Hey guys, Jarrod here and today we’re going to check out the RavPower 20100mAh portable
charger.
What makes this one special is that it fully supports both USB Type-C fast charge and Quick
Charge 3.0 technologies!
Inside the box we have the portable charger itself, expected manual and warranty information,
a protective case for the unit, and a short micro USB cable that can be used for charging
it.
No other cables were provided with my model, and RavPower recommend using your device's
original charging cable to plug into the battery for best performance with that device.
First off let’s take a quick physical tour of the device, it’s quite basic.
The button on the top can be pressed to light up the blue LEDs which display the current
remaining charge of the batteries.
Otherwise all I/O ports can be found on the side, there’s nothing else of interest on
the other sides.
Despite the batteries being able to hold quite a large charge, the whole unit weighs just
381g, or 13.44oz.
As for the dimensions, it’s 17.3 x 2.2 x 8.1cm or 6.81 x 0.87 x 3.19 inches.
This allows it to easily fit into my pocket, allowing me to charge while walking around.
Pokemon Go anyone?
The first input port uses Micro USB and is for charging the device with Quick Charge,
however you can also charge the device with the next port which is USB Type-C instead.
The USB-C can also be used as an output to charge external devices, which is what got
me interested in this model and is essentially why I bought it.
The USB Type-C port operates in spec, meaning 5V / 3A input and output.
This means that I can charge my Nexus 6P very quick using fast charge which is great!
You could also use this for charging other devices, even laptops such as the Macbook
or Chromebook Pixel which is cool, as both use USB Type-C for charging.
Next to that we have the USB Type-A port which provides Quick Charge 3.0 and is backward
compatible with the older version 2.0.
Finally there’s a normal USB Type-A port which offers iSmart, which RavPower say will
intelligently detect the charging speed of the plugged in device and automatically output
the power needed, with support for 5V / 2.4A. Most likely you’ll want to take advantage
of USB Type-C or Quick Charge 3.0 where possible as these are the best options.
As there are three total ports for output, you can charge up to three devices at once
which is also useful.
Now let’s talk about the large 20100mAh battery capacity.
This is quite a lot of power, though definitely not the largest out there.
RavPower claim that this is enough to fully charge an iPhone 6 a full 7.5 times, which
is awesome for something you can fit in your pocket!
In my testing the battery of the RavPower device took around 7 hours to fully charge
from empty using USB Type-C, it should charge faster using the QuickCharge port however
I don’t have a QuickCharge supported charger to test this.
With the battery in the portable charger fully charged, I was able to charge my Nexus 6P
3.75 times.
Keep in mind that the Nexus 6P’s battery is almost 50% larger at 3,450mAh compared
to the iPhone 6’s 1,810mAh, so this appears to live up to the claim.
While there are other external battery banks available that are able to store more than
20100mAh, at the time of purchase very few actually had any USB Type-C or Quick Charge
support.
So although you may have a lot of stored power, it doesn’t do you much good if you can’t
quickly charge your devices.
It sucks if you want to use your phone while plugged in and charging and the phone battery
drained faster than it could charge.
I have had this happen with a much lower quality battery and it makes it almost worthless unless
you plan to leave your device off for many hours while charging.
While this may be a practical option overnight, it’s a lot more beneficial being able to
charge quickly while you’re powered on and using your phone.
I’ve tested charging two phones at the same time while having the battery pack in my pocket
and walking around, despite this it didn’t get noticeably warm at all after around three
hours of use and worked very well.
Additionally the LED indicator lights still showed all 4, so still plenty of charge left!
Overall I’ve found using the portable charger to be extremely valuable while travelling,
allowing me to quickly charge devices while out and about if I get low on battery.
I can then recharge the portable charger overnight quite quickly with USB Type-C. It’s extremely
convenient being able to throw this into my bag and know that I won't run out of power
during a trip, it’s definitely worth the $73 USD price tag in my opinion.
So what did you guys think of the RavPower 20100mAh portable charger?
Be sure to let me know your thoughts down in the comments, leave a like on the video
if you found it useful, and don’t forget to subscribe for future videos like this one.