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Title: The best laptop power banks for 2025

Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2025 09:00:36 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessorie...

My favorite table for getting work done at my local coffee shop has no nearby
outlet. To keep working after my computer hits 10 percent, I use a laptop
power bank. Luckily, after a couple years testing batteries for Engadget, I
have a good backstock to choose from. These high-capacity batteries are also
excellent for travel, with the ability to recharge a phone, tablet and
smartwatchΓÇö sometimes all at the same time (but, if you can help it, I find
charging gadgets one at a time gets the best results). If youΓÇÖre travelling
or like to work away from your desk on occasion, this guide will help you
pick the best laptop power bank for your needs based on our testing. We also
include info on what different battery terms mean, note the latest info on
flying with your bank and answer a few battery-related questions.

EditorΓÇÖs note (6/16/25): Anker recently issued a recall on its PowerCore
10000 power bank (model A1263) due to fire risk. The recall pertains to units
sold in the US through Amazon, Newegg and eBay between June 2016 and December
2022. If you have one of these batteries, you can contact Anker for a
replacement or equivalent gift card. None of the batteries we currently
recommend in this guide are part of the recall, and we havenΓÇÖt recommended
that model in previous iterations.

Table of contents

Best laptop power banks for 2025

What to look for in a laptop power bank

How we test portable laptop chargers

Laptop power bank FAQs

Recent updates

Best laptop power banks for 2025

What to look for in a laptop power bank Flying with a laptop power bank

The reason most portable batteries top out at around 27,000mAh is so you can
still fly with them. The TSA limits the capacity for carry-on batteries to
100Wh and lower. Note that no portable batteries are allowed in your checked
luggage, regardless of capacity. The reason for that limitation is fire
danger.

You may have heard about lithium-ion batteries overheating and catching fire
ΓÇö a recent Hong Kong flight was grounded after just such a thing happened
in an overhead bin. The TSAΓÇÖs rules remain the same, but some airlines are
implementing additional restrictions. Recently, Southwest Airlines was the
first in the industry to take things one step further. Now, flyers on that
airline must keep power banks in clear view when using them to recharge a
device. If the portable charger isnΓÇÖt actively in use, however, it can stay
in your carry-on bag in the overhead bin. Other airlines are following suit
with their own restrictions, so you may want to check the specific rules for
your flight before you take off.

Capacity

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, youΓÇÖll want something with a high
milliamp-hourΓÇïΓÇï (mAh) capacity. A power bank capable of delivering enough
power to a laptop will have a capacity between 20,000 and 27,000 mAh.

If you want something even bigger than a laptop power bank, and donΓÇÖt need
to fly with it, youΓÇÖll 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.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the capacity listed in a power bank's
specs is not what will be delivered to your devices. As I mentioned, the
capacity of these banks is around 25,000mAh. Even the huge battery on a 16-
inch MacBook Pro or a Dell XPS 16 has a mAh rating of around 5,000 -
6,000mAh, so you might think youΓÇÖd get five full charges but in reality,
you only get about a single 70-percent charge. The voltage is different
(typically 3.7V for the power bank and 11.4V for a laptop) which makes the
watt-hours, or the amount of energy each battery can hold, different (working
out to 92Wh for the battery and 72Wh for the built-in laptop batteries). On
top of that, in order to feed a charge from a power bank to a laptop, a
voltage conversion takes place and that dissipates a decent amount of energy.

Without turning this into a physics lesson, this all means that a power bank
with a 25,000mAh (or 92Wh) capacity will typically fill a 5,000mAh (or 72Wh)
laptop battery to about 75 percent. In my tests, I averaged about a 60-
percent efficiency rate between a power bankΓÇÖs listed capacity and the
actual charge delivered.

Ports

Every large power bank IΓÇÖve 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 ΓÇö earbuds, phones, tablets, laptops, you name it. In addition to
the different plug formats, some ports supply power at different wattages.
For example, one built-in USB-C port might be rated for 60 watts, while the
one next to it is rated for 100 watts. So if youΓÇÖve got a device thatΓÇÖs
capable of 70W fast charging, such as the new MacBook Air, youΓÇÖd want to
opt for the 100W port to get the best charging speeds possible.

Note that devices with a smaller wattage draw wonΓÇÖt 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 charging cable need to be at or above
the desired wattage rating to achieve maximum charging rates.

