Portable Chargers with BUILT-IN Cables, Plugs & Wireless 2024

Last year I bought and tested 18 of Amazon’s most popular battery banks and found this hidden gem from VEEKTOMX that was 30% smaller and 30% lighter than other 10,000 mAh banks for just $16, and when my sister asked me about battery banks, I was happy to have the perfect recommendation for her. But she ended up returning it because she wanted one with built-in charging cords, so to never disappoint my family again, this year I bought all 17 battery banks on Amazon with built-in cords. After two weeks of testing these four banks from Sunpolin, VRURC, WeeFancy, and Charmast are my top recommendations. I’ve got links for all of those in the below but stick around to see my testing and why one might be better for you than another. As always there are no sponsored reviews on this channel, and I bought all these battery banks with my own money.

The first thing that I did was divide the banks up into two categories based on whether they had an AC plug for charging directly from a wall outlet. In the non-outlet group, the least expensive was actually one of the largest banks and this 27,000 mAh Gobobiok with built-in Lightning and USB-C Cables was just $14.99, which was a bit suspicious.

Capacity Testing of non-AC banks

To test each battery’s actual capacity, I connected them to a power meter and ran them down to zero. To better understand my results, the first thing to know is that even though battery banks are advertised in milliamp hours, that’s not a unit of power. We need to convert those to watt hours (Wh), and for my testing to level the playing field I’m just going to assume that all the battery banks use 3.7 V batteries which means a 10,000 mAh battery bank should have 37 Wh of capacity, and the 27,000 mAh Gobobiok should have 100 Wh.

Unfortunately, in my testing the Gobobiok had just 53.87 Wh when discharged at 5 V, so it should actually be advertised as 15,000 mAh, not 27,000 mAh. That makes sense because it only weighs 370 grams giving it a fairly normal power density of 0.146 watt hours per gram.

Next up is the $15.59 Anker Zolo which only has a single USB-C built-in cable that loops instead of storing away completely. At 5 V the Zolo output just 29.23 Wh which is only 79% of the 37 Wh we would expect based on its 10,000 mAh rating, and that also gave it a lower power density than the Gobobiok at 0.135 Wh per gram.

After that for $19.98 is this VRURC 10,000 mAh bank with basically every possible USB cord and port including USB-A, USB-C, USB-Micro, and Lightning as well as USB-C and USB-A ports. In my testing, the VRURC output 33.38 Wh, or 90.2% of its expected 37 Wh, which is very good, but it was a bit heavier than the Anker giving it a similar power density of 0.136 Wh per gram.

Next for $19.99 is this Charmast 10,000 mAh bank that also has every cord and port possible but does it without having the USB-Micro looped like the VRURC. The Charmast performed almost identically to the VRURC outputting 33.35 Wh which is 90.1% of its expected 37 Wh and it weighed a bit less for a slightly higher power density of 0.138 Wh per gram.

Then for $20.39 we’ve got another VRURC with a different square form factor, and this one has all the same ports and cords as before but with the addition of Quick Charge and USB Power Delivery. Unfortunately, this square version only output 29.28 Wh at 5 V, which is just 79.1% of what we would expect from an advertised 10,000 mAh battery, however, it was 60 g lighter than the other VRURC giving it a much higher power density of 0.161 Wh per gram.

After that for $21.98 is this 10,000 mAh battery from VEEKTOMX, which is the brand that stole the show in last year’s video. This VEEKTOMX looks 100% identical to the rectangular VRURC on the outside with every cord and port type, but unfortunately performed significantly worse, outputting just 29.83 Wh, which is 80.6% of advertised, and it also had the lowest power density yet at 0.123 Wh per gram.

Next for $22.99 is this bank from WeeFancy that has almost the exact same form factor as last year’s VEEKTOMX, but also managed to add built-in USB-C and Lightning charging cords which had me wondering how they managed to fit all that into such a small package. But they seem to have figured it out and the WeeFancy output 29.85 Wh, or 80.7% of its advertised capacity, which isn’t as much as the VEEKTOMX from last year, but it’s still enough to make it the most power dense battery bank both in watt hours per gram and watt hours per cubic centimeter.

Then for $24.79 is this 6000 mAh bank from Miisso with built-in USB-C and Lightning cords, and at 6000 mAh we should expect 22.2 Wh of capacity but the Misso output just 7.04 Wh, or 31.7% of its already lower advertised capacity which means it’s actually more like a 2000 mAh battery. It had by far the lowest power density yet at 0.060 Wh per gram, which is really bad, especially for the price.

Following that is the $24.99 Sunpolin which has built-in USB-C and Lightning cords, a USB-C port, and in addition to supporting quick charge and power delivery it also has MagSafe wireless charging, a recessed dimple for Apple Watch charging, and a flip out metal kickstand. In my testing, the Sunpolin output 32.12 Wh at 5 V which is 86.8% of advertised and despite all the extra tech in there for wireless charging and quick charging, the Sunpolin still had an impressive power density of 0.156 Wh per gram and a 30% smaller footprint than the other rectangular 10,000 mAh batteries, giving it the second highest power density in watt hours per cubic centimeter.

