DJI has a range of BIG power packs for powering camping holidays or keeping your drones and camera equipment charged up in the field. We saw some great discounts on thesearlier in the season, but now Wex has dropped the ticket price on its mid-range 1kWh model down to a new low.

Wex Photo Video is offering £410 off the DJI Power 1000, which reduces the cost of this to just £469 – the lowest ever price we have ever seen for this monster power bank.

I've fully tested the DJI Power 1000 in my review, and it was impressive. Moreover, DJI has extended the functionality with accessories for any situation that allow you to work with multiple DJI batteries, and charge quickly using a vehicle. so it makes sense to snap some more up even if you already have one.

These are obviously useful if you're out camping or you're our flying. Drone batteries aren't cheap and – if you charge as you go – then you don't need to buy as many batteries to have a fruitful day flying, but DJI will also cover you if you're worried about a collapsing power grid!

I have also seen these devices popular with professional content creators who need to keep topping up on the go and with pilots of fun craft like the Avata 2 drone which, if we're honest, burns through batteries faster when you're having more fun!

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Check our guide to the best laptop power banks and the best camera drones. (Wanna check the competition – check the Anker Solix C1000).

"The world’s first slim laptop power bank with a replaceable battery" has launched on Kickstarter. At just 12mm thick, Edge by British brand Krafted is designed to sit "neatly" under your laptop, geared toward portability while also being more environmentally friendly than alternatives.

The replaceable battery and recycled materials certainly gain sustainability points. But the Edge also promises to "extend your laptop power by 4x and your phone by 5x" despite its ultra-thin footprint that's designed to sit neatly beneath your laptop – with silicone bars providing airflow and ventilation.

The ultra-slim design is, of course, the big attention-grabber. And, while not pocket-sized (being 12.88mm at its thickest, 270mm long, and 190mm wide), the device will fit into practically any backpack and certainly the laptop sleeve of a camera backpack.

With two USB-C and two USB-A outputs, you can charge multiple devices at once, with Krafted claiming the 65W output is powerful enough to charge a MacBook or Dell XPS at "full speed". (Which is a strong feature on paper, but “full speed” does sound a little vague for my liking – so concrete stats wouldn’t go amiss.)

According to the company, most standard power banks are sealed units that normally end up in landfill within "three to five years". Krafted, however, is vying for more sustainable electronics.

The Edge's 20,000mAh battery features a modular cassette design – which means when the internal cells eventually wear out, you only replace those while keeping the hardware in use.

The construction also looks to bolster the Edge’s sustainable credentials, with an aluminum alloy 7075 body and an OBP-certified ocean-bound plastic top panel. Finally, a braided fabric cable featuring a magnetic metal connector at one end and a plant-based faux-leather tag at the other is built into the device.

The Edge is now available for backing on Kickstarter, where it has already smashed its goal by over 440% ahead of the June 10 campaign end date.

It carries an Early Bird price of $139 (around £103 / AU$192), with the regular retail price being $159 (£118 / AU$220). Shipping is expected to begin in July.

Editor's note: As with all crowdfunding projects, there is no guarantee that the final product will match the early depictions in the campaign – or that the final product will be completed or delivered at all. DCW does not endorse this or any other crowdfunding campaign.

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Take a look at the best MacBook chargers and the best iPhone power banks for your portable devices.

We tend to think of portable power stations as big, and power banks as something you can throw in your bag alongside your phone for a few top ups. DJI's Power 1000 Mini sits somewhere between the company's range of bigger battery power stations, but still packs around 1kWh.

Charging is still fast too – the fun retractable USB cable (and the plain old socket – your choice) deliver 100 watts of power, suited for bi-directional fast charging.

That's ideal for creatives – and drone enthusiasts – who might need to carry them some way away from the grid, or even where they parked. It's also handy if you're dabbling your toe into the off-grid world as there is real power here; enough to keep your freezer running in a power outage, for example (there are two AC sockets, and it'll take a charge from an AC cable too).

Oh, and if you're really worried about the times to come, or need to top up the charge fully off grid, then the device is solar-panel compatible too.

DJI Power 1000 Mini: Price

The Power 1000 Mini has a UK RRP of £599, or AU$799 (as with all newer DJI products, it remains to be seen if there will be a US version, but of course it'll need US sockets, so this does depend a bit more on DJI).

It's already not a bad price as there is no need to spend more on a solar converter.

DJI Power 1000 Mini: Specs

DJI Power 1000 Mini: Build and Handling

Built from a reassuringly robust plastic with a very luggable handle, unboxing the DJI Power 1000 Mini gave me no initial concerns. All the connectors and the display are located on the front, as well as a light, so you won't need to go looking around the power station to find things – it's either there or it isn't.

On which subject, this is a portable battery with a finite amount of space, but it still packs in two AC sockets, an AC input, 2 USB-Cs (we'll get to that) and 2 USB-A, and one of DJI's SDC ports (which is essentially an XT90 with some extras, and will take an XT90 connector).

This means that, with a very cheap adapter (I found one for under $10), you can also charge standard drones from traditional FPV brands with XT60 connectors, but DJI have a range of cables on offer for its own drones for the fastest possible charging in the field.

A nice new feature is the pull out USB-C charging cable, which means that you can charge almost any modern phone without needing to remember any other bits of wire at all. It is on a sprung coil and guides itself back in when you don't need it any more.

In terms of monitoring the usage, you have both a detailed display and an app. The latter also allows the changing of settings, for example, a low power alarm, limiting the charging speeds, remote switching of the light (including an SOS mode).

The biggest number on the display – the charge percentage – is easily read from a few meters away, which was very useful for me as I could see it inside the house even when the battery & panel was at the back of a London garden.

The app provides more detailed info like a charge time estimate based on current conditions. There are also a full set of useful management features (firmware updating, energy management. There is a low energy alarm, the option to disable fast charge, and the option to limit the maximum charge to preserve battery life, amongst the controls for things like time out. It's all very easy to understand in the DJI Home app and because Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are supported you can get info from nearby, or keep up to date with the charge status when you're much further afield should you choose.

DJI Power 1000 Mini: Performance

There were several things that immediately pleased me about the power station (which, let's face it, is a fancy way of saying "battery"). Charging time was around an hour – 75 minutes even all the way to 100%.

It took rather longer in the UK, where the weather is not predisposed to show me a lot of sunshine without cloud. Using a 200W solar panel, even with the angle about right and better moments, I didn't see much more than 130W flowing in at once, but it did impress me and occasionally checking and adjusting the solar panel wasn't much of a chore.

Charging from the mains electricity via the AC in port is faster, of course, so ideal if you're in a hurry, but if you're worried about any impending doomsdays, then I'd make sure you pick up a solar panel too! How many other content creators will have planned ahead?

DJI Power 1000 Mini: Overall verdict

To keep camera gear or drones topped up with charge on the road, this is a sensible choice, and the ability to plug a single folding solar panel in means – if you're away camping or just in a good flying field – you should be able to more or less charge the whole battery on a sunny day from a typical 200W solar panel, though you'll need to move it a couple of times to keep the efficency up.

The impressively low weight – DJI has sliced over 3Kg from the DJI Power 1000 while only cutting the capacity from 1024Wh to 1008Wh comes at very little real 'cost' – the Max Output is "only" 1000W at any one time, but that'll run a full-size fridge-freezer when the power is out, and your laptop and wi-fi, for example.

I'm less certain why the USB-C is cut to 100W rather than 140W (less, too, than the older Power 1000), but if it's to keep the components smaller and lighter then it seems a reasonable compromise. The benefits of this design – compact, built-in light (controllable via the app if needs be) – comfortably outweigh the minor restrictions of being 'Mini' in my view. If you disagree, DJI has you covered too.

Alternatives

A few weeks ago, I picked up a third-party NP-FZ100 battery from Neewer. This isn’t really about that battery specifically – it’s perfectly decent, it fits my camera, holds a respectable charge, and costs a lot less than Sony’s own official version ($22.49 / £26.99 at Amazon). But what really caught my attention was a small feature that has now completely changed how I think about camera batteries: a USB-C port built directly into the battery.

Third-party batteries have been steadily including this more and more over the last few years, and it now seems blindingly obvious, but this is one of the most substantial upgrades to camera batteries for a very long time, and I can’t stop wondering why major manufacturers aren’t going for this.

It means you can plug a cable straight into the battery and charge it exactly like you would your phone, laptop, tablet, headphones, power bank, or essentially almost any other device you might have bought in the last five to ten years.

We’ve spent years standardising almost every other electronic device around USB-C, and camera bodies themselves have largely converged on the one universal port. Yet somehow, camera batteries, the thing we most often need to top up while travelling or on location, are still mostly stuck with proprietary, bulky plastic wall chargers that are easy to forget at home, take up precious space in a bag, and feel like a technology relic.

Most cameras have in-camera charging now, which, don’t get me wrong, is incredibly handy, but it only lets you charge one battery at a time, and either tethers the camera to the wall while you do it, or leaves you with a power bank precariously dangling off your camera. Or with USB-C ports built into the batteries themselves, you can charge as many spare batteries as you’ve got cables to hand, and still use your camera as normal.

You can even buy rechargeable AA and CR2 batteries – yep, the little batteries that power film cameras or light meters – with USB-C ports built directly into them. If even increasingly outdated CR2 batteries can modernize their charging, it’s hard to argue that current camera batteries can’t.

Camera batteries seem to be one of the areas that seem to get the least love from camera manufacturers, although are arguably the most essential part of a camera (seriously, try taking a photo without one). While I’m sure it helps camera manufacturers' bottom line by selling more batteries and more chargers, it feels like putting profits ahead of something genuinely useful for consumers.

I didn’t really expect buying a new battery to elicit an opinion about anything, but alas, I’ve unintentionally become an advocate that every camera battery should have a USB-C port built in – and the big camera brands need to get with the program.

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The Anker Prime 3-in-1 Charging Station is the latest in a growing trend of packing as many charging devices as possible into one single unit. With more and more people owning phones, earbuds, and smartwatches, the need for tidy charging solutions is becoming increasingly important.

The station is a premium, Qi2-certified hub capable of wireless charging at speeds of 25W and boasts "aerospace-grade" TEC active cooling to prevent overheating during high-speed sessions. The standout feature is the integrated 1.65-inch HD smart touchscreen that provides real-time updates on wattage and temperature.

As for competition, the closest on paper are Ugreen's MagFlow 3-in-1 wireless charger (15W) and the MagFlow 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Desktop Charger (25W). These are both very good products, with the former offering an unrivaled compact build. Unfortunately, neither features an integrated display.

So, is Anker's less compact unit rescued by its integrated screen and fancy cooling tech, or are these fancy gimmicks that most users could do without? Read on to find out.

Anker Prime 3-in-1 Charging Station Specifications

Anker Prime 3-in-1 Charging Station Design

The Anker Prime 3-in-1 adopts an industrial, premium aesthetic, leaving cheap, plastic alternatives in its wake. The base and charging pads are finished in what Anker calls "Black Stone" and "Shell White," offering a textured, premium feel that resists fingerprints. The arms are finished with a polished chrome, although I would have preferred it if Anker had continued the textured finish throughout.

One of the most important elements of any station capable of housing multiple devices is stability. It's no use having a flimsy piece of kit that wobbles or even falls when placing and removing your phone and smartwatch. These issues are avoided thanks to the 620g heft and the anti-slip silicone ring on the base. The unit remained stationary despite, at times, pretty rapid and rough removals of my iPhone.

The engineering class continues with the hinges. The main phone charging pad uses a high-tension friction hinge that allows for an 80-degree vertical rotation. That means you can tilt your phone from a steep upright angle for FaceTime calls down to a completely flat orientation. The movement is smooth and beautifully weighted, meaning the phone won’t cause the pad to tilt or droop over time.

One of the standout features is the AirCool system that is integrated directly into the phone charging head. This includes "Aerospace-Grade TEC" (Thermo-Electric Cooling) technology and a couple of vents that are located behind the magnetic pad and allow for the silent dissipation of any heat. It's surprisingly effective and helps avoid either your phone or the unit becoming hot.

Last but certainly not least is the 1.65-inch HD smart display with capacitive touch support. The dynamic interface shows real-time wattage for all three charging pads as well as internal temperatures. The flush-mounted glass over the screen blends seamlessly into the base, maintaining a clean look with no protruding buttons.

Anker Prime 3-in-1 Charging Station Performance

The Prime 3-in-1 utilizes the Qi2 25W standard, which effectively doubles the speed of traditional 15W MagSafe chargers. If you have a compatible device, such as any iPhone from the 16 or 17 Series, then you'll be able to reach a 50% charge in just under 30 minutes. Charging speeds with the Apple Watch and earbud pads are set to 5W, which means an Apple Watch Series 10 charges to 50 per cent in just 19 minutes. That's as nippy as wireless phone/watch charging gets, and if you can afford it, you won't be disappointed with the Prime's speed.

You'll no doubt be interested to know how the Prime handles the inherent heat that is produced during wireless charging. This is one of the challenges that I've faced in the past, and I was keen to see whether Anker had found a workable solution. With my devices connected and set to the fastest charging possible, I didn't experience any thermal throttling or issues with overheating, even when using FaceTime. The tradeoff is a little bit of fan noise, but I'm pleased to report that Anker's AirCool tech appears absolutely up to scratch.

The HD smart display provides a natural way to interact with the devices and stay informed about how each charging pad and device is performing. The display is easy to use and not just responsive but also highly accurate to both touch and swipe gestures. I also love that it's customizable with the ability to choose between the different clock faces, screensavers, and themes.

To enhance the overall experience, I would highly recommend getting the companion Anker app. I found it to be particularly helpful for setting and scheduling charging cycles as well as tracking real-time temperature and wattage curves. The app is also required to keep the firmware of the station up-to-date to ensure the dock stays compatible with future iPhone and Apple Watch models.​

Anker Prime 3-in-1 Charging Station Verdict

The Anker Prime 3-in-1 is a high-performance hub that justifies its price tag by delivering Qi2-certified 25W speeds and a premium build quality. It sits stably on any surface thanks to its 620g base, and high-tension hinges keep your devices firmly in position. Maybe the most impressive thing about the Prime station was the AirCool TEC technology, which was able to keep charging speeds fast and temperatures down.

Beyond raw power, the Prime actually stands out against its competitors because of its 1.65-inch HD smart touchscreen that offers real-time data on wattage and temperature. While less portable than competitors like Ugreen, its combination of customizable displays, silent cooling, and app integration makes it the top choice for all types of users.

A poster on Weibo – the China-based micro blogging site – has posted what looks like a DJI teaser for a new product, but it's not one that has been seen in other territories.

Specifically, it looks quite a lot like the company's various forays into the outdoor DJI Power 1000 and the smaller Power 500. More recently, the line has been expanded with the DJI Power 2000. All store roughly commensurate amounts of energy to the product number, so the Power 1000 has just over 1000Wh (Watt Hours) of energy, and are especially good for topping up drones in the field, as well as all the other things a large portable battery is handy for, like providing energy for cameras and lights on location shoots and camping trips.

Here, though, the image posted by Camera Beta on Weibo seems to look a lot like one of DJI's typical launch teasers. Admittedly, I need to preach caution; as with everything these days, that is could be an AI simulation!

Stylistically, it adopts DJI's traits, but that is also something image generation AI is good at!

What is interesting is that – assuming what we're looking at is a power bank in the DJI Power style – there is a big light down the side. This is a feature I praised in my review of the Anker Solix C1000, a product that actually came out before DJI entered this product category. From the picture, that does seem to be something that is finally on offer here.

A light seems a simple addition, but is a very useful tool for a power bank for many other applications beyond drone work, and also for drone operators who are working in more than just hobbyist regulations that insist on daylight. It can just help in moving the box around in a power cut!

Canon’s LP-E6P battery was first shown off with the launch of the EOS R5 Mark II back in July, 2024. The new Lithium-Ion cell that sports the same amount of juice (2130mAh, 16 Wh and 7.2v) as the prior LP-E6NH pack, but now has a continuous discharge rate of 6A – needed for some of the more power-hungry processes found in the EOS R5 Mark II such as 8K as well as some 4K video options, a the pre-continuous shooting mode will become inaccessible and the top shooting speed reduced.

Of course, the Canon EOS R1, which shares many of the same latest features as the EOS R5 Mark II, but uses the larger and more powerful LP-E19, the same as found in the EOS R3 - both sport a built-in grip for more battery space.

The LP-E6P has popped its head up again though with the arrival of Canon’s latest prosumer hybrid full-frame mirrorless with the EOS R6 Mark III, and I think it’s safe to say that the LP-E6P will be the cell of choice for nearly all of the Canon’s full-frame mirrorless models going forward – unless we see an update to the entry-level full-frame EOS R8 or EOS RP which used the smaller LP-E17 cells.

Contrary to the eye-catching headline of this article, it’s not a bait and switch as such. Canon’s first-party cells have always been expensive and the LP-E6P ($89/£112) isn't too different in price to the LP-E6NH that came before it. The LP-E6P is also backwards compatible with older Canon EOS cameras, some just need a firmware update to use it without any issues, so that’s good news if you sell and upgrade your old cells to these new ones – perhaps you’re using an old body as a backup camera and need the batteries to be interchangeable between them.

My concern however comes back to the point I made earlier: Canon’s first-party batteries have always been on the expensive side and where I am in Blighty they're a significant purchase at £112 a pop. In previous generations there’s been a plentiful supply of third-party cells from manufacturers such as Hahnel, Duracell and Matthorn, but in my testing these don’t tend to play nicely with the latest Canon cameras like the EOS R5 Mark II. My older Canon LP-E6N and LP-E6NH batteries do work in the EOS R5 Mark II with some limitations, however my older third-party batteries refused to work at all.

Modern photographers carry more than just cameras – there are mirrorless bodies, drones, gimbals, laptops, and lighting, and phones all competing for battery life. The Anker Prime Power Bank 26K (300W) aims to be the single charging solution that replaces all the bricks, cables, and spare batteries cluttering your kit.

