given the fact on how it will affect the entire charging process.
Most of power banks are available in capacity of 2800 mAh, 4000 mAh, 5600 mAh, 6000 mAh and even 1200 mAh. There are also power banks that come along with 20 000 mAh which is totally big. 

Q: what is mAh?A: milliAmpere/hours . It's a measurement 

The capacity provided also hinted us on how many times one can charge his or her gadget, given that the power required to fill up the battery content of the gadgets.

The power requirement of each gadget (especially a smartphone) can be found at the box that come along when you buy the gadget; the box that keeps your gadget within it. You also can find the requirement by visiting the products' official website like SAMSUNG, Apple Inc. , HTC.



How do we know how many times does a power bank can charge for a specific gadget?
Here's a simple example with calculation.

Say, you have a Samsung S Advance  with 1500 mAh battery capacity and you buy a power bank of 6000 mAh, by a simple calculation as below, you can say that the power bank can recharge your smartphone for, like 4 times, given that your smartphone is fully recharged.

Say, you bought a power bank contented of 2800 mAh but you have an iPhone 6 (which is said to have 2915 mAh), eventually your iPhone 6 will not be fully recharged since once the power bank has used up all it 2800 mAh content by transferring every charge of it to the iPhone 6.

All these factors will depend on the power bank cell quality, cell actual capacity, cell PCB board design and cell reliability.

Understand its interface specification

The features actually are referred to numbers of USB port available and USB Cable provided along with the power bank.

There are input-labelled and output-labelled USB Ports, switch, battery indicator LED and anything else which featured the power bank accordingly. For some power banks, they've came together with Bluetooth function.

Input-labelled port is actually a port that you should connected a USB cable to it in order to charge the power bank itself.

Output-labelled port usually comes in two ports. Both ports are labelled with different value of Ampere (rate of charging the gadgets) in which if you choose the one labelled with a higher value, you can speed up the charging process.
One should have known the fact how the length of an USB cable can also affect the charging rate.

Brand name, price, build and cells used

Things are getting more complicated. No, it's not. To make this short, one should be aware of what brands he or she should stick to or to make a consideration in making or choosing the best and better brand.
There was a case where a power bank produced by a non trusted manufacturer was sold at a lower price. It came along with 10 000 mAh but it was found to be a fraud because the power bank only able to charge up to 2000 mAh.

It's good to know that there are still cheaper power banks available in/of the market but the downside was knowing it's all a fraud.

One should be aware of dishonest cheap power bank which may contented of recycled Li-ion or used batteries because Li-ion comes in small size. There also a case when a power bank was dismantled by just opening its outer layer or cover, it was said there was only one Li-ion battery and packed in between 2 small bags of sand. At this point, always try to weigh the power bank you're about to choose. It's better for you to choose a slightly heavy one instead of a very light one. Don't let portable and light power bank be an excuse in choosing a power bank that only will lead you to pick a wrong choice.