Following that impressive battery is something significantly less impressive. The $29.97 UYAYOHU has all four USB cord types as well as a flashlight and solar panel for charging. That all sounds cool, but the UYAYOHU which claims to be 40,000 mAh, only output 50.6 Wh at 5 V which is 34.2% of expected meaning its real capacity is around 14,000 mAh, which again makes sense based on its weight and despite its low measured capacity it still had a pretty normal power density of 0.139 Wh per gram.

After that for $32.99 is this 5000 mAh battery bank from Rorry which they advertise as a keychain form factor, but it’s pretty big for that. In addition to USB-C and Lightning cords, the Rorry has an Apple Watch charger but doesn’t seem to support wireless phone charging or MagSafe. In my testing, the Rorry output 15.63 Wh at 5 V, which is 84.5% of its expected capacity and had a power density of 0.117 Wh per gram which is well below average.

Last, the most expensive battery bank in this category by a significant margin is the $48.99 10,000 mAh Belkin Boost Charge which has Lightning and USB-C cables built-in. The Belkin supports quick charge and power delivery, and, in my testing, it output 31.12 Wh at 5 V, which is 84.1% of its expected capacity, but the Belkin weighed more than most giving it a power density of just 0.130 Wh per gram which is at the low end of the spectrum.

And that means that so far, for the power banks with no AC plugs, the three standouts are the WeeFancy which had the highest power density in watt hours per gram and watt hours per cubic centimeter and support for USB-C power delivery, the Sunpolin which had the second highest watt hours per cubic cm, power delivery support, wireless charging, and a built-in kick stand, and the VRURC square which had the second highest watt hours per gram, power delivery support, and the most connectivity with all four USB cable types and both USB port types.

AC Charging Banks

Next up we’ve got five more banks with built-in AC plugs so they can charge directly from a normal wall outlet. Starting with the least expensive, the $20.87 TG90, which is 5000 mAh and has built-in Lightning and USB-C cables that pull down from the same side as the AC plug. The TG90 charges its own battery at 11.7 watts via the AC plug but only supports very slow charging via passthrough. In my testing, it output less than 1 W to my Google Pixel via the USB-C cable when plugged into the wall. In my capacity testing, the TG90 output 15.73 Wh at 5 V which is 85% of its expected 18.5 Wh, but it had a pretty low power density of 0.117 Wh per gram.

Next for $21.99 is this VEGER 10,000 mAh bank which is the first of three basically identical batteries. The VEGER has a Lightning cable and a combination USB-C and USB-Micro cable that pull out from the opposite side of the AC plug. The VEGER charges its own battery at 11.2 W and supports charging via passthrough providing 6.2 W to my Google Pixel in addition to the 11 W used to simultaneously charge the internal battery. During my testing, the VEGER output 33.47 Wh at 5 V which is 90.5% of its expected capacity, and it also had a decent power density of 0.149 Wh per gram.

After that for $23.99 is this almost identical 10,000 mAh battery bank from VEEKTOMX that also has the same Lightning and combination USB-C and USB-Micro cables that pull down from the side opposite the AC plug. The VEEKTOMX charges slightly faster than the VEGER at 11.8 W and also supports charging via passthrough providing 6.3 W to my Google Pixel in addition to the almost 12 W charging the internal battery. During my testing, the VEEKTOMX output 30.03 Wh at 5 V which is just 81.2% of advertised giving it a lower than average power density of 0.131 Wh per gram.

Then the most expensive of the identical trio is this $24.99 battery from Charmast which also has the Lightning and combination USB-C and USB-Micro cords that pull down opposite the AC plug. But the Charmast seems to have slightly upgraded internals allowing it to charge about 1 W faster, as well as provide significantly more power via passthrough charging my Google Pixel at 7.2 W in addition to the 16 W used to charge the internal battery. The Charmast also had the highest percentage of its advertised capacity, outputting 33.57 Wh, which is 90.7% of advertised, but it weighed slightly more than the VEGER giving it a lower power density of 0.145 Wh per gram.

Last, the most expensive AC plug battery bank is this $25.91 10,000 mAh bank from Q, which has dedicated USB-C, USB-Micro and Lightning cables. The Q charges its internal battery at 6.3 W which is about half the speed of the other battery banks, and it also only supports 4.8 W of passthrough charging. In my testing the Q output was just 29.44 Wh at 5 V which is 79.6% of advertised, and it weighed quite a bit more than the others giving it a very below average power density of 0.108 Wh per gram.