With a massive 220W total output and real-time charging stats on its screen, Anker claims this is its most capable power bank yet. And after testing it over a trip to Mexico – powering a camera, two phones, and my MacBook Pro – it’s clear this isn’t just another power bank – it's a portable charging hub.

Specifications

Price

The Anker Prime 26K (300W) is available now directly from Anker and major retailers. It costs more than standard 20,000mAh units, but this reflects its premium design and laptop-level power output, and it's a fair price. However, if you just need to charge one device, or you don't care about speed, you are much better off looking at slower and cheaper solutions.

Design & Handling

The Anker Prime 20K maintains the same slick industrial look introduced in Anker’s flagship Prime line – rounded edges with a dark metallic finish, and a mini OLED display. It's a nice design, looking like some futuristic obelisk on my desk. However, the giant glossy screen does collect fingerprints very easily, so you might want to keep a microfiber cloth handy. I have also managed to put a few slight scratches in the glass during my travels, so it isn't perhaps the most robust.

The power bank comes with a single braided USB-C cable and a faux leather case, which looks great, but doesn’t have much stretch to it for getting the bank and cable in and out. Considering this has three ports, it would have been nice to be able to get at least three cables in the bag as well, rather than having to carry around loose wires.

Despite the power, the size is surprisingly manageable; it's almost like a very thick smartphone. Although at 580g, it has some heft to it (it's around the weight of three phones), so you’re going to notice it swinging around in your bag, especially on a long day.

All four ports are grouped on the top, with two USB-C ports and a single USB-A. There is also Anker’s proprietary charging connector at the base, if you want to use it with an Anker charging dock (sold separately). If you have a lot of power banks, then this is a neat solution, but for one, I'd just keep it topped up by plugging it into a fast USB-C wall port.

Performance

Individually, each USB-C port can reach up to 140W, or the two USB-C ports combined can reach 280W in total. The USB-A port can hit 22.5W on its own, or this drops to 20W when used alongside both USB-C ports – totalling 300W altogether.

Whatever configuration you’re using this in, it's some very impressive charging speed, and even two 140W outputs were overkill for keeping most of my devices running. I charged my MacBook Pro M4 14in from around 5% to 80% in about 40 minutes using one of the 140W USB-C connections – amazing – although according to the built-in screen, at no point could my MacBook actually take advantage of the full power supply. Phones are also likely to be limited to lower speeds, with even brand-new devices like the Oppo Find X9 Pro only drawing around 40W at their peak.

How long the battery will last depends on what power each device is using versus how much power it is putting back into its battery. I have used this mostly to keep my one MacBook and two phones topped up while travelling, and the Prime 26K managed a full recharge of all each night – which is about right for the combined mAh rating of the three.

However, if you have a 16-inch MacBook Pro with the top spec chip (or other Windows machines with similar power-hungry processors), you will likely find you are able to max out the 140W – especially if you are pushing your machine with anything particularly intensive – although this will run down the power bank much faster as it supplies power for both use and recharging.

Recharge time is equally impressive. With a 140W GaN wall charger, the bank refills in about one hour (1hr20min with my Anker 100W wall charger), which is faster than some laptops.

This is by far the smartest power bank I have used yet. If you connect the power bank via Bluetooth to the Anker app, you get a huge amount of control and feedback, see battery health, and update the firmware. You can see real-time and historic charging rates to figure out how fast your devices can charge, how long it takes to do a full charge, and more. You can switch power modes from smart charging to power saving, or make your own. It’s a lot for some people who just want a big battery that charges their devices fast, but power geeks will find a lot to love here.

Verdict

The Anker Prime 26K (300W) isn’t a normal power bank – it's an absolute monster. But honestly, this one will be overkill for a lot of people. It can deliver enough power for two laptops simultaneously, as well as phones, cameras, and other accessories, and still fits in a camera bag, but whether you can take advantage of all that power is the question.

Many devices (even my high-end 14-inch MacBook Pro) can’t reach the 140 single-port output on offer here. If you are in the same boat, you might be better served by more affordable options with the same capacity, but slower outputs.

However, if you do have more power-hungry laptops and other devices, then the Prime 26K (300W) is pretty hard to beat. The speed is unreal, and the OLED screen and Bluetooth connection to Anker’s very good app make power management effortless.

Alternatives

Although it's been the better part of a year since this product was first shown, way back at CES at the beginning of 2025, the Belkin Stage PowerGrip is now finally available for a list price of $79.99 – bringing 9,300mAh power capacity.

• See Belkin Stage PowerGrip on Amazon USA 🇺🇸 $79.99

You might reasonably point out that larger battery capacities are available – and perhaps in our list of the best iPhone power banks – but there are features on offer here which will feel more useful to photographers, not least, of course, the large DSLR-style grip designed to help with your photography.

Many of my age will even remember when it was common for photographers to buy battery grips for DSLRs – solving both the limited battery life and the comfort of capturing images at both portrait and horizontal positions.

As well as the extra power the Belkin grip provides to keep you shooting longer, the device also has a shutter button, which connects to your phone using Bluetooth. This functionality is supported by phones (including iOS) by default, so there is no need for an extra app.

The base of the grip features a tripod mount with 1/4 inch screw, so your phone can behave a good bit more like a camera for steady photo and video shots.

The Belkin charger features a Qi charger (magnetic charger, or MagSafe as Apple puts it) as well as the integrated USB-C connector and a socket, so can charge three devices at once, and features a charge percentage display. The cable is dual-way, so you can use it to top up the battery from any USB-C adapter too.

Less obvious from the photographer's eye, so to speak, is that the battery grip can support the phone as a bedside table so the phone can be used in alarm clock mode.

This device will also pose a serious threat to the ShiftCam SnapGrip Pro, which comes in at $90 and only provides 5,000mAh.

Belkin's grip is on sale through Amazon USA now and works on (we're not sure when it'll appear in other territories) and is available in three colors – Powder Blue, Sand, or Midnight Black.

See our full guide to the best iPhone camera grips currently on the market

With their charging smarts and portable design, power banks are fast becoming one of the most popular accessories for any remote working setup. Personally, I don't leave the house without making sure I have one in my bag, and if I ever forget, then I instantly regret it.

One of the best and most prominent power bank manufacturers is Anker, which has been creating electronic products since 2011. I've used a number of their products and always found them to be useful, well-made, and reliable – everything you can ever want from this type of product.

The Anker Laptop Power Bank is, you guessed it, primarily for laptop users. With 25,000 mAh of power and speeds of up to 100W, this device is more than capable of keeping your laptop going way beyond what it can normally manage.

Anker Laptop Power Bank: Specifications

Anker Laptop Power Bank: Price

The Anker Laptop Power Bank costs $99/£89.99, although you'll often find it discounted on the official Anker website. It's far from the cheapest power bank on the market, but what you do get for the money is a lot of capacity and a solid design. If you need a charging device that can handle laptops, then unfortunately, this is the sort of money that you're going to have to be happy parting with.

Anker Laptop Power Bank: Design & Handling

This Anker Laptop Power Bank is the latest in a new trend of power banks having integrated charging cables. For this particular device, Anker has provided a USB-C cable that doubles as a carry handle as well as a retractable USB-C cable that extrudes from the top.

Anker has absolutely nailed the implementation of these to ensure that they stay out of the way when carrying them around. The retractable cable, for example, disappears almost completely inside the device, with the end featuring a magnetic strip that ensures it stays tucked neatly away. The carry handle cable also tucks away neatly, this time with a physical 'catch' that keeps the cable firmly in place.

Alongside these two USB-C cables, the power bank also features a single USB-C port alongside a USB-A port. I'm an iPhone 12 owner, so I was grateful that Anker didn't jettison all ports in favor of the retractable cables. If I were being picky, then I'd have preferred one or two more physical ports to provide an extra level of flexibility.

The design is as premium as you'd expect it to be at this price. Despite not being made of aluminum alloy, the durable plastic casing is more than up to the task, with zero flexing experienced during testing. The case is rugged enough to be thrown into a bag without any worry of damages or scratches.

The design is finished off by a beautiful TFT screen, which displays real-time charging information. I've read some users reporting that they'd like a bigger screen, but in my opinion, it is more than big enough to provide all the information that users will need. The inclusion of colored graphics helps with understanding the information and provides an additional level of class to the device.

Anker Laptop Power Bank: Performance

The performance of the Anker Laptop Power Bank is one of the best I've tested, easily competing with Ugreen's flagship products. With a capacity of 25,000 mAh, the power bank was able to charge my MacBook Pro (M2) around four times and my iPhone 12 in the region of seven or eight before it was fully empty. This meant that I didn't have to worry about recharging the bank every single night.

Every USB-C port is capable of charging at 100 W, although the total speed of the device is 165 W. This is enough for charging a laptop and phone simultaneously but does fall short of the 140W port that is featured on the Ugreen Nexode Power Bank 25000 mAh.

This charging power makes it possible to get a 16-inch MacBook Pro to 50% in only 33 minutes or an iPhone 16 to 50% in 25 minutes. This is a power bank that excels in fast charging for a boost that will get you quickly up and running again.

The real-time smart TFT display helps you keep track of the remaining battery, output, input, recharge times, and more. I had no problems with inaccurate readings, and the display was bright enough to be visible even outside and on the brightest of days.

Finally, the Anker Laptop Power Bank ships with the company's proprietary ActiveShield 2.0 technology, which monitors temperature over 3,000,000 times per day. In reality, I had zero problems with the device becoming hot or even remotely warm to the touch.

Anker Laptop Power Bank: Verdict

The Anker Laptop Power Bank serves up enough battery capacity and charging speeds to keep everything from smartwatches to laptops fully charged. Despite the maximum 100W charging speed, I was surprised at how quickly it was able to charge my devices to 50% and then to full power.

One of the biggest selling points is the two built-in capabilities, with one of them being fully retractable. Not having to carry a separate charging cable was not only easier, but it also meant I wasn't damaging cables when stuffing them in my bag.

The unit is a little on the heavy side, but you do benefit from a rugged and robust design. I had no issues carrying this power bank around with me, and I didn't, at any point, feel like I had to treat it carefully. This is a well-built, high-capacity, and top-performing power bank.

Alternatives

MagGo power banks are one of the easiest ways of charging devices without needing to faff on with finding the right cable. I've tested a number of these types of power banks for mobile phones, but this is my first experience with one that is dedicated to wirelessly charging an Apple Watch.

It's the Anker MagGo 10K (for Apple Watch), and in almost every conceivable way, it's identical in functionality and components to almost any other power bank. It has USB-C charging functionality, a carry handle, and an LED display, but where it differs is with the small MagGo pad that flips out from the front face.

The bank itself has a 10,000 mAh capacity and an integrated USB-C cable. Sustainability enthusiasts will also love that it's crafted from 75% post-consumer recycled materials. This is a power bank that appears to hit all the right notes for a portable charging solution, but let's take a more in-depth look to see if that's true.

Anker MagGo 10K For Apple Watch: Specifications

Anker MagGo 10K For Apple Watch: Price

At $89.99/£91.98, the Anker MagGo 10K (for Apple Watch) is on the more expensive side, especially given its limited number of ports and battery capacity. At this price, it'll only attract the most diehard of Apple Watch fans who desire a wireless charging solution. If the price seems too high, it's worth checking out the official Anker website, which oftentimes includes discount codes.

Anker MagGo 10K For Apple Watch: Design & Handling

The centerpiece of this power bank is the small magnetic flip-out stand, which is located on the front face. The design of this means you can charge an Apple Watch in two different orientations, although my favorite is to leave the pad flush to the power bank so that the watch strap fits snugly around the power bank itself.

Thanks to a built-in hinge, the pad is able to rotate a full 90 degrees, although it'll stay in position at any point between 0 and 90. The hinge is relatively robust, although if you try and push it beyond 90 degrees, then you can begin to see very small frailties in the strength of the design. This isn't something to be overly concerned about, but more just a caution to use the flap carefully rather than haphazardly.

The power bank benefits from a single built-in USB-C cable, which doubles up as a carry handle. As you'd expect from Anker, this element is well thought through with a small magnetic strip towards the end of the cable, which keeps it firmly tucked in place.

In terms of ports, you'll only find one solitary USB-C port. Given the wireless Apple Watch charging pad and the aforementioned built-in cable, that's not too bad, but what I do take issue with is the lack of a USB-A cable. I get that this port technology is being phased out, but right now it's well and truly still with us. If you want to charge your old devices, then you'll need an adapter.

There is a small LED display at the front of the unit, which provides real-time information of how much battery is left in the bank as well as what power is coming in and out. The LEDs are built into the front face, which means the graphics blend seamlessly into the metallic grey finish.

As for materials, the case is constructed from durable plastics, which make it as tough and resilient as you could ever want. I especially like the ribbed sides, which act as hand grips for carrying around.

Anker MagGo 10K For Apple Watch: Performance

With a battery capacity of 10,000 mAh, this Anker power bank is capable of charging an iPhone 16 Pro almost two times over. Charging a phone once is the absolute minimum for any power bank, so even though this power bank is capable of more than that, I'm still a little disappointed by it.

'Why?' I hear you ask. Well, in reality, you're going to need to charge this power bank almost as often as you're charging your phone. So, even though this will get you back up and running if you've run out of that precious juice, you'll need to give the bank a full charge before you head out with it again.

The picture is more positive when you look at the watch charging with the ability to charge the Apple Watch S10 around nine times. Considering the Watch S10 battery lasts around a day, you'll get just over a week's worth of watch charging from each power bank charge.

The above is assuming you don't use it to charge your phone in between, which I think is unlikely. I doubt users will want a power bank lying around to only charge their watch. With that in mind, I think unless you really do want a power bank devoted to the single role of charging your Apple Watch, then you'll want something with superior performance.

More positively, I loved how small and portable the device is, and I found charging speeds to be more than adequate for the devices I tested.

Anker MagGo 10K For Apple Watch: Verdict

The Anker MagGo 10K is a unique power bank with a MagGo charging pad for the Apple Watch. I can understand the need for wireless charging of smartphones, but having a dedicated solution for charging your Apple Watch seems a little unnecessary, especially at the price it's listed at.

The 10,000 mAh battery capacity and maximum 30W charging speeds limit this power bank to smartphones and smartwatches. If you need a solution for your laptop, then this is definitely not it.

All in all, this is a very capable power bank, especially if you're an Apple Watch owner. If you're not, then I'd recommend finding a more affordable alternative.

Alternatives

Power banks are all the rage at the moment, and since the Wireless Power Consortium released the Qi2 standard back in April 2023, we've seen an upsurge in power banks dedicated to wireless charging.

The Anker MagGo Power Bank (10K) is the current winner of the best iPhone power banks, but since then, Anker has released a slimmed-down version of the same device. The charging specs are almost identical, although you get three more watts on power delivery from the USB-C. It also adds support for the iPhone 16.

The big selling point of the MagGo 10K Slim is its portability. It's nowhere near as small as the Anker Nano 621 Power Bank (5,000mAh) which wins the prize for the most pocketable. Despite that, it still measures 104 mm x 70.6 mm x 14.7 mm and weighs 200g, which is small enough to be considered portable.

In this review we'll dive into the specs and design as well as how it performs on a day-to-day basis.

Anker MagGo 10K Slim: Specifications

Anker MagGo 10K Slim: Price

At $74.99 / £69.99, the Anker MagGo 10K Slim is a little more affordable than the original (non-slim) version, but there are still more affordable alternatives out there. This is especially true if you're happy dropping down to 5,000mAh power. At the time of writing, Anker are offering 15% off the retail price, and we often find similar deals available elsewhere.

Anker MagGo 10K Slim: Design & Handling

The Anker MagGo 10K Slim Power Bank boasts a metal frame and a matte UV finish. It also incorporates aerogel thermal insulation and is made with 75% recycled materials. The highlight, though, is the liquid silicone covering on the front and back, which provides additional grip. I found this especially helpful when moving the device in and out of my pocket.

The circular Qi2 wireless charging area has a slightly raised border, which is a nice touch and may well help visually impaired users locate their iPhone correctly. Touches like this, as well as the smooth corner bevels, show the attention to detail that Anker has given this device.

At the bottom of the power bank, you'll find battery LED indicators so you know how much juice you have left. I would much rather see a small screen integrated here, even if it only detailed the battery percentage. Alongside the indicators is a USB-C port. If I were being fussy, then I'd like two of these ports so I could charge my smartwatch at the same time as my phone.

Compared to the original non-slim version, there is no flick-out stand. This would be a nice-to-have, although it doesn't particularly affect its functionality. This is one of the downsides of portability, although I do wonder if Anker could integrate one into the case without compromising on the overall thickness.

Anker MagGo 10K Slim: Performance

Anker advertises that the Anker MagGo 10K Slim Power Bank is capable of delivering 15W of power for wireless charging and double that for wired via USB-C. I tested the performance of this device using my iPhone 12.

In terms of wireless charging, I was able to charge my iPhone from 0% to 50% in 45 minutes and from 0% to 100% in 145 minutes. As expected, the charging time for the final 10% was rather slow. These times are comparable to other power banks I've used. I'm also pleased to report that during charging, I didn't experience the power bank heating up, although my phone warmed up a little.

Wired charging was significantly faster, and that is still my preference. I prefer avoiding hot phones and slow charging speeds, but it's not as convenient as the wireless alternative. I was able to charge my iPhone 12 from 0% to 50% in just over 30 minutes, and a full charge took 95 minutes.

Using a cable capable of 30W power delivery, I was able to recharge the power bank itself in around 125 minutes. I doubt this will be much of a problem, especially given that the power bank can just be recharged overnight.

Anker MagGo 10K Slim: Verdict

This is Anker's slimmed down version of their Anker MagGo 10K Power Bank. In real terms that means it's 5mm thinner and 50g lighter. Personally, I don't think that's enough of a reduction to warrant the creation of a whole new power bank, and I actually found the 200g weight still a little heavy.

The loss of a screen is a little disappointing, and the battery LED indicators make it rather tricky to know exactly how much juice you have left. This is particularly annoying when running very low because, at that point, it's helpful to know exactly how much power you have left.

All that being said, I can't fault its performance in terms of wireless and wired charging. This is a 10K power bank that is as high-performing as they come. If you can set aside the fact that it's not as slim as you might like, then you won't be disappointed.

