Whatever you call them, be it a portable power bank, portable battery pack or portable phone charger, there's nothing more invaluable than having a burst of power for your phone when on the go.
Despite improvements to phone battery life in every new flagship phone, it seems impossible to find a phone that'll last for much longer than a day. If you're a serial Pokémon Go fiend, or take tons of selfies a day, you're going to burn through your phone battery even faster. Thankfully, portable power banks are now so commonplace you'll be able to overcome that flashing red power warning when it hits before the day's through.
While you may be thinking that you can just go out onto your local high street and pick up a bargain on a portable battery, it seems that brick-and-mortar stores like to charge a comparative fortune for chargers. So, we've put together a selection of the best, most useful, and cheapest portable smartphone chargers you can buy online for sensible money.
The best power banks
1. Amazon Basics
Capacity | 5,600mAh |
Price | £11 |
Size (WDH) | 115 x 65 x 13mm |
Weight | 118g |
Type “portable charger” into Amazon and you’ll see the company’s Basics range promoted alongside all the big names, with seven different capacities on offer from 2,000mAh to 16,100mAh. We plumped for the 5,600mAh model to review.
This is a fraction wider and thinner than a pack of cards, and slips comfortably into a pocket. True to its name, there’s nothing fancy or frivolous about its design. Its matte black, rubberised finish is well constructed, but you get only one charging port.
There are four indicator lights for the battery, indicating 25% to 100% capacity. One nice touch is that they flash when it dips below 10%, a handy reminder that it’s time to find a plug.
As you’d expect from such a small capacity, you don’t get much out of it. One full recharge of our test Nexus 6P phone, which has a 3,450mAh capacity, took the Basics down to 25%, according to the indicator lights. In reality, there was only enough left to push the phone from zero to 14%.
As a slip-in-your-pocket charger, though, this model is a great buy.
2. Aukey PB-N36
Capacity | 20,000mAh |
Price | £25 |
Size (WDH) | 130 x 81 x 20mm |
Weight | 385g |
Aukey is a big name in the world of portable batteries, but that doesn’t mean expensive: £25 inc VAT is one of the best prices you’ll find for a 20,000mAh portable charger from a known brand.
Not that this power pack would win any style prizes, with a blocky, black design reminiscent of old-style ThinkPads. There are no indicator lights: instead, you press the backlit power button and must remember that white equates to 70-100% charge, green to 30-70% and red to 0-30%.
What you do get is a torch light (keep the power button pressed down for a second to activate) and a Lightning connector for charging. Very handy for iPad and iPhone owners, but note the only cable in the pack is for the micro-USB input.
There are two USB charging outputs, both of which can output at 2.4A – while Aukey’s specs suggest it can only output a total of 3.4A at any one time, it charged our test Nexus 6P from zero to 20% in 30 minutes when on its own and when we charged an iPad 2 simultaneously.
If you’re simply looking for value and capacity, the Aukey offers the best combination here. Just note the RavPower 22000mAh can simultaneously charge more devices at higher speeds.
3. RavPower RP-PB043 Turbo Series
Capacity | 20,100mAh |
Price | £44 |
Size (WDH) | 173 x 99 x 22mm |
Weight | 381g |
Head to RavPower’s site (ravpower.com) and you’ll be faced with a bewildering number of chargers, all offering various benefits and capacities. The PB043 is all about speedy charging, with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3 technology built in: that means it can charge suitably equipped hardware (the 12in Apple MacBook, Chromebook Pixel, certain Android phones) up to four times quicker than rival chargers.
Just as importantly, the Qualcomm chip inside will work out exactly what voltage your device needs, which means less wastage and less heat from the charger. To a certain extent, this is marketing, but the RavPower does live up to its claims: it’s cool to the touch even after an hour’s charging.
However, the fact that – just like all the other chargers – it could only take our 6P from 0% to 20% in 30 minutes emphasises that you need the right partner devices (the 6P does support fast charging, but only with a limited number of chargers).
The only way to tell how much capacity it has left is via the four light indicators, but thanks to its huge capacity you shouldn’t need to check this too often anyway. It’s a great partner for a business trip or a weekend away. It is notably larger than the 22,000mAh RavPower unit, though, being about 1cm taller than the 6P, a fraction wider, and almost three times as thick.
If you have a certified Quick Charge device, this is a great buy.
![Image of [Quick Charge 3.0] RAVPower Turbo+ 20100mAh Portable Charger External Battery Pack with Qualcomm Quick Charge Technology and USB Type-C Input & Output](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41TUArX4M3L._SL160_.jpg "Image of [Quick Charge 3.0] RAVPower Turbo+ 20100mAh Portable Charger External Battery Pack with Qualcomm Quick Charge Technology and USB Type-C Input & Output")
4. RavPower RP-PB052 Ace Series
Capacity | 22,000mAh |
Price | £30 |
Size (WDH) | 165 x 70 x 24mm |
Weight | 407g |
If you’re looking for extras from your portable charger, you can safely ignore the RavPower RP-PB052. There’s no clever way to check its battery capacity, just the four indicator lights on its front, and no Quick Charge output to match its sister device. You don’t even get a splash of colour.
Instead, RavPower concentrates on packing an enormous amount of battery power into its surprisingly small frame: despite having 1,900mAh more capacity than its sibling, this device is both shorter and narrower, yet only a fraction thicker. In terms of size, it’s very similar to the classic Nokia Communicator phones with the clamshell keyboard.
RavPower also packs in three USB ports, with a combined 5.8A capacity. So, two can output at 2.4A and one at 1A simultaneously. All the ports include “iSmart” technology, so automatically detect the right settings for the attached device.
In a 30-minute blast, it took our Nexus 6P from zero to 20%, in line with all the other chargers here. And this didn’t make a dent in its capacity; RavPower claims the PB052 will recharge an iPhone 6s nine times.
Incredible charging density, and an aggressive price, means this is the all-purpose charger we’d reach for first.
5. Mophie powerstation 8X
Capacity | 15,000mAh |
Price | £90 |
Size (WDH) | 184 x 106 x 12mm |
Weight | 386g |
The problem some people will hit with the RavPower and Aukey designs is that they’re so thick. They don’t slip easily into pockets, for instance, whether that’s the inner sleeve of a briefcase or rucksack, or your jacket. That’s one of the reasons Mophie adopts a slimline design for its powerstation range, with the 8X on review here being its highest capacity unit: despite holding a 15,000mAh battery, it’s only a shade thicker than most smartphones.
It comes pre-charged to roughly half full and offers two USB ports. The first can provide a 15W fast charge (5V at 3A), the second a more standard 2.4A output. There were no surprises when charging our Nexus 6P test phone, which went from zero to 20% in 30 minutes no matter which output we chose.
One huge positive of the Mophie is that you don’t just get a four-LED indicator on the side to indicate power, but you can also pair it via Bluetooth and then download the mophie Power app. This provides an instant view of the amount of charge left in both the phone and the external battery, allows you to check for firmware updates, and lets you set alerts for both the phone and the charger.
There’s only one real downside to the powerstation, and that’s its price.