That means that for the AC plug battery banks, the clear standout was the $24.99 Charmast which not only had the highest battery capacity, but also the highest wattage internal charger, and the best pass through charging. But the VEGER was also good and had slightly higher power density in both Wh per gram, and Wh per cubic centimeter.

Power Output

Next, looking at all the banks together, I measured their charging output by draining my iPhone 13 Pro and Google Pixel 7A down below 50% battery and recorded the maximum charging rate for each bank, which was not all that exciting since most of the chargers only support the standard 5 V, 1.5 A charging speed which gave them a maximum of about 7.5 W for both my iPhone and Google Pixel.

But the Sunpolin, Anker Zolo, VRURC Square, Gobobiok, Belkin Boost Charge, and WeeFancy also support Quick Charge and PD which lets them boost their voltage from 5 V to 9 V to supply extra power, and when charging my Pixel all of them except the Belkin supplied over 19 W, while the iPhone maximum charging rate was lower just based on limitations put in place by Apple to extend battery health.

In addition to phone charging, I also tested whether the six PD capable power banks could charge my MacBook, and I was surprised to see that both the Anker Zolo and WeeFancy could not only provide power, but also charge the MacBook, with the Anker outputting 30 W at 20 V and the WeeFancy outputting 20 W at 12 V.

Recharge Speed

I think that covers all the basic stuff but there are a few more quirks and features we need to talk about, all related to charging the banks themselves. I measured each bank’s maximum charging rate using my Anker desktop charger and found that the Sunpolin, Anker, and VRURC Square had the highest charging rates above 18 W when using their built-in USB-C cables or USB-C ports.

But confusingly the VRURC Square is the only bank that can charge via both its own USB-C and USB-A cables, and all the other battery banks that have both USB-A and USB-C like the Gobobiok, Charmast, and VRURC rectangle can only charge with USB-A where they max out at 10.4 W, and to get their maximum charging rate you have to use your own cable with their USB-C port.

Similarly, none of the AC plug battery banks can be charged by any of their cables, so you either need to plug them directly into the wall outlet or plug your USB-C cable into their USB-C port.

The wireless charger from Rorry supports passthrough, and if you’re plugged in via its USB-C port you can slowly charge your iPhone on the Lightning cable and your Apple Watch on the wireless charger while still charging the bank’s internal battery. The Sunpolin suspends charging its own internal battery whenever the wireless charger is active, but it does automatically switch back to self-charging mode once your phone or watch finishes wirelessly charging.

So, too long didn’t watch? Here’s the easy conclusion.

Conclusions

If you want a battery bank with an AC plug the Charmast is the best and not only supports pass through charging at the highest rate, but also has a slightly higher capacity than the other AC plug banks. However, even though the built-in plug is convenient, all the other features of the Charmast are worse than my other recommendations.

If an AC plug isn’t important to you, the four standouts are the WeeFancy, Sunpolin, VRURC Square, and Anker Zolo.

Of those, my personal favorite is the Sunpolin which gives you the option of using MagSafe wireless charging or the built-in cables, has 5 V, 9 V, and 12 V PD charging capabilities, very decent overall capacity at 32.12 Wh, and the fastest recharge rate at 19.2 W. The MagSafe is also surprisingly sturdy, and the built-in stand can hold your phone in portrait or landscape mode while wirelessly charging. To me, the only downsides of the Sunpolin are that it only has USB-C and Lightning cables, it has no USB-A port, and even though it supports 12 V PD, I couldn’t get it to charge my MacBook.

The VRURC square is just as compact and energy dense as the Sunpolin, but also includes USB-Micro and USB-A cords as well as a traditional USB-A port but lacks wireless charging. So, if you have some older devices that need USB-Micro or proprietary charging cables that need USB-A then the VRURC square is right for you.

The WeeFancy is another all-around great pick with a nice slim form factor giving it the highest power density both by volume and weight and it has USB-A and C ports, built-in Lightning and USB-C cables, and I was especially impressed by the power delivery implementation that not only had good charging speeds for my Google Pixel and iPhone 13 Pro, but could also charge my MacBook using 12 V Power Delivery. So, if you’re looking for the most power in the smallest package, the WeeFancy is right for you.

And last, the Anker Zolo was pretty underwhelming in the sense that it had below average capacity, below average power density, and only a single built-in USB-C cable that just loops around and doesn’t really store away, but it was the only bank that supports 20 V PD. So, if that’s what you need it’s kind of your only option, and the good news is that it’s also pretty inexpensive.

As a reminder there are no sponsored reviews on this channel, but I do have links for all the batteries below and as always, I appreciate when you use those links since as an Amazon affiliate I do earn a small commission on the sale at no cost to you.

I’d also like to thank all my awesome patrons over at Patreon for their continued support of my channel, and if you’re interested in supporting my unsponsored reviews please check out the links in the description. If you enjoyed the video, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel and as always, thanks for watching The Hook Up.