Alternatives

As more electronics adapt to the nearly universal USB-C charging standards, fewer gadgets are shipping with chargers in an attempt to reduce e-waste. I don’t mind reaching for the junk drawer to grab one of the dozens of charging bricks that I already have to charge a new phone, but charging a camera is arguably different than charging a smartphone – and I’m starting to get seriously annoyed at all the cameras shipping without a vital component: the charger.

Many modern mirrorless cameras will recharge via USB-C, and camera makers have started putting USB-C cables in the box instead of dedicated wall chargers. Even cameras that cost several thousand dollars like the Sony RX1R III don’t include a charging cable in the box.

As someone who reviews cameras for a living, I probably open more new camera boxes than the average photographer, and lately, very few seem to come with an actual dedicated charger anymore.

I get that a majority of households already have charging bricks and USB-C cables, and that e-waste is a very real problem. But here’s the thing: charging a camera isn’t like charging a smartphone, and cameras shouldn’t be following smartphones' lead in taking the chargers out of the box.

Smartphones typically don’t have removable batteries, cameras, however, do, and many photographers, myself included, need to have a handful of batteries to keep shooting. Charging multiple batteries one at a time inside a camera with a USB cord is an annoying and long process, not to mention the fact that you then can’t use the camera because it’s too busy doubling as a charger.

Cameras are also best stored in protective cases – leaving a camera sitting out on a shelf or table to charge is just asking for dust build-up and accidental bumps to send it tumbling to the floor.

I admire the reason behind excluding chargers from the box, which is to reduce waste, both by eliminating unnecessary chargers from the landfill and reducing the size of the camera’s packaging. But here’s the thing – buying a separate charger requires another box, another shipment – is that really reducing waste?

Not including a charger in the box for an entry-level camera is probably saving some e-waste, sure. But I think cameras over a certain price point should have a separate, dedicated charger included. I imagine a number of pro photographers share my pet peeve with USB-C charging, and I have to wonder how many photographers buying pro-grade equipment are then buying a separate charger in a separate shipment and in a separate box.

I don’t mind not having a charging brick every time I update my smartphone. But I’ve never once put a camera charger in the junk drawer, never to be used in favor of USB-C charging. (That scratchy neck strap that comes in the box, though, that’s usually destined for the junk drawer). Charging with a dedicated charger tends to be faster, and I can still use my camera or tuck it safely in a padded case in the meantime.

One of the first things that I bought after I bought my last camera? A dedicated charger, because, alas, one wasn’t included in the box. But, at least by being forced to buy my own separate charger, I could choose to upgrade to a dual charger and get my multiple camera batteries charged and ready twice as fast – so perhaps I shouldn’t complain.

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Browse the best camera chargers or the best camera batteries.

If you're anything like me, you own a bunch of power banks and chargers for travelling. And, if you're anything like me, they're either perpetually get separated from the cables they need to actually charge things… or the cables are dangling in the most trip hazard fashion imaginable.

Thank heaven for Ugreen, then, with its brand new Nexode Retractable Series that solves my cable misery once and for all.

As the name suggests, this line features cables that retract into the bodies of each product – a power bank, a pair of chargers and a standalone cable unit – so that you never need to worry about losing a cable or having its excess stretched sloppily across your desk, car or café table.

Being someone who lives off a power bank, I'm most excited about the Ugreen Nexode Retractable Series Power Bank 20,000mAh 165W. It packs three charging options: a built-in retractable 100W USB-C cable (0.6m, tangle-free, with 7 preset lengths), a 100W USB-C port and a trusty 22.5W USB-A port for legacy devices.

I also spend a lot of time in the car road tripping with my partner, so the Nexode Retractable Series 145W Car Charger also really floats my boat. This boasts charging for multiple devices via a retractable 2.3ft 60W USB-C cable, a 100W USB-C port, a 30W USB-C port and a 30W USB-A port.

Looking to replace multiple chargers with one that enables you to plug in all your devices at the same time? The Ugreen Nexode Retractable Series 65W Charger gives you an integrated 2.3ft, 60W, high-speed retractable USB-C cable, in addition to a 65W USB-C port and a 22.5W USB-A.

And finally, the one that's going to live in my laptop bag from now on, the Nexode Retractable USB-C Cable 100W houses a 1m, Power Delivery, USB 2.0 data transfer cable in a compact shell. No more clumsy coils that come undone and leave kinks in your cord!

Just announced… and already discounted!

If you're interested in picking up any of these retractables, good news! Even though they've only just been announced, Ugreen is discounting them by up to 30% as part of the Amazon Prime Day camera deals:

Ugreen Nexode Retractable Series Power Bank 20000mAh 165W:
$99.99 $69.99 (save 30%)

Ugreen Nexode Retractable Series 65W Charger:
$49.99 $34.99 (save 30%)

Ugreen Nexode Retractable Series 145W Car Charger:
$49.99 $34.99 (save 30%)

Ugreen Nexode Retractable USB-C Cable 100W:
$15.99 $11.99 (save 25%)

You might also like…

To cover all your power needs, take a look at the best laptop power banks and the best iPhone power banks, along with the best MacBook chargers and the best GaN chargers.

DJI has today followed up the new DJI Power 2000 with an update to the Power 1000, called the Power 1000 V2. This 1024Wh Power bank from the world's leading consumer drone company will charge your phone around 57 times, according to the company, but why has a new design come along so soon after last year's launch?

The DJI Power 1000 V2 caters for drone users, like its predecessor, using separately sold charging cables that enable the fastest possible charging for certain DJI models. These allow the fastest possible charging – from 10% to 95% – of certain DJI batteries in around 30 minutes, which is good at home, let alone in the field.

In terms of charging, the options of traditional plugging in (grid), solar, or car are all available. DJI reckons that you'll be able to charge to 80% in 37 minutes, and full in 56 minutes.

Solar charging depends a little on mother nature, of course, but the system can accept up to 1800W of solar input, meaning the battery can charge in 40 minutes to charge 1024Wh. That depends on whether you opt for the 1kW Super Fast Car Charger or the 1.8kW Solar/Car.

The charging times are faster than the original Power 1000, which represents DJI meeting one of the requests from users. It can also deliver a stable 2,600W (against 2,200W before), meaning it's possible to power even more high-power devices like coffee makers.

As Ferdinand Wolf, Product Experience Director at DJI, put it "“The newly upgraded 1024Wh portable power station meets continuous power needs, reduces the time needed to wait before being fully charged, offers improved reliability with enhanced safety measures, including remote DJI Home app control and easy management. Additionally, it features a new potting process for the intelligent Battery Management System (BMS) to protect the inverter. With this new model, users can be confident that they’re receiving the very best overall portable power battery experience.”

That said, the original Power 1000 could charge from 0% to 100% in around 70 minutes. DJI has indicated that there are improvements to the usability, saying that the new V2 defaults to UPS mode, acting as an Uninterruptible Power Supply with a 0.01-second delay. They also say it has an improved Intelligent Battery Management System that should give it a 10-year lifetime /

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DJI recently announced a new DJI Power 2000 to extend the range, and check our guide to the best laptop power banks.

DJI has just announced its latest product in what was a bit of a surprise range when first announced in April 2024, its range of portable power stations. Adding to the Power 500 and Power 1000 comes the new Power 2000, which offers storage for 2048Wh in a relatively small 32.6L body.

That's 16 inches (40cm), small enough to be the size off (if not the usual weight) of carry-on. The device has 4 AC ports, four USB-C ports and 4 USB-A ports, as well as a display clearly indicating remaining power and usage, and the ability to work with a phone app for control and info display.

The device can be used alone, or paired with up to ten more to form a power wall and provide long-term backup power for your home. It is capable of providing plenty of power for domestic appliances, too.

Digital Camera readers might be more concerened about content creation on the move, and DJI has given that some thought; they reckon that the battery has enough power to handle 99% of domestic appliances, recharging a camera 118 times, a laptop 18 times, a drone 24 times and running "Photography Lighting Equipment" (that's a specific as it gets, folks) for 2.4 hours.

If you're more concerned about the forthcoming apocalypse, then know that power will run your domestic fridge for 40 hours, or your wi-fi router for 152 hours, though it'll only get 56 minutes from an electric chainsaw!

The DJI Power 2000 features an Uninteruptable Power Supply mode (UPS) making it capable of replacing a loss in power in under 0.01 seconds. "Whether used in a home or outdoor environment, our new Power 2000 and associated accessories have been designed to meet demanding power needs. We've increased the capacity while optimizing the size-capacity ratio and safety design to ensure users' energy concerns are a thing of the past. We look forward to seeing the unique ways our community will leverage this powerful new solution" said Ferdinand Wolf, Product Experience Director at DJI.

If you're charging from the grid, DJI say that the battery will get from zero to 80% in just 45 minutes, taking another half hour to complete the charge. The batteries can also be charged using excess energy from a car's alternator (assuming a fuel-driven vehicle). \

The DJI Power 2000 is available now for $1,899. DJI Expansion Battery 2000 units are available for $1,169 each to increase your power capacity even further.

DJI now offer two new power banks – as well as a range of accessories – for powering camping holidays or keeping your drones and camera equipment charged up in the field, but this spring sale the better one is the cheaper one in a massive discount.

There have been some quite generous discounts in the USA on the batteries, which are meant to sell for $999 but launched with a significant "introductory offer" discount. That, though, was not as generous as this deal, on what is still a competitive, powerful and very useful product which I can't fully see why is being made available at such a low price (but, hey, why complain, right?).

I've fully tested the DJI Power 1000 in my review, and it was impressive. Moreover, DJI has extended the functionality with accessories for any situation that allow you to work with multiple DJI batteries, and charge quickly using a vehicle. so it makes sense to snap some more up even if you already have one.

These are obviously useful if you're out camping or you're our flying. Drone batteries aren't cheap and – if you charge as you go – then you don't need to buy as many batteries to have a fruitful day flying, but DJI will also cover you if you're worried about a collapsing power grid!

I have also seen these devices popular with professional content creators who need to keep topping up on the go and with pilots of fun craft like the new Avata 2 which, if we're honest, burns through batteries faster when you're having more fun!

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Check our guide to the best laptop power banks and the best camera drones. (Wanna check the competition – check the Anker Solix C1000, and I've seen good deals on that in the UK where DJI/Amazon aren't being as generous).

Electricity is the lifeblood that keeps our latest gadgets and gizmos juiced up in the modern world, with everything from our smartphones to smart cars needing a battery to draw power from. Cameras are no different and while Li-Ion technology has seen dramatic improvements over the years, unfortunately, first-party camera batteries often don't come cheap and can sting a little to purchase.

Canon’s own proprietary LP-E6NH battery used in popular cameras such as its EOS R5 Mark I and EOS R6 Mark II costs a cool £119.99, so the costs can really stack up quickly if you require more than one. Luckily, Mathorn is here to save the day with its Mathorn MB-202 Ultimate – a Li-Ion battery designed to replace the Canon LP-E6NH with some cool new features and a price tag less than half of Canon’s proprietary cell.

So does the Mathorn MB-202 give Canon some tough competition? I got hold of one, plus a Mathorn Dual Charger and Mathorn 90cm tethering cable to put it through its paces.

Mathorn MB-202 Ultimate: Specifications

• Type: Li-Ion
• Voltage: 7.2
• Capacity: 2250mAh
• Cycles: 500
• Operating temp: -20ºC - +60ºC
• Dimensions (WxDxH): 39x21x57mm
• Weight: 81g
• Warranty: 3 years

Mathorn MB-202 Ultimate battery: Design & Handling

Mathorn’s MB-202 will feel very familiar to Canon users as it’s pretty much the same shape and size as the Canon LP-E6NH (as well as the LP-E6N and LP-E6 before it), and of course, this is essential for it to fit properly inside of the Canon cameras it’s intended for such as the EOS R5 Mark I and EOS R6 Mark II. But that doesn’t mean companies can’t get innovative with their cells.

We often see third-party batteries have a unique advantage over the first-party cells, in the case of Hahnel’s Extreme batteries we saw more insulation for better performance in cold weather as well as drop resistance, Mathorn doesn’t go down this route but instead has remarkably managed to squeeze a female USB-C port onto the front of the battery (on the Canon edition). This is really quite neat as it means the batteries can be charged with simply a USB-C cable rather than the bulky Canon charger. As a travel photographer, this feature excites me greatly. It also has a small LED built in to display when the battery is charging and when charging is complete.

Another travel-friendly feature was docking two batteries in the Mathorn dual charger which saves a lot of space compared to Canon’s LC-E6E and allows two batteries to be charged at once and also has a built-in USB cable so you don’t require a bulky plug. This is by no means required, but as Mathorn sent it over to me for testing with the battery I wanted to let you know that I’m a big fan.

The Mathorn MB-202 of course needs to be the same shape and size as Canon’s LP-E6NH cells to fit inside the intended Canon cameras, though this does also mean it fits inside of the Canon EOS R5 Mark II which it is incompatible with. It’s possible Mathorn can do nothing about this as Canon has seemingly slowly cut off third-party support in recent years, remind me where those Sigma and Tamron full-frame lenses for the RF mount are already? But it is a bit annoying that Canon’s old cells will work in the R5 Mark II, albeit with some of the more power-hungry features disabled, whereas the older / weaker third-party batteries are simply outright incompatible. Speaking to Mathorn, the company said it is working on a more powerful battery to rival Canon’s LP-E6P for the Canon EOS R5 Mark II, though a price and release date are yet to be announced.

Other notable features are the MB-202 claims a 12.7% capacity boost over the original Canon LP-E6NH with the MB-202 having a capacity of 2400mAh, however, I’ll put it through its paces when I come to Performance to see if it can really deliver on this. It also says there is no ‘memory effect’, though this hasn’t been a big problem since we’ve moved over Li-Ion cells, it used to be more of an issue with older NiCd cells which would hinder being able to fully charge the battery to its full potential.

The battery supports conventional charging through a Canon or third-party charger, plus you have the option to plug a USB-C cable directly into the battery to power it up and is a brilliant feature should you forget your charger or need to travel extremely light. With one powerful USB-C charger and high wattage cable you can in theory charge everything from your laptop to phone and camera batteries one at time.

Mathorn MB-202 Ultimate battery: Performance

Remarkably, the Mathorn MB-202 boasts a maximum capacity of 2400mAh, a 12.7% increase from the 2130mAh capacity of the native Canon cell. However, I have seen third-party batteries claim a higher capacity and fall short of the Canon batteries in the past, whether it’s due to the Canon cells running more efficiently or another reason, so will that be the case here? Let’s put it through its paces and see how it performs…

Mathorn says its battery is suitable for 4K and even 8K video recording so to test the performance I set up my Canon EOS R6 Mark II to shoot 4K 50p video for as long as the batteries could muster and allowed the camera to fully cool down before switching to the other battery to test. Whilst Canon’s own-brand LP-E6NH cell was able to shoot for 103 minutes continuously, the Mathorn MB-202 could only shoot for 66 mins before power was depleted and the camera shut down – that means Canon’s own-brand cell can shoot for 55% longer, though perhaps this shouldn’t come as a total shock considering it’s also more than double the price.

The unique feature of Mathorn’s battery is its built-in female USB-C port which allows it to be charged without the need for a dedicated charger. This is a really handy feature, particularly if you’ve forgotten your charger as it gives you a backup way to still give your batteries extra juice and I like this a lot. It’s also going to be a hit with travel photographers looking to travel light as Canon’s LC-E6E charger is very bulky and requires a plug too, plus it’s only capable of charging a single battery at a time. Alongside the USB-C port, there is a small LED light which is red when charging and turns green when fully charged.

The charging indicator light on the MB-202 is quite small and goes from a constant red light when charging to a constant green light once fully charged. I might be nitpicking here but it would have been really useful to have several LEDs to show the charge level, this would make it particularly handy to visualize when the battery has reached 50% from a fast charge.

Speaking of fast charging, the Mathorn MB-202 has this capability when paired with a high enough wattage USB-C cable and plug. I used my Apple MacBook’s 96w USB-C charger and Mathorn’s MTC-511 cable so there should be no issues here. When I plugged the USB-C port into Mathorn’s Dual Battery Charger with just a single MB-202 cell inserted it took a rather sluggish four hours to fully charge from flat, however plugging the USB-C cable directly into the USB-C port on the battery charged it to maximum capacity in half that time.

I also plugged the MB-202 into a phone and a tablet via their USB-C ports to see what would happen and in both cases, the battery drew power from them. I was somewhat hoping you might be able to turn your camera batteries into a makeshift power bank to charge your phone up in an emergency but this doesn’t look to be possible.

One reservation I do have with the USB-C is that it is a place where dirt and debris can build up inside, I’m sure we’ve all experienced this with the charging ports on our smartphones at some point or another, so I would have preferred a small plastic or rubber cover to plug the port when it’s not in use. That said, for the majority of the time the battery will be spent inside your camera or kit bag so perhaps this isn’t a big issue. However, I wouldn’t want to drop it on a sandy beach or in muddy woods as the port feels a tad exposed to the elements.

Speaking of dropping the battery, unlike another third-party battery manufacturer Hahnel Extreme, the Mathorn MB-202 doesn’t feature any drop resistance or insulation for enhanced performance in cold weather. The plastic around the top of the USB-C port looks very thin and could be a potential weak area if dropped on a hard surface. However on other models of the battery for the Nikon (MB-212A) for example, the charging port is in the middle of the back of the battery so it’s more protected as it isn't right up against the top corner.

Mathorn MB-202 Ultimate battery: Verdict

I’m always a little skeptical when a product offers more features and a better performance at a much lower price and in the case of the Mathorn MB-202 it did seem a little too good to be true. But that’s not to say it’s a bad battery, just understand that our testings showed it could only record 66 mins of 4K 50p footage whilst the Canon LP-E6NH lasted for a more impressive 103 mins. I think it’s a great thing to have another battery on the market at a more affordable price point of £54 as Canon’s LP-E6NH cells are quite steep at £120. Its battery life could be perfectly suitable for your needs and you may prioritize its unique USB-C charging possibilities over the higher price and better performance of Canon’s own-brand offering, but you’ll need to work out which is right for you.

