Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

At the time of writing this review, This Aukey Powerbank currently has the one of the highest capacity (30000 mAh) of any PowerBank offerings from reputable Name Brand manufacturers (you'll find plenty of generic offerings) like Anker (Highest Capacity : 26800 mAH), RavPower (Highest Capacity: 220000 mAh), PowerAdd (Highest Capacity : 20000 mAh) and the list goes on. While this distinction will most likely not hold forever but it is a significant factor until then . Overall Thoughts And Conclusions ================================ There is really a lot of information & important points that I wanted to share with you for this review, it is a bit lengthy . So I'll share the overall summary up front. The Good : - Currently one of the highest capacities of any powerbank offered by name brand manufacturers - Massive capacity makes this PowerBank a true 'Off the Grid' device that can power your families devices through the entire camping/vacation trip, if used correctly (see next point) - The quick charge feature , while a huge convenience, must only be used when necessary as the actual usable capacity / charge cycles are reduced by half (50%) compared to what you can get using the Non-QC port (See the Quick charge section for a more detailed explanation) - The AiPower port does a great job of correctly identifying devices and charging them at their maximum rated speeds - Despite its massive capacity its not much larger than what I expected ( it is still large) and when I put it side by side to my Anker 16000 mAh PowerBank Not So Good: - The massive capacity means its not pocket friendly & it weighs about 1.2 pounds. It should be able to fit in your backpack perfectly though - As per FAA's official guidelines and restrictions on the max capacity of Lithium Batteries, you cannot carry this PowerBank in your Carry-On baggage - FAA's official limit for batteries is upto 100 Watt Hours. This Powerbank is rated at 111 Watt Hours. You will have to take prior approvals from Airlines before travelling to bring it as carry on. Total Capacity Test ================== For this test I wanted to test how much of the advertised 30000 mAh is actually available out of the box . Typically Powerbanks only have around 88%-94% of their advertised capacities because Lithium Ion cells start degrading almost as soon as they leave the production lines. That's just the way the Li-Ion batteries work. To do this, first I drained Powerbank as best I could by charging my devices until it died and then leaving the LED flashlight on overnight to drain the remaining charge . I then charged the Powerbank using an iClever QC 3.0 Charger and measured the capacity transfer using a Drok Ammeter. Advertised Capacity = 30000 mAh Measured Capacity = 26754 mAh (89% of Advertised Capacity) As you can see 89% is still within the expected range , and since its never possible to fully drain a Li-Ion Cell due to protection circuits , there is always 1-3% charge left in them even when they appear dead. So realistically this power bank has somewhere about 91%-92% of its total advertised capacity Actual Usable Capacity ====================== There are a lot of misconceptions about the true usable capacities of Powerbanks i.e we can simply divide the capacity of a power bank with the capacity of a Phone/Tablet in order determine how many cycles any power bank be used to charge (For example a 2000mAh capacity phone could be charged 30000 mAh / 2000 mAh = 15 times by this power bank) or finding the efficiency by how many cycles you can get from it , however these are not correct. The correct Electrical formula of the true usable capacity of a Powerbank is given by: Ampere-Hour (mAh) = Measure of electric charge capacity of a battery typically at 3.7 Volts Watt-Hour (Wh) = A measure of Electric Energy (That is used to charge your phone) So total Energy of this PowerBank at 3.7 Volts is : Watt-Hour (Wh) = Ampere-Hour(mAH) * Voltage 26754 mAh (measured) * 3.7 V = 98989.8 mWh Now in order to charge your phone , this internal voltage of 3.7V of the PowerBank Cells has to be boosted to 5V by its internal circuitry so that the current can start flowing from the Power bank to the Phone. This conversion of 3.7V to 5V involves some losses. A