Some of these larger batteries also have AC ports. It might seem like a
natural fit to plug in your laptopΓÇÖs power adapter for a recharge. But
really, the AC port should only be for devices that canΓÇÖt use USB ΓÇö 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 youΓÇÖll 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.

Also, you can use more than one port at a time with these devices; just
remember that the speed of whatever youΓÇÖre charging will likely go down,
and of course, the battery is going to drain proportionally to what youΓÇÖre
refilling.

Wireless charging

Just in the last year and a half that IΓÇÖve 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 ΓÇö particularly, in my
experience, when charging Samsung Galaxy phones (though the lack of a
stabilizing magnetic connection like AppleΓÇÖs 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.

Of course, wireless charging is always less efficient than wired, and
recharging from an external battery is less efficient in general. If you want
to waste as little energy as possible, youΓÇÖre better off sticking to wired
connections.

Design

All power banks are designed to be portable, but thereΓÇÖs 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 youΓÇÖre 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. DonΓÇÖt be like me and grumble loudly
that you got a bum unit without pressing (and sometimes double pressing) all
the buttons first.

How we test portable laptop chargers

For the past two years, IΓÇÖve been testing and using dozens of portable
batteries for our other battery guide. Some of those batteries include the
higher-capacity power banks you see here. I also got a hold of a few extra
banks just for this guide to make sure we covered whatΓÇÖs available. I went
for brands IΓÇÖm already familiar with, as well as battery packs from well-
received manufacturers I hadnΓÇÖt 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.

HereΓÇÖs everything we tested:

Zendure Supertank Pro

Mophie Powerstation Pro XL

Mophie Powerstation Pro AC

Lion Energy Eclipse Mag

Lion Energy Trek

Baseus Blade Laptop

Anker Prime 27,650mAh

Goal Zero Sherpa 100 AC

IΓÇÖm in the process of testing the HyperJuice 245W and will update this
guide once the results are in.

I tested each power bank with an Apple phone (iPhone 15), an Android phone
(Galaxy S23 Ultra), a tablet (M1 iPad Air) and a laptop (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 didnΓÇÖt use any device as it refilled.

For the MacBook, I let it run down to 10 percent before plugging in the power
bank. That's when most laptops give display a ΓÇ£connect to powerΓÇ¥ warning,
as draining any battery to empty will compromise the battery life. 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.

For each test, I noted how long a completely charged battery took to get a
device back to full and how much of the batteryΓÇÖs capacity was used up in
one charge. I also noted things like portability, apparent durability,
helpful features and overall design.

For reference, here are the battery capacities of the devices I used:

iPhone 15: 3,349mAh

Galaxy S23 Ultra: 4,855mAh

iPad Air (5th gen): 7,729mAh

16-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro: 27,027mAh

Laptop power bank FAQs How do laptop power banks differ from phone power
banks?

The main difference is size. Phone power banks tend to have a capacity
ranging from 5,000mAh to 20,000mAh and laptop powerbanks are typically rated
between 20,000mAh and 27,000mAh. ThereΓÇÖs no official definition, however.
Laptop batteries are simply larger and need a bigger supply of power to give
them a meaningful charge.

How do you fast charge a power bank?

You can charge a power bank exactly as fast as the power bankΓÇÖs internal
mechanisms will allow. Most batteries are limited in how quickly they can
accept and deliver a charge to avoid dangerously overheating. But to make
sure youΓÇÖre charging a bank as quickly as possible, make sure the wall
adapter and the USB-C cable you are using have a high wattage rating ΓÇö
using a 5W power brick and a 10W cable will take a lot longer to refill your
bank than a 65W wall charger and a 100W cord.

What size power bank do I need for a laptop?

Look for a power bank with a rating of at least 20,000mAh. Slightly smaller
batteries may work, but they wonΓÇÖt deliver a significant charge laptops.

How many mAh to charge a laptop?

A milliamp hour (mAh) is how much a battery can hold, and most portable
batteries list their capacity using mAh. If you get a battery rated at
20,000mAh or above, it should be able to charge your laptop.

Using mAh to discuss laptop batteries can be confusing. Due to differing
voltages, you canΓÇÖt directly compare the mAh ratings of a power bank
battery to a laptop battery. Using watt-hours is a better gauge, as that
calculation takes voltage into account.

Recent updates

June 2025: Added testing results from UGreen Power Bank 25,000mAh and
included it as an honorable mention. Added updated information on airline
regulations pertaining to battery banks.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessorie...
120040388.html?src=rss

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