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DJI has announced some more new accessories for the Power batteries which offer the ability to extend the DJI Power 1000's flexibility – and perhaps help people live off-grid more easily.

As well as the original DJI 1000 power bank, the company has already augmented their offering with an Expansion battery system making it possible to store a lot more electricity for use in the field – whether that's charging drones, laptops or running fridges.

Now DJI is adding two new ways to charge the devices – a 1.8kW Car/Solar Super Fast Charger and the DJI Power 1kW Super Fast Car Charger. These offer the option to more quickly charge the battery out and about, specifically 1024 Wh of power in 78 minutes from a cars alternator while driving.

On an RV the 1.8kW Super Fast Charger can connect to solar panels and the RV and take up to 1200W from solar and 600W from the vehicle to charge 1024Wh in just 40 minutes.

All of this is a bit dry, but the point is you can charge remotely far more quickly by using every means at your disposal.

“In adding Super Fast Chargers to the DJI Power Series, we want to equip every user for every scenario. From adventurers driving cross country in an RV to families wanting eco-friendly backup power in case of emergencies, these accessories will ensure users are prepared for any situation," said Ferdinand Wolf, Product Experience Director at DJI. “In launching the DJI Power series earlier this year, we built this product line based on over a decade of battery research and development and will continue to expand our offerings in the months and years to come."

The devices are shipping now, at $319 / £255 for the 1.8kW Solar/Car Super Fast Charger and $299 / £229 for the DJI Power 1kW Super Fast Car Charger, and you can more details on the DJI Store.

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Check my original review of the DJI Power 1000 battery (though, to be fair, it is more flexible now there are more accessories), and don't forget to think about things you can power – like the best camera drones, many of which also come from DJI!

Beautiful. Gorgeous. Exquisite. Sexy. These are words I’d never normally associate with a battery charger, but the ProCube3 is rather different. Let’s backtrack a bit to the ProCube2. This previous incarnation won a gold award from our review team, my colleague Hannah Rooke being completely won over. In some respects, the new ProCube3 is even better. Again it comes from hähnel, a company that’s certainly made its mark on the photographic industry over the last 66 years. Although founded in Germany, the company opened its research, development and production facility in Ireland back in 1975, which has grown steadily. Over the decades, hähnel has made some notable achievements and, to give context to the ProCube3, actually developed the world’s first plug-in charger for Li-ion camera batteries.

hähnel ProCube3: Specifications

hähnel ProCube3: Price

What price is a battery charger? You can get own-brand Li-ion battery chargers from respective camera manufacturers for around $50 / £50 and, indeed, you might need to. Increasingly, even up-market cameras these days tend to ship with no charger, relying on you to charge batteries in-camera via a USB-C cable. That has the obvious pitfall that you can’t charge spare batteries while you’re out and about with the camera itself. And even if you buy a separate charger from your camera manufacturer, they can typically only charge one battery at a time.

Another option is to dip your toe into the sea of independent chargers available from the likes of Amazon, with super-cheap prices that kick off from around $10 / £10. They often work well enough but tend to look and feel basic and cheaply made. With a list price of $TBA / £69.99, the ProCube3 is a little pricier than many own-brand chargers but looks a much more sophisticated affair, with top-notch build quality and fancy features. And it can charge two camera batteries simultaneously, for which you’d usually have to buy a pair of own-brand chargers. I reckon that makes it very good value at the price.

hähnel ProCube3: Design & Handling

Like the ProCube2, the replacement ProCube3 is available in many flavors, or at least colors. Each caters to a specific brand of camera, the current range including Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Olympus, Sony and Fujifilm. I tested the Nikon version which, along with the Canon ‘red’ edition, gets a color change to what hähnel calls yellow. I’d call it gold, matching the standard I’d award to some of my all-time favorite cameras, including the Nikon Z 6II and Nikon Z fc. Like others in the range, the Nikon edition comes with multiple, interchangeable baseplates, so it can host different batteries within the camera maker’s range. In this case, there are three baseplates included, for slotting in one or two EN-EL14, EN-EL15 or EN-EL25 series batteries. But don’t let me get ahead of myself.

The smart looking retail box for the Nikon edition contains the ‘cube’ itself, plus three interchangeable 2-slot camera battery baseplates, a further 4-slot AA battery plate and a 1.5m USB-C fast-charging cable. You also get two ‘keys’ for swapping the baseplates but more on that later. Unlike the preceding ProCube2, there’s no mains adapter nor a 12v car socket. Keeping up with the times, it’s USB-C all the way, so you can use whatever mains adapter, car socket or power bank that you have to hand. A 30W supply is recommended but the ProCube3 also works with lower-wattage supplies, with the proviso that charging can take rather longer.

Not just a power-hungry charger, the ProCube3 gives as good as it gets. Around the back there’s a USB-A port that can pump out up to 2 amps for charging additional devices like mobile phones and other gadgets that need a boost, spreading the love and the usefulness. The following gallery of four images shows how the baseplates work.

The three Li-ion battery plates in my Nikon version slot into the base unit with a resounding click from the internal clip fastener. This ensures that there’s enough force applied to the spring-loaded pins that supply electronic contact to the baseplates. It’s perhaps a little frustrating that you need to use a small key, a bit like the reset key supplied with many gadgets, to release the clip and change baseplates. By contrast, magnetic attraction is used for the 4-slot AA battery plate, which doesn’t make use of the clip-in mechanism. As such, the flat AA plate can fit over the top of any of the baseplates for Li-ion batteries, so you don’t need to remove a baseplate if you want to charge AA batteries – just stick it on the top.

There’s another sticking point here though, so to speak, in that the AA charger isn’t an independent channel example of the breed. In my tests, I couldn’t get a single or even a pair of AA batteries to charge on their own. Instead, I had to load the plate with a full set of four AA batteries. That’s naturally frustrating if your AA-powered gadget only uses one, two or three batteries. There’s also no capacity gauge display for charging AA batteries, nor a facility to charge smaller AAA batteries.

The charger comes with two ‘keys’ so you have a spare, which is nice as they’re easily lost. And if you lose both, any small spike will suffice, maybe even a toothpick. Long story short, the different baseplates enable a variety of camera manufacturer’s batteries to slot in and be charged. The only downside is that you can only charge two of the same variants of battery at the same time so, for example sticking with Nikon, you can’t charge one EN-EL15 and one EN-EL25 battery simultaneously. No real surprise.

hähnel ProCube3: Performance

It’s not just about good looks or excellent build quality, based on the charger’s aluminum shell. The proof of the pudding is in the performance. An upgrade over the ProCube2 in this respect is that the Mark 3 can charge two Li-ion camera batteries just as quickly as it can charge one. Load up the dual slots and you can expect to charge flat camera batteries to a full state of charge in a timescale ranging from about 60 minutes to 135 minutes, depending on type and capacity.

For my Nikon version, a full charge from flat takes around 60 minutes for EN-EL14 or EN-EL25 batteries, and 90 minutes for the EN-EL15 series of batteries. That’s pretty darned quick compared with many camera battery chargers. Pop across to the AA ballpark and you can charge a set of four high-capacity 2500mAh AA Ni-MH batteries in around 240 minutes. Again, that’s pretty swift while avoiding the danger of overcooking your AA batteries in the process.

The illuminated info display keeps you up to date with what’s going on. It shows the charge capacity of either one or two camera batteries independently, plus the amount of juice being supplied to each, the current readout swapping between one and the other. I say ‘up to date’ but I found the charge capacity display a little over ambitious. Something that the ProCube3 seems to have inherited from the previous model is that the capacity displays as 100% when camera batteries aren’t fully charged. As with the Mark II, I waited patiently for ‘100%’ to come up on the clock and then slotted my genuine Nikon EN-EL15c batteries back into my Z 6II camera.

The camera itself disagreed, saying the two batteries were only 85% and 87% charged respectively. I popped them into own-brand Nikon MH-25A chargers and got a blinking orange light representing further charging for no less than 35 minutes, after which the batteries showed as 100% charged on the in-camera display.

The moral of the story is not to trust the battery charge display on the ProCube3, which hähnel itself says is only ‘approximate’. After further testing with a couple more batteries, I found that leaving them on charge for about 20 minutes after I got the 100% indication fixed the problem. Even so, I’m not particularly impressed, as I’ve got a couple of super low-budget, obscure brand battery chargers that recognize when my Nikon batteries are fully charged, and when they’re not.

Back on the upside of performance, I like that the ProCube3 can fast-charge dead batteries when unmissable photo opportunities are looming. Typically, a 15-minute charge will boost a dead battery enough to take around 150 photos. The ‘top-up charge’ also comes complete with a free battery health check. All in all, performance is admirable, display ‘approximation’ aside.

hähnel ProCube3: Verdict

The golden child of battery chargers, the Nikon gold sample (ok, yellow if you want the official hähnel line) charged batteries for my Nikon Z 6II and Nikon Z fc cameras quickly and efficiently. The 100% capacity reading was inaccurate but that’s easy to adjust to, and I’m happy to leave my batteries on charge a little longer. The ProCube3 is similarly adept at charging AA batteries, which I often use in my flashguns and other camera and non-camera-related gadgets, although it can only charge batches of four, as it doesn’t have independent AA charging channels. All in all, it’s an impeccably presented charger that’s mostly as good as it looks, and it really does look rather good, but I think there’s still room for improvement.

Alternatives

DJI's biggest portable power station, the DJI Power 1000, (which I tested earlier in the year) has now gone up to 11 times better with the release of a new DJI Power Expansion Battery 2000. Added the original battery, and one gives you 3072 Wh of power, but that's only the beginning...

The clean-looking expansion battery eschews some of the sockets and displays on the Power 1000 to simply provide more Watt-hours of power you can take with you into the field (literally!)

In other words, you need a DJI Power 1000 to use it, but it adds 2048Wh of power contained in 23.5 litres of volume – not a lot bigger than the original battery which it can sit on or under.

The Expansion Battery need not just be used alone though – you can add up to five to your DJI Power 1000, giving the option of 5120 Wh (1+2), 7168 Wh (1+3), 9216 Wh (1+4), and 11264 Wh (1+5).

For extra security, DJI also offer DJI Power Expansion Battery 2000 Mounting Kit, though the needed porta are all on the front of the blocks which means that if you're stacking you'll find you can be quite flexible with the arrangement even without this.

DJI reckon that the batteries should be good for 4000 charge cycles thanks to their "Intelligent Battery Management System," and the battery can be recharged to 1024Wh in as little as 36 minutes.

For high power drain, the battery can also deliver 2,400W of continuous output and 2600W for up to 15 minutes – that's hairdryer for thick hair territory!

The launch price is US$1,169 / £1,049 / AU$1,819 and the device is not only already listed on the DJI store but, in some territories, there seems to be a launch discount as there was with the DJI Power 1000 (visit the DJI store to check). In the USA it's $1,169 to $899 as I type, for example!

Read more....

• Check our guide to the best laptop power banks
• Read my review of the alternative Anker Solix C1000

After seeing multiple friends without power during the bomb cyclone and Hurricane Helene in recent months, I've been recommending this mobile generator that I personally own – and that has saved the day for me on multiple occasions.

The Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 is reduced by up to $749 right now, available as a standalone generator or with solar panels. I never go to a photoshoot without this in my trunk, and lately I never leave home without it period.

I've been using the Jackery Explorer 1000 (review) for a couple of years now – and it's been both a game-changer and a bacon-saver. Originally I started taking it on photoshoots after my camera, laptop or phone batteries failed me on a couple of long days.

However, now I keep it in the trunk of my car whenever I go out – which has been great whenever my battery has died. Particularly after the extreme weather that has battered the US over the past couple of months, I've started keeping it charged up at home in case of power loss.

The Explorer 1000 v2 delivers 1500W of AC output, and boasts a capacity of 1070Wh. It charges in about 100 minutes, but you can fast charge it in 60 minutes using the app if you need it in an emergency.

It has 6 ports – 2 USB-C (both 100W PD), 1 USB-A, 1 DC car port and 3 AC ports – and can charge a phone 74 times, a drone 20 times, a laptop 14 times, can power a TV for 10 hours or run a 520w refrigerator for 37 hours.

If you opt for the solar panels bundle, you can stay completely off the grid with sustainable green energy – which could be a life-saver during disasters or emergencies, or just an added convenience if you want to keep your gear juiced up during outdoor shoots or family vacations.

You might be interested in the best travel cameras, as well as the best solar chargers and the best iPhone power banks.

The ACEFAST Z4 is a simple desktop power station for charging up to four devices at once. With three USB-C ports and one USB-A port, users can get up to 218W of power. There are four modes for port operation which can be cycled through using the button on the front.

The modes allow for the 218 watts to be spread across the ports. One of the modes sets two ports at 100W with 18W on either the third or fourth port. This is ideal for charging power-hungry devices such as laptops. The remaining can be used to charge a phone.

Alternatively, it is possible to spread the power more evenly with the three USB-C ports set to 65W and the USB-A to 18W. This is a better option for users who have multiple devices and peripherals that need power.

Power stations often double up as docking stations but the Z4 doesn't have that capability. It is solely a power station and an expensive one at that.

ACEFAST Desktop Power Station Z4 Specifications

ACEFAST Desktop Power Station Z4 Design

The ACEFAST Desktop Power Station Z4 is a super compact, cute-looking device that has everything you need to keep laptops, tablets, and phones fully charged.

The front of the unit is made up of two distinct parts: the LCD screen and the four USB ports. There is a control button sandwiched between the two, which toggles through the modes and acts as a power on/off button. The display is bright and colorful making it easy to decipher what power is being drawn at any one time. The display also details the maximum watts that each port is capable of.

There are three USB-C ports and one USB-A port. This provides enough coverage for a laptop, mobile phone, and other peripherals that you might have on your desk.

The case is made of grey matte plastic, which is thick enough to withstand most knocks that will come its way. There are also two rubber strips located underneath, which hold the unit firmly on any surface it's placed on.

The device ships with a plug and power cable which is located at the rear of the unit. I like the fact that this cable is removable as it makes it easier to transport the unit around without damaging the connection between the cable and the port.

The ACEFAST Desktop Power Station Z4 costs $84.99 / £89.99 which isn't the cheapest considering it is only a power station and not a docking station.

ACEFAST Desktop Power Station Z4 Performance

The ACEFAST Desktop Power Station Z4 performs well in almost every way. The build quality is good, there's a good ratio of USB-C to USB-A ports, and the unit is nice and responsive.

Disappointingly, when charging my laptop with any of the USB-C ports, I was only able to get between 28W and 47W of power despite using a cable that would support greater.

There are better-performing charging stations out there including the Anker Prime Charging Docking Station (14-in-1) but unfortunately, you'll need to pay extra for the benefits.

ACEFAST Desktop Power Station Z4 Verdict

The ACEFAST Desktop Power Station Z4 looks fantastic, is ultra-portable, and has reasonable performance. It's let down by the actual tested power output not matching the advertised speeds. It is well-built and helps to keep your desk organized, especially if you have limited power sockets. A lot of people will be put off by the $84.99 / £89.99 price tag but if you want a neat little power solution, then you can't go too far wrong with the Z4.

Sony has dropped two new power supply options designed for its Alpha series (e.g. A7 IV) and Cinema Line (e.g. FX30) cameras. These new options expand Sony's range of power solutions to meet the growing power demand of video and the strain this is putting on current battery limits. The BC-ZD1 battery charger and DC-C1 DC coupler are intended to provide extended shooting capabilities for creators requiring longer operating times.

First up, the BC-ZD1 charger is designed to charge two NP-FZ100 batteries simultaneously, achieving a full charge in approximately 155 minutes (according to Sony's own estimates) when connected to a USB Power Delivery (PD) compatible power source with an output of 30W or higher. The charger looks reasonably compact, which should make it easier to slip into a camera bag on the move. There is also an indicator lamp that displays the charging status in five stages to keep track of how much juice each battery has.

Current and recent Sony cameras that use the NP-FZ100 batteries include the Sony A9, A7 III, A7 IV, A7R III, A7R IV, A7R V, A7S III, A6600, A7C, ZV-E1, FX3, FX30, and A1.

If batteries just won't cut it, the DC-C1 DC coupler provides continuous power from an external source to the camera. This should ensure a stable power supply during long shooting sessions or live streaming, and avoids the hassle of having to swap batteries, especially when the camera might be mounted on a tripod or gimbal where the battery door is less accessible.

The DC-C1 DC coupler is compatible with NP-FZ100 or NP-FW50 rechargeable battery packs and uses a USB PD-compatible AC adapter for power supply. The DC-C1 also features a locking screw hole to prevent accidental cable disconnection, while the 1.6-meter cable allows for flexible setup during use.

The BC-ZD1 battery charger and DC-C1 DC coupler are available now to preorder, with shipping starting in the next few weeks. The DC-C1 will cost $129.99 / £129.99, while the BC-ZD1 will be available for $119.99 / £119.99.

For more on all things Sony – check out our guides to the best Sony camera and the best Sony lenses.

Owing employees more than £300,000 (about $393,000), Rankin Group, the advertising agency owned by stalwart British photographer Rankin, has filed for bankruptcy, owing a further £1m ($1.3m) to the UK tax authority HMRC. 

Full name John Rankin Waddell, he has photographed the likes of Queen Elizabeth II, Madonna, and David Bowie, and set up his advertising agency, initially called Rankin Creative, five years ago.

Speaking to The Art Newspaper he said: 

"It was 100% financed and owned by me, which is why I’m the sole director, although there was a share incentive scheme," Rankin says. The company was run by eight key people, including a chief executive, finance director and managing director."

Rankin’s photography, directing and production business, Rankin & Co, is reportedly not affected by the insolvency proceedings.

He revealed to The Art Newspaper that the unfortunate financial situation with Rankin Group was caused by an unforeseen tax bill, "which meant that some staff did not receive their entire redundancy payments."

He continued: 

"The HMRC bill came as a big shock to us when we received the demand. Up until that point, we were looking at a recovery plan or, in the worst-case scenario, a winding down. Even after the demand, I tried to work out a deal, but it was just too late."