good conversion circuit can achieve an efficiency of around 90% Thus total charge available that the Aukey Power Bank can 'Push Out' to your phone at 5 Volts with 90% efficiency : (98989.8 mWh / 5 Volts) * 0.9 (efficiency) = 17818 mAh Samsung Galaxy S6 Stated Battery Capacity = 2550 mAh Samsung Galaxy S7 Stated Battery Capacity = 3000 mAh iPhone 6s Stated Battery Capacity = 1715 mAh iPhone 6s Plus Battery Capacity = 2750 mAh Total Number of charge cycles (0% to 1`00%) this PowerBank can give using the Non-QC Smart AiPower Port : Galaxy S6 : 17818m mAh / 2550 mAh = 6.9 times Galaxy S7 : 17818m mAh / 3000 mAh = 5.9 times iPhone 6S : 17818m mAh / 1715 mAh = 10.3 times Iphone 6s Plus: 17818m mAh / 2750 mAh = 6.4 times Quick Charge : The Harvey Dent of PowerBanks ==================================================== Here's something that no manufacturer will ever tell you explicitly, nor have I seen many reviewers touch upon this subject across different brands. While having a Quick Charge Port is undoubtedly convenient to juice up your phone quickly on the go - It comes at a big cost . As you can see from the formula in the above section the actual usable capacity of a Powerbank is INVERSELY proportional to its output voltage. The Quick charge technology is able to charge devices quickly by applying a higher power using higher output voltages. Typically at 9 Volts. Thus the usable capacity of the Powerbank using Quick Charge Port Operating at 9V becomes : ( 98989.8 mWh / 9 Volts ) * 0.9 Efficiency = 9898 mAh Number of Quick Charge Cycles you can get : Galaxy S6 : 9898 mAh / 2550 mAh = 3.8 Times Galaxy S7 : 9898 mAh / 3000 mAh = 3.2 Times That's almost half of what you can get using the Standard AiPower Smart port! It doesn't look so impressive now right? Yeah. Again this is nothing against this Powerbank in particular & its just how the Li-Ion & Quick Charge Technology works. My advice is if you have the time (like camping etc.) and really dont need Quick Charge - Use the standard 5v/2.4 A AiPower Port or turn off the Quick charge setting temporarily from your phone Quick Charge Test ================== So if you do decide to use Quick Charge from the Powerbank , you can be assured that it does a great job at it & supplies the same power as my OEM Samsung Adaptive Fast Charger (See Pics) : Samsung OEM Fast Charger Applied Power = 14.22 Watts Aukey 30000 mAh QC Port Applied Power = 14.54 Watts AiPower (Smart) Port Test ========================= For this test I connected a a wide variety of devices to determine if the AiPower port detected the devices connected to it accurately and supplied the rated current for it. My testing showed that the Hub supplied near max current to them at a stable 5V. Measurements were taken using a Drok USB Ammeter. I also noticed that the charger stopped charging and applied only a minimal 'Trickle charge' once a device reached 100% to avoid overcharging/damaging your battery iPhone 5s : Supplied Current = 0.97 A , Manufacturer Rated = 1 A Galaxy S6 Edge : Supplied Current = 1.73 A , Manufacturer Rated = 1.7 A Anker Powerbank : Supplied Current = 2.09A , Manufacturer Rated = 2 A PowerBank Charging Times ============================= Due to its massive capacity , the charging time required to fully juice up this powerbank becomes important . And I am really happy to see that Aukey as rated this powerbanks's max. charging input at 2.4A ( see my charging pic) . This makes it one of the faster charging powerbanks out there . Only the 3A USB-C input powerbanks are faster than this one which are pretty rare. - Charging the powerbank at 2.4A takes about 12 Hours from 0% to 100% - An important note to iOS users - While the inclusion of a Lightning charging port is a big convenience - Please dont use the original charger that came with your iPhones to charge this powerbank , because the Original Iphone Charger is only rated for a max current of 1A . Which means you are looking at double the charge times around 24 Hours to fully charge the powerbank! Disclosure : - I received a promotional sample for my review, as you can see the views reflected are highly objective and my own - I used this PowerBank extensively and tested it for a good amount of time before sharing this review with you to give an accurate picture