According to the information available on Companies House, £258,000 is owed to trade creditors – with this figure including prepayments of £73,000 for the year, while intercompany creditors are reportedly owed £980,000. 

The agency did well in its first few years, but began to struggle over the past two due to various pressures.

He said: 

"Whether it was due to reduced budgets around the economy or losing work to programmatic and AI-based solutions, it was a massively challenging period for us and many other services like us."

He also added that the technological revolution had essentially "gutted" a lot of creative services agencies. 

"Sadly, that is what we were selling: a bespoke creative service around storytelling and brand building. When you combined that, with the lack of face-to-face work and meetings post-covid, it’s been a perfect storm. I couldn't be more disappointed with both myself and the business for not being able to make the agency a success. I put everything I had into it, but it just wasn't enough to make it work."

While his photography and production business remains unchanged, Rankin says he’s:

"Leaving the struggle of surviving in this climate to people that I really respect and who are obviously much better at it than I am. I wish them all the luck in the world, as I’ve never experienced something quite as tough as this shift in the creative landscape."

Take a look at our guides to the best professional cameras, the best cameras for beginners, and the best cheap cameras. 

There is an overwhelming number of chargers out there with different power and port combinations, it's nearly impossible to know which one to go for. But when it comes to plugging in my most essential devices, I want to plump for a name I trust, and for years I have used and trusted Anker products.

Always developing, Anker has just unveiled its new Prime series of chargers, and the one at the top of my list was the Anker Prime 250W, which looks set to offer all the power I need for my desktop setup, but now with a new screen that shows contextual information about my charging speeds.

As the name suggests the Anker Prime 250W has a total combined output of 250W split across its ports. There are six ports altogether, with four USB-C ports on the front and two USB-A ports on the side for older devices. These ports all have different ratings based on how many are in use at one time, with the maximum for one port being 140W, two ports being 140W+100W, and six ports as 70W+70W+45W+30W+15W+15W.

But with plenty of competition, is this just another charger to get lost in the lineup, or does the new screen actually offer something useful that makes charging better? Let’s find out.

Anker Prime 250W: Specifications

Anker Prime 250W: Price

At $169/£169 you are definitely going to find cheaper chargers that offer the same or greater capacity. My previous desktop companion was the Ugreen 300W charger, which was $40 less but for 50W more power.

However that isn’t the selling point of the charger, with the Anker Prime 250W charger you are paying for a charger that is smarter than most other chargers, and one of the only ones that are actually going to both show your charge rates. It just depends on how important that is to you.

Anker Prime 250W: Design & Handling

The Anker 250W charger is a smart-looking device, it has a low profile, so it can easily slip onto a small shelf or under a monitor riser, although unfortunately it is designed to only be horizontal, and while it works just fine in a vertical orientation, it will look wrong. And for those with cable tidies, the power source can be disconnected from the back, so threading it through desks is possible.

The big design feature though is the screen up front, this gives a constant readout of the amount of power going through each USB-C port, as well as the total power consumption for the entire charger.

It’s not essential to know this, but it is useful. I know my MacBook Pro is constantly drawing around 10W when the lid is closed, which makes me much more anxious to pull out the charger when it is not in use and save my electric bill. The screen is not the sharpest screen around, but I found it easy enough to see, and it has some very nice touches like little animations when things are plugged in.

There is a knob on the side of the 250W charger which can go through the menu, which has a few options for selecting which power port to prioritize power to, otherwise the device “AI” is meant to balance this for you based on each device's max draw speeds. Otherwise, you can turn off individual ports altogether or select screen brightness.

The charger also has Bluetooth and WiFi so you can link it with the Anker app on your phone to see what is using power when you are away and shut off each USB-C port if it's a concern. I am not entirely sure this is necessary, but also why not?

Anker Prime 250W: Performance

The performance seems to match what it says on the box – although I have struggled to push it to its capacity. I have plugged in two MacBook Pros (Macbook Pro 13in and MacBook Pro 16in) as well as two Pixel phones (Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel 6a) and a set of Pixel Buds headphones, and still not maxed out the 250W, so this really is enough for everything on a normal desk, or charge up multiple devices at once.

I have also done my usual test of running my Zhiyun COB lights that require 100W each at full brightness. The Anker 250W handled with flying colors with dual port power of 140W+100W – impressive stuff.

I am not sure what the "AI" Anker is using to manage power between the ports, but it either worked so seamlessly that I didn't know it was there, or it doesn't really do very much, but all the devices I plugged in just charged at the maximum speed so I just left the charger to do its thing.

Anker Prime 250W: Verdict

The Anker 250W charger looks great, and while I initially thought the screen might be more of a gimmick, it has proven to be quite useful. Not only has it helped me ensure my devices are charging as quickly as possible, but with rising energy costs, it’s become a little indispensable for monitoring how much power my devices consume when not in use, so I can disconnect anything that isn’t essential.

The 250W output was more than sufficient for powering everything on my desk, and easily handled multiple devices simultaneously without any issues, including multiple laptops, phones, earbuds, and other small devices. I have not managed to max out the power, so I think for most regular desk setups this will be all the power you're going to need.

Alternatives

Even for gear heads, batteries and battery chargers are probably the least exciting accessory in anyone's camera bag. They're functional, they're essential, but they're boring. 

When I laid eyes on this dual charger set from Llano, however, my interest was instantly piqued. For starters it kinda looks and feels like a camera, with its sleek lines, shutter-like button and and lens-like LCD screen. 

The design is a huge part of the appeal of the Llano Fast Dual Charger. After all, why should all battery chargers be ugly hunks of awkward, angular plastic with graceless wires hanging out of them? 

So much effort is put into camera design, yet the minute you come to plug in the battery charger it all goes out the window… and that's if you're lucky enough to buy a camera that actually comes with a charger these days. 

Even if you are fortunate enough to get a charger in the box, it's only going to charge a single battery at a time (unless you drop big bucks on a flagship body or a Hasselblad). But most of us have two batteries, which means you need to wait until one is charged before you can top up the other.

Again, score one (well, two!) for the Llano. 

The first time I ever got excited over a battery charger was the brilliant Hahnel ProCube 2, because it enabled me to charge a pair of cells simultaneously (and quickly). However, the Llano takes things to another level – and I think it's just replaced the ProCube as my charger of choice. 

The magnetic lid of the Llano opens like a treasure chest to reveal a pair of charging slots. I've been testing the LP-E6NH model (which powers Canon batteries for cameras like the EOS R5, EOS R5 Mark II, 5D Mark IV and 90D), but the Dual Charger is also available for the LP-E17 (EOS R10, Rebel T8i, 77D et al) and NP-FZ100 (Sony A7 III, A7R V, A6600 and co). 

Unlike the ProCube, which needs to be connected to a power outlet (via a separate, bulky plug adapter), you can put a battery into the Llano and tap the button on the front to show the amount of charge remaining. 

Then you can plug it into a USB-C outlet and start charging up your batteries – either the twin Llano cells that come with the Llano Fast Dual Charger Set, or any first- or third-party batteries you might own. I tested it on a variety of Canon and aftermarket LP-E6 and LP-E6NH batteries, with full charges taking under three hours. 

Not only does it draw power from a USB-C connection, meaning you don't have to pack an extra power block whenever you move around, but it's an 18W charger that supports Power Delivery 3.0 for superfast charging. 

And maybe my favourite thing of all? It has a storage slot for an SD card – so you can keep the Llano in your camera bag as a carry case, to store and charge your spare batteries, and always have a spare card with you in case of emergencies. 

It really is the coolest camera accessory I've used in years – and it's become my go-to for charging all my Canon batteries.

You might be interested in the best camera batteries and the best universal camera battery chargers to power them up.

It appears that third-party batteries cannot be used in the new Canon EOS R5 Mark II, with a YouTube reviewer declaring, "if you're a third-party battery fan, this is not for you" as he unsuccessfully tries to use non-Canon batteries in the camera.  

As an ultra-high power camera – between its 8K 60p video, 45MP resolution and 40fps burst speed, Neural network Image Processing and AI-powered autofocus modes – the R5 Mark II makes use of a new battery, the Canon LP-E6P. This is required to use the camera's full suite of features. 

The camera can, however, still use the previous-generation LP-E6N and LP-E6NH batteries used by the original Canon EOS R5, but some of the more demanding features become inaccessible. Standard LP-E6 batteries cannot be used.

But it seems that only official Canon LP-E6N and LP-E6NH batteries are recognized by the camera; in the video, third-party alternatives by Neewer and Powerextra did not work in the R5 Mark II. 

"Look at the new battery, which is the Canon LP-E6[P]. So this is supposed to be higher voltage than the other battery, so it's 2130 milliamp," says JCustom in his video (embedded below). 

"If we look the old one – this is the one that came with the R5, the LP-E6NH – you'll notice that this one's 7.2 volt, and the new one's 8.4 volt, and also same mAh, so no extra capacity but higher voltage." 

After remarking that he experienced no noticeable difference between the two Canon batteries, he explained that the story was quite different with his third-party batteries. 

"For those of you folks that like to use third-party batteries, I don't suggest you use these… With third-party batteries the camera will not power up. I didn't notice the R5 or R6 doing that, but you'll notice that – it's not because this battery is dead, trust me it's not – you cannot use third party batteries." 

He went on to try the Neewer and Powerextra versions in the BG-R20 battery grip. Even with one official Canon battery next to one of the third-party batteries, the camera wouldn't operate; it required two official batteries. 

"You see that – it requires authentic batteries in both [battery slots]," he noted, concluding, "if you're a third-party battery fan, this is not for you. You're gonna have to buy some [Canon] batteries."

I've reached out to Canon for clarity on the subject. It could simply be that these two specific batteries are not compatible with the R5 Mark II. If, however, the camera does not support any third-party batteries, some accessory makers (and customers) are likely to be very unhappy. 

I will update this story as I learn more.

You might be interested in the best camera batteries from both first and third parties. You may also want to check out the best Canon cameras and best Canon RF lenses. 

SmallRig is an industry leader in all things camera rigs. From camera cages to mounts and brackets SmallRig is vital to expanding videographers' interfaces and improving versatility in the field. It has just been announced that preorders have just opened for two new mount plate options.

In addition to producing some of the best camera rigs on the market, SmallRig also manufactures camera battery solutions, and the two new mount plates help more easily incorporate these into your camera setup.

The SmallRig Power Banks Mount Plate Kit and the SmallRig NP-F Battery Adapter Mount Plate Kit will seamlessly integrate into the 'SmallRig Power Supply Mounting Solution Ecosystem', delivering additional power on the move.

Although each is designed to hold different power options, many of the features between the two new mounts are the same, starting with the incredibly lightweight and compact form factor.

Literally pocket-sized, these two mounts weigh just 136g (NP-F Battery Adapter Mount Plate) and 156g (Power Banks Mount Plate) and are a universal fit for the majority of mirrorless cameras. Lightweight accessories are music to any videographer's ears, as keeping the rig's weight at a minimum offers improved maneuverability and results in less fatigue.

On the topic of handheld shooting, the mounts are designed with a balanced center of gravity and are each foldable for varied orientations. The mounts can be flipped 90º in either direction to keep access to the camera's screen, and can also be reversed for "greater angle flexibility".

Safety is key when attaching power options to your camera rig. Features such as an anti-slip, a locking lever, and a retractable adjustment knob enable the security of the kit, with the added benefit of being quick and easy to adjust.

Other notable features include a 1/4" - 20 threaded hole, a 3/8" - 16 threaded hole, an Arca Swiss design, and for the NP-F Battery Adapter Mount Plate in particular, a built-in dual DC output interface.

Both mounts are available for preorder now with an estimated shipping date of August 26, 2024. Both the SmallRig NP-F Battery Adapter Mount Plate and the SmallRig Power Banks Mount Plate Kit are priced at $59.99 / £60.90 / AU $99.90.

You may also be interested in our guides to the best camera rigs, the best hybrid cameras, and the best camera for video.

Earlier this year – at The Photography & Video Show – Mac Group, a leading distributor of equipment and accessories, introduced the Jupio Tri-Charge, which is now compatible with Fujifilm and Panasonic. 

The Jupio Tri-Charge is a nifty camera accessory that offers enhanced versatility from your typical camera battery charger. Not only can it charge three batteries simultaneously, but it can also be used to store and carry your spare batteries and memory cards.

Upon release, the charger was only compatible with charging Canon LPE6, Sony FZ100, and Nikon ENEL15 batteries. However, from July 24, you can also charge the best Fujifilm cameras and Panasonic cameras, as charger options for both Fuji NP-W235 and Panasonic BLK22 batteries are now available.

The Jupio Tri-Charge was developed from the ground up by YouTuber and content creator Peter Lindgren, and together with Jupio they designed a charger that also offers protection and storage for both batteries and memory.

As a charger, it utilizes smart charger capabilities to charge all three batteries simultaneously via the included USB-C charger. Jupio states that when used this way, charging is lightning-fast and keeps the user ready for action at all times.

Each battery bay has a bright 4 LED light panel which indicates the level of charge for each battery, an extremely helpful indicator when out in the field.

The charger doubles up as a storage device for all the best memory cards on the market, including storage slots for SDHC, micro SDHC, and CF express cards, meaning added protection and storage when traveling.

As if charging, protection, and storage weren't enough, the Jupio Tri-Charge also transforms into a portable power bank! The charger utilizes the camera batteries, once charged, as power for the power bank. An ingenious and versatile design that enables you to charge other equipment when in the field. 

The Jupio Tri-Charge is available now for $130 / £130 / AU$169.

You may also be interested in our guides to the best chargers, the best camera batteries, and the best memory cards.

'Charging anxiety' is a term that is commonplace in the electric vehicle market. It's that feeling of running out of precious power when you're partway through a journey. Many people feel the same thing when they think about their phones or laptops running out of juice. Thanks to UGREEN's 300W 48,000mAh Portable Charger Power Bank, there's no need to be without.

The power bank delivers 48,000 mAh of capacity, which is plenty to charge phones and laptops multiple times. It is even possible to charge up to five devices at a time, but only up to 300W. This means you can keep all your devices fully topped up, no matter whether you're off on holiday without power or if you're desperate to stay online during a power cut.

UGREEN has built a sturdy device that fills the middle power bank market and sits perfectly between small mobile power banks and full-on portable power stations. The price might put a lot of people off but for those who are willing to spend the money, they won't be disappointed.

UGREEN 300W Power Bank: Specifications

UGREEN 300W Power Bank: Price

At $199.99 / £189.99, the UGREEN 300W 48,000mAh Portable Charger Power Bank is definitely on the pricy side of power banks but it isn't without reason. The capacity is significantly larger than smaller power banks such as the Anker MagGo 10K and provides more charging configurations than most other alternatives of this size.

UGREEN 300W Power Bank: Design & Handling

In terms of design, this 300W 48,000mAh power bank is typically UGREEN. All materials are a shade of grey or black, providing a muted palette of colors to ensure the device will fit naturally into any desktop environment. Two rubber pads at the bottom of the unit also help to ensure it won't slip or fall.

The front of the unit is where the magic happens and is taken up by a low-light but masterfully engineered screen that displays the battery level, the watts in, and the watts out. The screen is not domineering but fades into the background, much like the display on an Amazon Kindle.

Underneath the display are the power button, two USB-A ports, and three USB-C ports. The USB-A ports are 22.5W max and can only be used to output power. The first of the USB-C ports is 140W max and can be used to either charge the power bank or an external device. The final two USB-C ports are 'out' only and are limited to 100W. Any number of the five ports can be used at any one time, although the overall output is limited to 300W.

The power bank is advertised as portable, which is true, but it's heavy weight (1.86 KG) means it's not for the fainthearted. If you're transporting this any distance at all, then you'll want to make sure you have the muscles to do so. It'll be fine if you're taking it on holiday in your car but if you're going on a hike, then that might prove tricky. The unit does come with a carry handle, although this is made of plastic and could easily snap off if put under unnecessary pressure. The side of the unit also includes an LED light, which campers might find useful.

UGREEN 300W Power Bank: Performance

The output performance of this UGREEN power bank is relatively good, although I was never able to hit the heights of the watt outputs either for the USB-C or USB-A outputs. This might have been due to my phone and laptop cables but I'm not entirely sure they were entirely at fault. I was able to charge my iPhone XR in around an hour, although I expected it to be quicker.

In terms of charging the power bank, I experienced very mixed results. The device doesn't ship with a charger so if you want to get the quickest re-charge times, then you'll need to invest in something like UGREEN's Nexode 100W USB-C charger. This isn't ideal. I used a range of different USB-C cables and experienced anything between 3 and 12 watts of input. This meant it took me more than a day or sometimes longer, to go from empty to full charge.

UGREEN claims that even after 3,000 charge cycles, it will still have 80% of its capacity available. Considering you're unlikely to drain the unit and recharge it once every day, this power bank is likely to last 10 to 15 years.

UGREEN 300W Power Bank: Verdict

The UGREEN 300W 48,000mAh Power Bank is a great device that offers unparalleled charging features that will appeal to people going on a camping weekend or who want to be prepared for a power cut. Even though the unit is quite heavy, it is still small enough to take with you on a holiday, as long as you're not planning on carrying it too far.

The 48,000mAh capacity will charge most laptops once or any phone numerous times. The low-light display provides all the necessary information, including battery level as well as how many watts are coming in or out of the power bank. Having this level of information is one thing that sets it apart from smaller and cheaper power banks.

To get the most out of it, you will need to invest in the highest-wattage power cables but if you have time on your hands, then you'll have no problem getting all your devices charged up time and again with standard phone charging cables. I really like this power bank and am glad to have enough power ready to go should any emergency arise.

Alternatives

The Itson name might not be familiar but this new brand has the same parent company as Panasonic Eneloop and Eneloop Pro, which has been my go-to brand for rechargeable Ni-MH batteries for many years. They ushered in a new era, where freshly charged batteries retained their charge for months or even years, rather than going flat in a few weeks, before I got around to actually using them. Itson rechargeable batteries pick up the baton, further stretching eco advantages. They’re designed and manufactured to the highest standards, and that pays off in terms of performance and reliability, vying for a slot in the ranks of the best rechargeable AA batteries and the best rechargeable AAA batteries on the market.

Itson ItsRecharge AA & AAA: Specifications

Itson ItsRecharge AA & AAA: Price

At the time of writing this review, prices had yet to settle and the batteries were only available from a few suppliers. I’d expect that as a wider range of multi-pack options come on stream, along with the choice of buying them with a charger, prices will change. At the get-go, however, pricing is comparable with other big-name brands like Duracell, Energizer and Panasonic Eneloop / Eneloop Pro.

Itson ItsRecharge AA & AAA: Design & Handling

I always feel that one of the biggest attractions of rechargeable batteries is that they’re more environmentally friendly than single-use disposables. Itson takes everything up a notch in this regard. It starts with sustainable manufacturing and logistics, and the batteries being pre-charged with solar energy. The packaging is entirely made from 100% recyclable cardboard with no use of plastics for the likes of blister packs, and the packaging itself consists of 95% recycled material. Going further still, Itson supports local projects like community gardens, with the aim of transforming urban spaces, purifying the air to reduce pollution, and promoting biodiversity. The company certainly takes green credentials to heart.

I’ve tested a bunch of Chinese rechargeable AA & AAA batteries that are only 20% charged at the manufacturing stage. Safety during transport is often stated as the reason behind this, but it can be frustrating if you have to charge the batteries before first use. I like that the Itson batteries are all charged up and ready to roll. And that’s not the only time-saver. Many rechargeable batteries that I’ve tried from companies including EBL, HiQuick and Powerowl work fine with modestly fast chargers but they feel like they’re being boiled alive with properly fast chargers, which I therefore avoid. I found no such problems with these Itson batteries, which keep their cool even with the fastest chargers on the market, greatly speeding up the process.

When they’re charged up, Itson batteries stay that way. Many manufacturers claim that their batteries retain around 60% of their charge after being unused for two years, up to around 80% after three years. Itson states that its ItsRecharge batteries will retain 70% of their charge even after a huge 10 years of being left on the shelf, which really is quite something. I’ve bought alkaline single-use batteries with a shorter shelf life. The total number of recharge cycles is 600, which doesn’t compare too favorably with the 2100 times of some NiMH batteries. Naturally, I’m not able to compare different batteries in this respect, within the time constraints of writing reviews. Even so, if I needed to recharge the Itson batteries once every single week, that still gives a longevity of 11 years and 6 months. I’d be perfectly happy with that.

The stated capacity of the Itson ItsRecharge batteries is 2000mAh for AA and 800mAh for AAA. That’s an exact match for Panasonic Eneloop alternatives and falls short of some cheaper batteries on the market, which often stretch to 2800mAh for AA and 1100mAh for AAA. It’s easy to feel short-changed in the capacity Vs price stakes, but let’s see how things work out in practice.

Itson ItsRecharge AA & AAA: Performance

To test the ItsRecharge AA batteries in a typical photographic context (we’re Digital Camera World, after all), I put a set of four freshly charged cells in my Nikon SB-700 Speedlight flashgun. I fired off a series of full-power flashes in sets of 100 shots, pausing after each for a cooling-off period, for both the flashgun and the batteries. Recycle speeds kicked off at an impressive 2.2 seconds, dropping to a still very respectable 2.7 seconds after 100 flashes. That’s way better than the 7 seconds for alkaline single-use batteries after 50 shots, and 13 seconds after 100 shots. In a photographic context when using a flashgun, the speed advantage can make the difference between capturing a definitive moment and missing it altogether.

Better still, the Itson batteries powered through to 260 flashes before they were exhausted, still delivering 3.1 second recycling speeds around the 200 mark, whereas alkaline batteries were completely wasted after 117 flashes. Interestingly, the 260 flashes isn’t far short of the 280 to 290 flashes that I’ve experienced with some Ni-MH batteries that have a far higher 2800mAh stated capacity.

The same goes for the AAA batteries, which powered my high-powered LED flashlight for 75 minutes. Again, that’s not much less than the 85 minutes I’ve come to expect from higher-capacity 1100mAh NiMH batteries from other manufacturers. All in all, I’m starting to take claimed capacities of Ni-MH batteries with a pinch of salt, and these Itson cells have more stamina than the ratings would suggest. It’s another win.

Itson ItsRecharge AA & AAA: Verdict

The Itson ItsRecharge AA & AAA batteries give me everything I want and more from the latest NiMH rechargeable batteries. They come fully charged with top-rank eco credentials, retain their charge for a decade when sitting on the shelf and deliver excellent performance in terms of power delivery and stamina. I also like that I can recharge them in really high-speed chargers without them getting overly hot and giving cause for concern. Sure, they’re not the cheapest rechargeable batteries on the market but, all things considered, I’m happy to pay the extra. Power to the people!

Alternatives

See also our Itson ItsRecharge Pro AA & AAA battery review

Itson is a new kid on the block and, while you might never have heard of this battery manufacturer, it’s part of the Advanced Power Solutions group, which includes famous brands like the somewhat legendary Panasonic Eneloop and Eneloop Pro. Eneloop batteries actually changed NiMH batteries forever. They’ve long been my favorites, as they retain their charge for months or even years, instead of going flat all on their own after a few weeks before I’d had a chance to actually use them. Itson rechargeable batteries follow suit, aiming for the highest levels of performance, reliability and eco-friendliness, thus eyeing up a place in the ranks of the best rechargeable AA batteries and the best rechargeable AAA batteries on the market.

Itson ItsRecharge Pro AA & AAA: Specifications

Itson ItsRecharge Pro AA & AAA: Price

I seized on these Itson rechargeable batteries as soon as they became available. As such, they hadn’t yet become widely available and prices were yet to settle. Even so, from the relatively few suppliers that actually stocked them at the time of writing this review, prices compared favorably with other big-name brands like Duracell, Energizer and Panasonic Eneloop / Eneloop Pro.

Itson ItsRecharge Pro AA & AAA: Design & Handling

Going green is a big thing for many of us now, and there’s a lot to be said for rechargeable batteries compared with single-use alkaline cells. Naturally, the point isn’t lost on the marketing departments of rival rechargeable battery manufacturers, but Itson go further than most. The company’s manufacturing and logistics operations are sustainable, and the batteries themselves are pre-charged before shipping, using solar energy. Single-use plastics are definitely on the miss-list, so the packaging is entirely made 95% recycled cardboard, which is fully recyclable once you’ve removed the batteries. And if you want more greenery, Itson is involved in projects like community gardens, aiming to transform urban spaces while reducing pollution and promoting biodiversity.

Over the last year, I’ve tested many rechargeable AA & AAA batteries and quite a few of them are only 20% charged at the manufacturing stage, before shipping into the retail chain. The reason (or perhaps excuse) for this is safety during transport. It’s perhaps not a big deal but I’ve grown to like rechargeable batteries that are fully charged before shipping and ready to roll straight out of the box.

Another thing I’ve found recently is that many rechargeable batteries from companies including EBL, HiQuick and Powerowl work perfectly well with the reasonably quick chargers with which they’re often supplied. However, if I try to charge them with a super-fast charger, they become too hot to handle so I’m not in the least bit comfortable with taking that risk. There’s no problem with these Itson batteries, which I found kept their cool even with the fastest chargers on the market, greatly speeding up the recharging process until they’re ready to use again.

As I’ve mentioned, one of my main bugbears with old-style NiMH batteries is that they used to discharge so quickly when sitting on the shelf waiting to be used. Again, there’s no such problem with these Itson batteries, which retain 85% of a full charge even when unused for a whole year. The total number of claimed recharge cycles is rather modest at 150, which looks pretty poor compared with the claimed 2,100 times of some NiMH batteries. The comparison is something I can’t test within the time constraints of writing reviews but, even so, Naturally, I’m not able to compare different batteries in this respect, within the time constraints of writing reviews. Even so, the Itson batteries beat the claimed total number of 100 recharge cycles for the competing Duracell rechargeable batteries, by 50%. Suffice it to say that if I had to recharge these Itson batteries once every fortnight, they’d still be good for nearly six years.

The stated capacity of the Itson ItsRecharge Pro batteries is 2500mAh for AA and 930mAh for AAA. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Panasonic Eneloop Pro alternatives from the same parent company have exactly the same ratings. Let’s see how performance compares in real-world tests.

Itson ItsRecharge Pro AA & AAA: Performance

I put a four freshly charged ItsRecharge Pro AA batteries in my Nikon SB-700 Speedlight flashgun to test them in a typical photographic scenario, firing off a series of full-power flashes. I took sets of 100 shots, pausing after each to let the flashgun and batteries cool down for a bit. I found that recycle speeds started off at a super-fast 1.6 seconds, until the flashgun’s ready light illuminated. That’s actually the fastest speed that I’ve ever got from NiMH batteries in this flashgun, and twice as quick as with a brand new set of alkaline cells.

Recycle speed dropped to 1.9 seconds after 75 flashes and 2 seconds after 100 flashes, still quicker than the initial speed of many freshly charged NiMH batteries. For further comparison, alkaline batteries dropped to speeds of 9.2 seconds after 75 flashes and 13 seconds after 100 flashes, being completely exhausted after 117 flashes. The Itson batteries powered through to 320 full-power flashes, easing ahead of even many higher-rated 2800mAh batteries that I’ve tested, which tended to run out at around 290 flashes.

I was similarly impressed when testing the AAA batteries in my high-intensity LED flashlight, where they lasted for 85 minutes. That matches the running time of higher-rated 1100mAh NiMH batteries that I’ve tested from other manufacturers.

Itson ItsRecharge Pro AA & AAA: Verdict

I’m an instant fan of Itson ItsRecharge Pro AA & AAA batteries. I like that they have top-notch eco credentials and come fully charged, so they’re ready to use straight out of the (cardboard rather than plastic) box. Testing the AA batteries with a flashgun, which is an obvious use in photographic terms, they outperformed every other NiMH battery that I’ve ever used, and I’ve used many. I was equally impressed with the performance and stamina of the ItsRecharge Pro AAA batteries. I also like that I can recharge both sizes of battery in a super-fast charger without them getting hot and causing any concern. I could buy cheaper rechargeable batteries but, taking everything into account, I’m more than happy to pay the extra.

Alternatives

Who doesn't love wireless charging? It's a super-convenient way to power up your Apple kit without the hassle of cables. However, one of the biggest drawbacks of wireless is the heat generated, which can slow down charging speeds and potentially damage your battery over time. 

The ESR 3-in-1 MagSafe Charger with CryoBoost aims to address this issue with a proprietary cooling system that keeps your devices at optimal temperatures during charging. This might sound like snake oil from other brands, but ESR is a well-established player in the mobile accessories market, with a strong reputation for quality, affordable products, so we definitely thought it was worth giving a go.

Designed solely for Apple users, this charging station caters to those who own an iPhone, AirPods, and an Apple Watch, providing a convenient way to charge all three devices simultaneously. But how well does it actually work in practice? Read on to find out.

ESR Cryoboost charger: Specifications

ESR Cryoboost charger: Price and availability

The ESR 3-in-1 MagSafe Charger with CryoBoost retails for $54.99 on Amazon (£65 in the UK), making it a relatively affordable option compared to similar products on the market. It is available through both ESR's website and Amazon in a wide range of countries.

ESR Cryoboost charger: Build and handling

The ESR 3-in-1 MagSafe Charger with CryoBoost comes as one complete unit, so there's no setup needed, other than connecting the USB lead and plug to connect it to a power supply. Its combination of aluminum alloy construction and white plastic makes it solid and sturdy, and it feels like a premium product. 

While this isn't an official Apple product, its sleek, minimalist design means it blends seamlessly with your Apple kit and doesn't look out of place at all. It also feels sturdy and non-wobbly in use.

The main charging area, which works with iPhones series 12-15, features a cooling fan that lowers the temperature of the charger as well as your phone. There are cooling vents (around the back) and a status light that indicates when your device is charging or fully charged. 

Below, there's an AirPods charging area, which is simply a recessed rectangle, that also features magnetic alignment. Finally, while the charging station doesn't include an Apple Watch charging cable, it does provide a dedicated mount for your Apple Watch charger. 

Overall, the ESR 3-in-1 MagSafe Charger with CryoBoost offers a well-built and user-friendly design, with a focus on both functionality and aesthetics.

ESR Cryoboost charger: Performance

The standout feature of this charger is its CryoBoost technology. By incorporating a fan and heat-dissipating components, the charging station actively cools your devices during wireless charging, allowing for faster and more efficient charge times. But does this actually make a difference?

Quite simply, yes. In my real-world tests, the CryoBoost technology lived up to its promise. My iPhone 13 charged noticeably faster compared to other wireless chargers, going from 0 to 50 percent in just 39 minutes on one occasion. This is faster than I've ever seen an iPhone power up on a MagSafe wireless charger. And my phone remained consistently cool to the touch throughout the charging process. 

This not only ensures a safer charging experience but also helps to prolong the lifespan of your device's battery. So really, it's not just about saving you time charging your phone. It's also about protecting the value of your $1K+ investment in it. It's a similar principle to putting premium gas into your car to protect your engine, except, unlike that example, you only pay extra once, not every time you top up. 

More fundamentally, the MagSafe connectivity worked flawlessly, providing a strong and secure hold on my iPhone, and the adjustable viewing angle allowed me to comfortably watch videos, take video calls, or simply check notifications while my device was charging.

The AirPods and Apple Watch charging areas also performed well, providing a convenient way to top up all my devices simultaneously. The 25W of power it provides means that it can apportion 15W to fast-charge your iPhone while still having 10W left over for your other Apple bits and pieces.

ESR Cryoboost charger: Verdict

If you have lots of Apple devices to charge, this 3-in-1 device is an absolute slam dunk. And even if you only have an iPhone to charge, (assuming it's between a 12 and 15) we'd still recommend it, as the Cryoboost tech means you'll get faster and safer charging while keeping your phone cool and protecting its battery over time. Even better, it's cheaper than rivals; much cheaper, in fact.

The adjustable viewing angle and premium build quality further enhance the overall experience. With a sleek, premium design it doubles as an iPhone stand, allowing you to use it both vertically and horizontally while charging it magnetically. And the price is reasonable too. So unless you are militant about buying only Apple-made or officially Apple-approved kit, we can't really think of any reason not to buy this.

ESR Cryoboost charger: Alternatives

"Recharge. Capture. Repeat" is the aim of the game as SmallRig announces a powerful new rechargeable camera battery with a sleek new look. 

SmallRig manufactures some of the best camera peripherals on the market, from camera rigs to batteries, SmallRig has quickly become the go-to for creators. The SmallRig NP-F970 USB-C Rechargeable Camera Battery offers great versatility in a small yet powerful package and some modern updates to the existing model.

The battery boasts a large capacity of 10500mAh (76.65Wh) which ensures long-lasting power to keep up with the demands of shooting video. When tested by SmallRig on a Sony A7 IV the battery provided 6 hours and 40 minutes of continuous video use, a staggering amount in such a small package. 

This is made all the more impressive when combined with a USB-C 36W fast charging and Power ADC smart charging system, bringing it from empty to full in just 3.5 hours. 

An ideal portable power source, the battery's NP-F main port can power a variety of devices such as LED video lights, cameras, monitors, motorized sliders, and much more. The battery also comes equipped with one USB-C port and one USB-A port, "allowing for charging of electronic devices like smartphones, tablets, and other electronic devices."

The USB-C port functions as both an input and output allowing it to be charged and in turn charge devices. The USB-A port provides output with a maximum power of 27W, adding more functionality to the battery. The USB-C and USB-A ports have parallel circuits, allowing for simultaneous fast charging of two devices. 

The battery looks sleek and falls in seamlessly with SmallRig's new modern look much like the new SmallRig V-Mount batteries. The battery comes with touch buttons enabling the user to monitor battery health and performance. At just the touch of your fingertip, the battery level display screen provides precise battery level information for easy monitoring.

The battery also comes in three distinct colorways that offer even more product design, available in Black, Orange, and Olive Green. On top of the aesthetics, the battery is developed with high-quality battery cells from (SmallRig says) reputable manufacturers, integrated with intelligent management chips, and equipped with multiple protection features in the circuit system. This ensures the safety, reliability, and longevity of the product.

Although the main port is a Sony NP-F, it is compatible with the SmallRig adapter, providing different output ports, including a 12V DC output port and a 7.4V DC output port.

Having only just been announced, the SmallRig NP-F970 USB-C Rechargeable Camera Battery is available 'soon' with an estimated shipping date of May 21. The US price will be $80 and the UK and Australian prices are yet to be confirmed. 

You may also be interested in our guides to the best camera for video, the best LED video lights, and the best universal camera battery charger.

If you spend a lot of time driving and have an iPhone, then you'll want a charger in your car. That way, you'll never run out of the juice you need for navigation, music streaming, and hands-free calling while you're on the road. 

And if your iPhone is MagSafe compatible (which applies to all models from the 12 series upwards), you'll be tempted by the idea of a magnetic charger. Because quite frankly, it means you can just get in the car, pop your phone onto a magnet, and drive. Which is a lot more convenient than messing about with a bunch of wires. 

That said, if you've recently shelled out a lot of cash on your phone and various other accessories, your bank account may be feeling the pinch right now. And so the high price of the Apple-approved Belkin Boostcharge Car Charger may be just beyond your reach. In which case, you'll be pleased to hear ESR Qi2 15W MagSafe Car Mount Charger is more than half the price.

That's not surprising: ESR has a strong reputation in making chargers that are generally cheaper than those from major brands like Apple or Samsung. But is this a great way to save money, or are you cutting off your nose to spite your face? I spent time with the ESR Qi2 15W MagSafe Car Mount Charger to find out.

ESR charger: Specifications

ESR charger: Price and availability

The ESR Qi2 15W MagSafe Car Mount Charger is widely available through both ESR's Amazon store and official website, catering to users worldwide. At the time of writing, it's $29.99 on Amazon, making it much more affordable than the Apple-approved Belkin Boostcharge Car Charger, which is $89.99 on Amazon. 

ESR charger: Build and handling

The ESR Qi2 15W MagSafe Car Mount Charger is small but perfectly formed with a sleek and modern design. It comes with two alternative ways of attaching it to the dashboard.

The first is a three-point mount with a support arm, which clips onto your air vent. The second is a dashboard anchor which uses a high-quality adhesive that means you can stick it pretty much anywhere you like.

Because this was for a review, I didn't necessarily want to attach this charger to my car forever, so I went for the clip, which I found easy to attach, remove and reattach. This would also be the best option if, say, you often switch between a personal car and a company car, or sometimes use your partner's.

Despite its low price, this product feels very well-made and sturdy. This helped to calm my nerves: after all, no one wants their expensive iPhone falling off the dash the moment their car hits a bump in the road. 

The strong magnets in this charger meant that attaching and removing my iPhone was pretty seamless; it snapped into place naturally and without any messing around. I also appreciated the fact you could angle your phone in both portrait and landscape modes, depending on what you or your passenger are using it for. 

The charger comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable as well as a small USB-A to USC-C adapter. On the downside, if your car doesn't have either a USB-A or USB-C port, you'll need an adapter to connect to its cigarette lighter socket.

ESR charger: Performance

Equipped with its official Qi2 certification, this charger provided pretty efficient 15W charging in practice. I managed to charge an iPhone 13 from empty to full in times ranging from 2hrs 47mins to 2hrs 53mins, which is about what I'd expect from a normal MagSafe charger. I also liked that there are blue lights on both the passenger and driver sides to show you that your phone is being powered.

Perhaps more importantly, the strong magnetic lock, combined with the sturdy mounting system, ensured that the phone remained securely in place, even during sharp turns or rough road conditions. Which, given my generally nervous state around expensive tech, was a big relief. 

ESR charger: Verdict

The ESR Qi2 15W MagSafe Car Mount Charger does what it's supposed to, simply and efficiently. It's easy to set up. It attaches magnetically to your phone easily. It charges your phone quickly. It lets you position your phone horizontally or vertically. And it comes with two mounting options: one that's more temporary and one that's more permanent. In short, if you're looking for an affordable way to charge a modern iPhone in your car, I would recommend this affordable option.

ESR charger: Alternatives

As we reported yesterday, DJI have launched two new power banks ideal for powering camping holidays or keeping your drones and camera equipment charged up in the field.

In a way, it's surprising the company hasn't done this sooner since it's invested a good deal of time developing lightweight, powerful, and reliable batteries for drones. Still, better late than never. We've just spotted that – in the USA at least – the company seems to be celebrating the launch with a massive discount from the planned recommended retail of $999 for the Power 1000 and $499 for the Power 500.

That's pretty unusual for a launch product, and makes it very competitive, so it might be worth checking out. 

We don't have full reviews of these products yet, but DJI generally have a very good or better score with their other products, as evidenced by our guides to the best camera drones, and best beginner drones.

These are obviously useful if you're out camping or you're our flying; drone batteries aren't cheap and – if you charge as you go – then you don't need to buy as many batteries to have a fruitful day flying. We can see these being very popular with professional content creators who need to keep topping up on the go and with pilots of fun craft like the new Avata 2 which, if we're honest, burns through batteries faster when you're having more fun!

DJI, known best for its drones, action cameras, and gimbals, has thrown its hat into yet another ring – portable power stations. The company have just launched the Power 1000 and Power 500 portable power stations. They have capacities of 1024 Wh and 512 Wh respectively.

Both devices can be fully charged in approximately 70 minutes (or to 80% in 50 minutes), and weigh just under 30 pounds / 13Kg for the Power 1000 and 16 pounds / 7.3Kg for the 500.

This might seem a sharp change of tac for DJI, but in practice the company has worked hard on perfecting battery technology to get the most power in the lightest batteries for drones, and many drone users and other creatives need power on the move, so it makes a lot of sense for their customer base.

"Over the past several years we've seen travelers and content creators around the world increasingly turn to DJI drones and handheld cameras, to capture and share their experiences.  These users have a demand for fast charging, worry-free, sustainable power consumption and today we're glad we can address this with the new DJI portable power stations," said Christina Zhang, Senior Director of Corporate Strategy at DJI.

Personally, I'd have thought if you've got one of these in the field, then the three batteries on most drone chargers will seem to last a good bit longer – especially with a picnic! (I personally used an Anker Solix when testing for a review to do just that). DJI is also offering some drone-specific fast-charging cables for the Air 3, Mavic 3, Inspire 3, and Matrice 3.

DJI are clearly wise to the features offered by other power stations, and offers both a Solar Panel Adapter Module (MPPT) and a Car Power Outlet to SDC Power Cable (for a 12/24V connection). The devices also have two-way USB-C ports as well as classic mains sockets, with 2x 140W connections on the 1000 and 2x 100W on the 500, so can even be charged via USB. 

The devices can serve as UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) with just a 0.02 second latency, and have safety certifications from the Swiss third-party testing authority SGS.

The products are shipping from today, at a price of $999 / £879 / AU$1,369 for the DJI Power 1000 and $529 / £459 / AU$729 for the DJI Power 500. They're already visible on the DJI Store, and are being offered in bundles with solar panels.

If you're looking for an iPhone power bank, check our guide.

The Jupio x Pr1me Gear Triple-Charge does a lot more than its name suggests. Yes, it can charge three camera batteries simultaneously - but its designed in such as a way that it can store your spares when you go on location. Each charging bay has an LED indicator which is turned on with a press of a button to see which of your spares still has charge.

Designed by the Swedish YouTuber Peter Lingdren, the other ingenious feature of this interesting accessory, is that it also has slots to store your memory cards. There are eight different slots in total - three for SD format cards, three for CFexpress Type B cards, and two for microSD cards.

The Jupio Tri-Charge is available in three models, to cater for the popular Sony NP-FZ100, Nikon EN-EL15, or Canon LP-E6 camera batteries - and is powered through its USB-C socket. The pack can also be used as a power brick for other devices, using its separate USB-C output.

The Jupio Tri-Charge costs $129.95 / £130 in Sony, Canon, or Nikon options - but is available at The Photography & Video Show, which continues until Tuesday 19 March for the special price of £100.

I’ve tested and reviewed EBL AA 2800mAh & AAA 1100mAh NiMH batteries and was very impressed. I often use them in my camera flashguns, flashlights, gaming console controllers and other gadgets around the home. They’re certainly among the best AA rechargeable batteries and best AAA rechargeable batteries on the market. Compared with NiMH batteries, these EBL 1.5V 3000mWh Li-ion Rechargeable AA Batteries are pricier to buy and require a specialist charger (generally sold with the batteries themselves as a complete package) but have a voltage advantage.

EBL 1.5V 3000mWh Li-ion Rechargeable: What's changed?

If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember the nightmare of NiCAD rechargeable batteries. Based on nickel-cadmium, they’re actually still available to buy but suffer from the dreaded ‘memory effect’. To get the best out of them, you need to discharge them completely before recharging them, rather than just topping up the charge whenever it’s convenient. NiMH (Nickel-Metal Hydride) rechargeable batteries addressed that pitfall but, traditionally, they still discharge all by themselves in just a few weeks, even when stored away and not in use.

More recent versions of NiMH rechargeable batteries follow in the pioneering footsteps of Panasonic Eneloop batteries, boasting a low self-discharge rate. It’s a big upside in that you can fully charge them, store them for months or even years, and they’ll still have most of their charge available when you actually come to use them. It’s a win-win situation, almost. The only real catch is that, unlike regular alkaline (non-rechargeable) batteries, NiMH as well as NiCAD batteries only deliver a nominal voltage of 1.2V instead of 1.5V. That can be a problem with some electronic devices that require a higher voltage to perform at their best, or even to work at all. These EBL Li-ion batteries aim to solve that problem as well.

EBL 1.5V Li-ion Rechargeable Batteries: Specifications

EBL 1.5V Li-ion Rechargeable Batteries: Price & Availability

Battery for battery, EBL 1.5V 3000mWh Li-ion Rechargeable AA Batteries are about three times the price of EBL AA 2800mAh & AAA 1100mAh NiMH batteries. The Li-ion batteries need a specific charger so are often sold as a complete package that includes the charger as well, at a small extra cost. You can use this as a ‘starter pack’ and add extra packs of batteries on their own. As a rough guide, a pack of 8 AA batteries plus an 8-slot charger costs around $46/£40, or $26/$21 for 4 AA batteries and a 4-slot charger. 1200mWh AAA Li-Ion rechargeable batteries are also available in some world regions including the USA, but not currently in the UK.

EBL 1.5V Li-ion Rechargeable Batteries: Design & Handling

I picked up an 8-pack of AA batteries, complete with an 8-slot battery charger and was impressed by the high-quality look and feel of both items. An extra bonus is that the batteries come with robust storage cases, each accommodating up to 4 batteries. The kit comes with user manuals for both the batteries and the charger, which are also available online as PDFs.

I like that most NiMH batteries nowadays are supplied pre-charged and ready for use. That’s certainly NOT the case with these Li-ion batteries, for which a full charge is recommended before first use. As I’ve mentioned, you can’t use a general NiMH battery charger, and need to use the specialist charger that’s designed for these Li-ion batteries. The charger connects via a USB-A to Micro-USB cable, supplied with the kit, rather than the more modern USB-C standard. No USB mains adapter is supplied, so you’ll have to use your own, or buy one, with a minimum of 1 amp output for the 4-slot charger and 2 amps output for the 8-slot charger. 

An upside is that both chargers have an ‘individual channel’ design, so you can charge individual batteries or any multiple, rather than only charging them in pairs or groups of four. LED indicators for each channel flash red then green on power-up, then solid red while charging and green when that specific channel’s battery is fully charged. The chargers feature an ‘intelligent protection’ chip that guards against overcurrent, overvoltage, overcharging, overheating and short-circuit.

The AA rechargeable Li-ion batteries themselves have a capacity rating of 3000mWh, which can seem a little misleading. The capacity of most rechargeable batteries is quoted in mAh (milli-Amp hours), rather than mWh (milli-Watt hours). Do the math and a 1.5V 3000mWh battery equates to 2000mAh, lagging behind the 2800mAh NiMH rating of many of the highest-capacity NiMH batteries currently on the market, including those from EBL. 

Both types of EBL battery have a very low self-discharge rate when stored and not in use. Safety features for the batteries include a built-in integrated circuit, which protects against overcharge, over discharge, overheating and short-circuit. The batteries also have a sealed construction to prevent leakage.

EBL 1.5V Li-ion Rechargeable Batteries: Performance

Some gadgets don’t play well with the 1.2V maximum output of NiMH batteries, compared with the 1.5V of conventional, non-rechargeable batteries. These Li-ion rechargeable batteries solve the problem by having a matching 1.5V output. A further plus point in terms of performance is that, like 1.2V NiMH batteries, they maintain their maximum voltage throughout pretty much the entire discharge cycle, whereas the voltage of 1.5V alkaline batteries starts dropping off as soon as you begin using them, and continues a steady decline until they’re flat. Use the Li-ion batteries in a flashlight, for example, and it’ll stay brighter for longer.

The flipside, for uses like flashlights, is that Li-ion batteries (as well as NiMH) go flat much more suddenly than alkaline batteries when they’re eventually exhausted, which can catch you out and literally leave you in the dark. Naturally, it’s always wise to have spare batteries in reserve and the low self-discharge rate helps with this. EBL states that after fully charging the batteries, 95% of the charge is retained after 6 months, 90% after a year, 85% after 2 years and 80% after 3 years. The company also advertises that the batteries have sufficient longevity to withstand 1200 or more charge/discharge cycles.

Straight out of the box, I found I had to charge the batteries in the supplied USB charger for between 4 and 8 hours before they were all at full capacity and ready for their first use. That can be frustrating compared with ‘ready to use’ NiMH batteries, if you’re not aware of the need for a lengthy wait. On the other hand, many of the latest high-capacity, low-self-discharge NiMH batteries (EBL included) are only shipped with 20% charge, claiming that this is due to safety issues. After draining the Li-ion batteries in use, subsequent recharging times were between 4 and 5 hours on average.

To test the performance of these AA batteries in a real-world context, I put a set of four into my trusty Nikon Speedlight SB-700 flashgun. For comparison, when I use premium alkaline batteries, I tend to get a recycling speed of about 3 seconds after a full-power flash with fresh batteries, dropping to 6.5 seconds after 50 flashes, 9 seconds after 75 flashes, and 13 seconds after 100 flashes. The upshot is that the performance starts deteriorating pretty quickly during the life of the batteries, and alkaline batteries generally run out of juice after about 115 full-power flashes.

Using a fully charged set of four EBL Li-ion batteries, the recycling speed of the flashgun started off at a rather disappointing 7 seconds after a full-power flash. I found that this slowed to 8 seconds after 50 flashes and 9 seconds after 75 flashes, at this point matching the recycling speed on alkaline batteries. The recycling time remained at 9 seconds after 100 flashes, compared with 13 seconds for alkaline batteries. However, most NiMH batteries that I’ve tested in the same conditions gave recycling speeds of around 2 to 2.5 seconds over the same period. For photographic use when shooting with a flashgun, the longer wait using the EBL Li-ion batteries can result in missing important shots altogether.

Let’s take a look at staying power. With a fully charged set of four NiMH batteries rated at 2500mAh to 2800mAh, I usually get around 300 full-power flashes from my flashgun. That’s nearly three times as many as from a fresh set of alkaline batteries. The EBL Li-ion batteries were about half way in between, the recycling speed of my flashgun slowing from 9 seconds to 13 seconds after 200 flashes, and the batteries being exhausted after 207 flashes. Suffice it to say that with flashguns and most of my other battery-powered gadgets, I’ll be sticking with NiMH.

EBL 1.5V Li-ion Rechargeable Batteries: Verdict

As far as I’m concerned, EBL 1.5V 3000mWh Li-ion Rechargeable AA Batteries are a bit of a specialist item. Their main plus point is that they give a higher 1.5V output, compared with the 1.2V output of NiMH batteries. That can be a definite advantage for voltage-critical electronic devices. A further plus point for power-hungry gadgets is that, while they match the 1.5V of traditional alkaline (non-rechargeable) batteries, they retain their full voltage for virtually the whole of the discharge cycle rather than starting to drop off very quickly. As such, they work well for the likes of flashlights and radio-controlled models that run on electric motors. However, EBL states that, despite the 1.5V output, they’re not compatible with the Blink camera system. For most uses, I find that I get better performance for much less outlay with NiMH batteries, like EBL AA 2800mAh & AAA 1100mAh NiMH batteries. NiMH batteries also have the added convenience that I can recharge them in any generic NiMH battery charger.

Alternatives

It takes something bit unique to stand out in the world of power banks. Most power banks are just rectangular slabs of batteries that you either plug your phone into or attach to your device for wireless charging. So how do you innovate? Well, if you are Anker then you flip the script, quite literally, with a flip-open clamshell power bank.

Part of Anker’s new MagGo range, this power bank has a capacity of 6600mAh and is capable of charging Apple MagSafe-enabled devices at speeds of up to 15W wirelessly, which is the fastest wireless charging speed yet for an Apple device. But most interesting of all, is the design, a two-part clamshell laptop with a flexible hinge for positioning your phone for optimal viewing. The design is unusual, but does the innovation pay off or is the more traditional power bank still best?

Anker MagGo 6.6K: Specifications

Anker MagGo 6.6K: Price

The Anker MagGo Power Bank (6.6K) costs $69.99 / £69.99 at launch, which is quite pricey for its capacity when compared to other wireless and wired power banks. Anker themselves make 20,000mAh wired power banks for around the same price. The extra cost is clearly for the new 15W MagSafe compatibility, so if you think this is worth paying for depends on how much you will get out of this method of charging.

Anker MagGo 6.6K: Design & Handling

Hats off to Anker for trying new things, and as far as I am aware this is the first clamshell-style power bank of its kind on the market, but I have to admit, it's a design I personally don’t really understand. The biggest draw of the design is that you can position the top part of the power bank at any angle and hinges will hold it in place, and while this works very well, the angles you can actually use aren’t all that useful.

The stand can be positioned between 30º and 65º, although I found that anything except 65º just wasn’t really an angle I could use comfortably. I am rarely in a position where I am looking down at my phone for long periods. The only situation I can think of in my life is occasionally I stand at my desk.

Due to the split-hinged design, the power bank is also quite thick, so much so that it is larger than power banks that have a much greater power capacity. The MagGo 6.6K bank is several millimeters thicker than the 10K MagGo power bank from Anker or the Nexode 10K MagSafe power bank from Ugreen. The MagGo 6.6K power bank is also considerably heavier than these other power banks. When folded and held on the back of my iPhone it was really cumbersome to grip. I just think you really have to value this design if you are happy to make these trade-offs.

On the plus side, the MagSafe is really strong, and I had no issue dropping my iPhone 15 Pro Max into place and staying put. Due to that extra weight too the MagGo power bank stayed solid on my desk and didn’t tip forwards, even with the largest and heaviest of the iPhones stuck to the front.

Anker MagGo 6.6K: Performance

The performance speed on the iPhone 15 Pro Max was good. It managed to charge the phone in around two and half hours from nearly empty to full, completing the first 50% of charging in around one hour. The heat from the wireless charger was acceptable, being just warm to the touch after a full charge.

These are good times for wireless charging, although even with the new MagSafe 15W charging standard, it still pales in comparison to USB-C charging speeds. In fact, you can achieve 20W charging speeds by plugging your phone into the power bank via a USB-C cable.

The MagGo power bank however was totally drained of juice on one recharge of the 4,422mAh iPhone 15 Pro Max, smaller iPhones with smaller batteries and without large power-hungry screens might fare better, with the iPhone 15 having a battery capacity of 3,274mAh.

To be fair to Anker, they don’t claim more than one recharge in their marketing, but for what is quite a physically large power bank, just one full charge is a little disappointing. Other wireless 5K power banks I have tested have also achieved just one full charge before being flat out but at a considerably smaller size.

Anker MagGo 6.6K: Verdict

I have to admit that I am not sold on the design of the Anker MagGo 6.6K Power Bank. It is too big, bulky, and heavy, forgivable traits if the clamshell folding design was incredibly useful, but instead, I found it no more valuable than any power banks currently on the market with a flick-out stand in the back. 

The unusual design also means that this big power bank has a mediocre 6.6K capacity. Performance-wise however the power bank was quick to charge my iPhone 15 Pro, although it was drained in just one charge, which was disappointing for the size of the power bank. 

There are just a lot of smaller options, with bigger capacities that provide the same level of convenience as this MagGo power bank. But if you are really sold on the clamshell design then don’t let me stop you, but in my opinion, you can do much better.

Alternatives

The Qi2 standard has been recently announced by the Wireless Power Consortium, the overarching body that manages the standards that go into wireless charging used by all phones to make a more harmonious experience. Anker, which has been at the forefront of charging tech for the last decade is of course one of the first companies to jump on this new tech, with its new range of MagGo accessories.

Currently, the only phones that can use this tech to full effect are Apple’s iPhones, which since the iPhone 12 series have included most of the components that make up the new Qi2 standard, namely the ring of magnets that Apple has dubbed MagSafe. Although Qi2 is being rolled out into more phones in the future, so Anker’s MagGo accessories should become even more useful.

There are several new MagGo accessories in the range – including its MagGo 10K Power Bank that we are looking at here. It might not look all that different from previous power banks, but there is a little more than meets the eye.

Anker MagGo 10K: Specifications

Anker MagGo 10K: Price

At $89.99 / £89.99, the Anker MagGo 10K is a little above some other 10K wireless power banks out there, although it does offer a few extras like Qi2 certified 15W MagSafe and a little built-in power screen. I am not sure these are enough though to tip the scales over similar options, although Anker regularly has discounts on its products on Amazon and its own site, so you might be able to wait for a deal.

Anker MagGo 10K: Design & Handling

The Anker MagGo 10K Power Bank is not worlds away from all of Anker’s previous iterations of power banks (or other brands for that matter), but it does elevate the design a little over what has come before. 

New features include a small screen on the side of the power bank that gives a useful and colorful visual check on how much power is remaining in the bank, both as a percentage and as an estimation of how long the battery has left charging at the current speed. This is very useful and trumps other systems of sequential LED lights. I do wish this screen did more though. On Anker’s more powerful Prime power banks, the screen gives a little more contextual information like exact charging speed, number of recharge cycles, and battery health.

The flick-out stand in the back is also a very simple but very effective way to prop the phone up for keeping an eye on incoming messages or turning the phone on its side to watch videos. There have been more complicated ways of doing this, but the stand on this MagGo is strong and stable, and in my couple of weeks of using it, hasn’t collapsed or toppled once.

The power bank overall though is not the lightest or slimmest power bank you can get. There is a price to pay to get 10,000mAh, plus 15W wireless changing, and not have the whole thing overheat, so there isn’t really much Anker could do, but this is just about at the limit of what I would considerable a pocketable power bank to keep on the back of a phone. Less feature-packed power banks, with slower wireless charging or smaller batteries, might be more suitable if bulk is a major concern for you.

Anker MagGo 10K: Performance

Performance on this power bank is good, I managed to charge my iPhone 15 Pro Max in just under 3 hours on average, going from low single digits to fully charged. Unfortunately as mentioned earlier, the screen readout doesn’t tell you exactly what speed the phone is drawing from the power bank, so it is hard to know if the Qi2 certification is having much of an effect over other power banks. Other older power banks have completed recharges in similar times, so the difference gained might be marginal. If you are looking for a brand new power bank, I would think about getting a more future-proofed Qi2 power bank, but if you already have older power banks, I don’t think it is worth upgrading them just to get Qi2.

The MagGo 10K power bank managed about one and a third recharges of my iPhone 15 Pro Max using wireless charging, which is a little disappointing but around what I expected based on using other similar power banks. I was hoping that the new Qi2 standards or better engineering might have approved wireless charging inefficiencies though. The power bank did get a little warm, but not to the degree that was bothersome.

Wireless charging can definitely be quite inefficient, and I managed to get a little more juice out of the battery by using a wired connection, with closer to two full charges. My iPhone 14 Pro Max also charged much faster in a little under two hours as it can take advantage of a 27W draw, which is nearly double that of wireless power available from the MagGo.

The MagGo 10K took around two and half hours to recharge itself, although you can also use the MagGo with passthrough power, charging the power bank and attach a phone to wirelessly charge at the same time (although this did take about 30 seconds to kick in each time when first connecting). I do have slight concern about what doing this on a regular basis might do to the longevity of the power bank cells though.

Anker MagGo 10K: Verdict

The Anker MagGo 10K Power Bank is one of the most advanced power banks you can get, there isn’t much that Anker didn’t throw into this power bank with fast Qi2 wireless charging, 27W wired charging, decent 10,000mAh capacity, a battery monitor screen and a flick-out stand. Unfortunately with all this juicy tech, it does mean that the power bank verges on the heavier and larger side, but I think it is just about light enough to carry attached to a phone day-to-day, although those with smaller phones, hands, or pockets might struggle more.

Performance is solid. The power bank had no issues charging my iPhone wirelessly in around 3 hours without getting too hot, although I am not convinced that Qi2 certification offers all that much over prior non-certified power banks. Charging via the faster wired connection shaved an hour off my charging time.

Overall if you are looking for a power bank that does it all then the Anker MagGo 10K Power Bank is a safe bet.

Alternatives

Wireless charging keeps improving, and Apple has been at the forefront with its devices, being the first company to push out phones that use magnetic charging, or as it dubbed it – MagSafe. Although the rest of the industry will be catching up soon as the collective final design is approved for the Qi2 charging standard.

In Apple’s last couple of generations of iPhones, the company has upped the speeds of its MagSafe charging, incorporating wireless charging speeds of up to 15W, although this does still pale in comparison to what some Android phones are capable of – although without a magnetic connection. 

Luckily, Apple does license out its MagSafe certification to any chargers hoping to achieve the iPhone's top wireless charging speeds. Anker has just launched its range of MagGo chargers and power banks, building on its existing range to not only take advantage of the iPhone’s top charging but to be ready for the rollout of the new Qi2 standard.

The simplest of Anker’s new range is the Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Pad, which is a small magnetic puck that can be attached to the back of an iPhone, and then plugged into any USB-C power source. 

With faster speeds, new chips, and new algorithms built into the MagGo charger, Anker promises its new charger will be faster and smarter than before, claiming its own Wireless PowerIQ enables an iPhone to charge from 0 to 25% almost three times faster than a 7.5W wireless charger.

Anker MagGo Pad: Specifications

Anker MagGo Pad: Price

The Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Pad costs $29.99 / £29.99 at launch, although if you are happy to wait, you are likely to find regular discounts on the device if Anker’s previous record is anything to go by. This is less than Apple's own MagSafe charger, although Apple's charger can also be found often discounted on Amazon.

Anker MagGo Pad: Design & Handling

There isn’t much to shout about with the design of this charger, it is just a small minimalist silver and white puck (or is also available in black). The design is nice, and when not in use, it certainly doesn’t look bad just sitting on my side table.

The pad is a little heavier than I expected, it only weighs 94g, but just for its small size, it has a little bit of surprising heft to it. This is most likely due to the aluminum enclosure used for the charger, although Anker says that using aluminum improves heat dissipation while charging. When held with an iPhone Pro Max also in hand though, there is only a little noticeable weight added.  The one thing I think this design is missing however is a little stand to prop your phone up while it charges.

The charger also doesn’t really get in the way too much, sure there is a bump to navigate your hand around, but the smooth back and curved edges of the MagGo pad fitted comfortably in my palm while I used my phone. The magnets also did their job well, the pad is very easy to align and also stayed stuck to the phone without sliding around.

The wire is also a good length for moving around somewhat comfortably depending on where your USB-C plug is located. Mine was almost at ground level, but I could easily stand with my phone in my hand without pulling on the wire.

One of my main issues with this kind of device though is you really have to want to charge your phone wirelessly. Attaching the MagGo charger to my iPhone really wasn’t much less effort than just plugging a USB-C cable into the bottom of the device. USB-C charging is faster, the cables are cheaper, easier to tuck away, the same cable can charge a huge range of devices, and can be bought in multiple lengths. I am just really not convinced this particular wireless charger is all that necessary.

Anker MagGo Pad: Performance

The MagGo Wireless Charging Pad had a simple job to execute – just charge a single iPhone at 15W. Luckily it does that job well. 

I tested the charger with an iPhone 15 Pro Max, which using the Anker MagGo pad managed to charge from low single digits to full in a little over two hours. During this test, I was not using the iPhone, which would have added an additional power draw and taken longer to complete the charge, but the phone was switched on and connected to WiFi. 

For wireless charging this is a good time, although still can’t compete with the speeds of wired charging that can reach almost twice the 15W MagSafe rate on the iPhone (and even higher on some Android phones). So if wireless charging is for you depends on if you prioritise convenience or speed when charging your devices.

The charger did get reasonably hot, and when it was enclosed and insulated in my palm while using the phone, it did get considerably warmer, but not to a concerning degree. Wireless charging does generate a lot of heat and can be disconcerting, but Anker has a pretty reliable safety record by all accounts and does promise its devices are constantly monitoring for unsafe temperatures. I didn't notice any obvious throttling of the charging speed as the device got warmer, but this is not always obvious as charging slows down as the battery gets fuller.

Anker MagGo Pad: Verdict

If you are looking for a simple wireless charger that will charge a single iPhone at max MagSafe speeds then the Anker MagGo Wireless Charging Pad is the one to buy. When charging my iPhone 15 Pro Max it performed very well, achieving fast wireless charging rates, the pad gets a little warm but not concerningly hot. The MagGo pad itself is also well-designed with premium-feeling aluminum and a classy look.

Whether you actually need a wireless charger like this is dependent on how you like to charge, as I don’t think it is much more convenient than just using a USB-C cable, which will also charge your iPhone faster. But for the snap-on and snap-off convenience of wireless charging, there is no beating it, especially when it comes to price, with Apple’s own brand wireless charging pad coming in at a higher cost.

Alternatives

If you’ve lost your current charger, or you have lots of different battery types from various makes and models, all with their own unique type of charger, then a universal charger like the UniPal Plus  from Hahnel might be for you!

The UniPal Plus is a universal battery charger which claims to be capable of charging "practically all" 3.6/3.7 or 7.2/7.4v Lithium-Ion batteries and can charge over 300 different camera batteries. This is done by using the two thumb wheels to adjust the positive and negative terminals until correctly spaced to fit your specific battery. This makes it ideal for someone with lots of different battery types from various camera bodies and even manufacturers of drones, and can keep your workflow simple with just the one charger to suit all and could be a good replacement if you’ve misplaced your original proprietary battery dock.

The UniPal Plus has more tricks up its sleeve though. It’s also capable of charging either two AA or AAA batteries and has a USB type-A socket so you can charge devices like a smartphone or tablet at the same time too. An LCD panel clearly shows the current charge level and it comes with a variety of wall port adapters for US, UK, EU and AUS, as well as a 12v cigarette lighter adapter for in-car charging.

In this review we put it through its paces to see if you should buy one…

Hahnel UniPal Plus: Design & Handling

To charge a Li-Ion battery you simply need a positive and negative connection - the UniPal Plus has two of each, with each set either pointing upwards, or from the side to help accommodate and fit into the battery terminals of shapes and sizes of Li-Ion batteries. The terminals are moved laterally using two large thumbwheels which feel smooth to use and well built.

Your lithium ion battery should clearly state on it which are the positive and negative terminals, so it’s down to the user to make sure you line these up correctly, though it doesn’t matter which pins go in the positive or negative slots as the polarity will be automatically reversed, so you can flip the battery around if it helps it fit in the UniPal Plus better. In our testing we found some camera batteries are more fiddly to line up the terminals than others.

Once you’ve lined up your battery and plugged it into the terminals the LCD screen will indicate the battery status and charge level. It will also safely test the battery charge level before connecting to the power supply.

The UniPal Plus offers some decent features that you don’t get with your regular stock charger. This includes a USB port to plug in a USB Type A cable for charging phones or tablets and it also has space for charging either two rechargeable AA or AAA batteries. Unfortunately, it can only do one of these tasks at the same time, so while this extra versatility is welcome, it’s not the fastest way to charge up your batteries as you have to switch them out in sequence.

Provided in the box is a power adapter 12v power supply which comes with interchangeable plugs for UK, EU, US and AUS. The power cord is a decent length at about 50cm. Also in the box is a 12v cigarette lighter adapter so you can charge up in the car - useful for photographers travelling and constantly on the go that need to top up their cameras between locations.

Hahnel UniPal Plus: Performance

The Hahnel UniPal Plus feels well designed and robust. As a universal charger it does pretty much everything it says on the packaging. Our only gripes were that it can’t charge different battery types simultaneously, so you have to charge up your Li-Ion cells, AA or AAA and phone separately which is a slower way of working than we’d like.

Another issue is that if you load up the UniPal Plus with a set of AA batteries as well as a Li-Ion or plug in your smartphone, it won’t automatically switch between them once one has finished, you’ll need to manually remove the charged cells before it begins charging a different battery type.

Smart devices can be charged using the older Type A USB port, which is still commonly used, though we’d expect to see this be changed to a USB-C port if Hahnel released an updated version in the future as that is what most modern smart devices use now.

While the LCD display is a great feature that definitely makes it feel like a step up from the Mini II, the viewing angle isn’t fantastic, and you need to be able to look at the screen straight on to see the LCD information clearly.

It’s worth noting that Hahnel also used to have a UniPal Extra in its range, which featured a 5200mAh power bank, however, this has now been discontinued.

Hahnel UniPal Plus: Final Verdict

If you’ve lost your original camera charger then Hahnel’s UniPal Plus would be a good value option, it currently retails for about £50, while proprietary chargers like Canon’s LC-E17E for example costs £56. Despite this, Hahnel's UniPal Plus comes with some desirable features such as in-car charging, a USB Type A port and the ability to also charge rechargeable AA or AAA batteries. It would also be the one to go for if you have lots of different batteries and chargers, and you’d like one simple solution to charge them all.

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With the move to mirrorless, cameras need more juice than ever to power their LCD screens, electronic viewfinders and go the distance when doing power hungry tasks like recording 4K video. That’s why we’ve seen Canon update its proprietary LP-E6N 1865mAh battery for DSLRs, with a newer Canon LP-E6NH for mirrorless which has an extra 14% capacity at 2130mAh.

Hahnel’s Extreme batteries have been around for many years - they’re well-built with an additional silicone injection process that makes them more durable and drop-resistant. They’re also cost-effective and the original HLX-E6NH had a respectable capacity of 2000mAh as a direct replacement for the LP-E6N and LP-E6NH, for cameras such as the Canon EOS R5 and EOS R6.

Hanhel first updated its Extreme battery cells for better mirrorless performance with the Sony Extreme HLX-XZ100, though Nikon and Olympus variations have also followed suit.

Hahnel has now updated its HLX-E6NH with a new and improved 2400mAh capacity, an increase of 20%, so in this review we got hold of the new and improved model to see if it really can deliver even more performance than Canon's LP-E6NH 2130 mAh battery at half the price, or whether this promise is simply too good to be true.

Hahnel Extreme HLX-E6NH: Design & Handling

From the outside the Hahnel HLX-E6NH looks no different to its prior model, as changes for the new and improved iteration are all internal, using the latest battery technology to squeeze in a large 2400mAh capacity.

Its shape and size are also determined by the original Canon LP-E6N and LP-E6NH - Hahnel’s Extreme batteries need to share the same design and dimensions to fit properly inside of its Canon camera body, such as a Canon EOS R5 or R6, which it does very well.

Hahnel has however given its Extreme cells a lick of paint. The bright orange plastic helps Hahnel to put its stamp on the range, which it has done since the range’s inception back in 2012. This also makes it a little easier to find when searching through your kit bag at night or in a dark shooting location.

While predominantly made to handle the higher power draw from mirrorless cameras as the LCD screen or electronic viewfinder has to be used to compose an image, whereas on a DSLR you could just use the optical viewfinder to compose which would draw very little power by comparison, there’s nothing stopping you putting this souped-up cell in your older Canon DSLRs and benefiting from the extra capacity. In our testing, a single charge easily lasted us a full day of moderate shooting, more on exact performance statistics for stills and video below.

If you’re interested in purchasing a Hahnel Extreme for your Canon be sure it will fit your camera as some Canon’s, even full-frame models like the EOS RP, take smaller batteries like the LP-E17.

Hahnel Extreme HLX-E6NH: Performance

In order to thoroughly test the Hahnel HLX-E6NH we pitted it against its closest rival for Canon cameras, the Canon LP-E6NH. With a charge capacity of 2400mAh, compared to the Canon’s 2130mAh, we were interested to see what the additional 270mAh equated to in real terms.

For our first test, we fully charged up both batteries and recorded some 4K-D (4096x2160) video at 25p on a Canon EOS R5. Canon’s proprietary LP-E6NH was capable of recording a very respectable 128 minutes, while the Hahnel HLX-E6NH with its supposedly higher capacity that should have delivered a 13% increase actually provided a poorer result, recording just 103 minutes of footage before the camera shut-off. That means the Canon first-party battery could record for 25 minutes longer, an increase of 24.3%.

When it came to stills photography, we set our Canon EOS R5 to record its highest quality RAW files and used the High-Speed burst mode using the mechanical shutter to rattle off 24,966 images before the Canon LP-E6NH ran completely flat. However, the new and improved Hahnel HLX-E6NH could only muster 19,093. That means that despite the Hahnel claiming a higher capacity, the proprietary Canon battery was able to last 30.7% longer when it came to stills in our tests.

In addition to raw power, the Hahnel HLX-E6NH also boasts additional insulation to help give it shock-absorbing properties with Hahnel claiming it can survive a 3m drop. After testing this for ourselves we can confirm the battery did indeed continue to work after taking such a tumble (though we wouldn’t recommend it). It’s worth noting that due to the extra insulation, Hahnel claims the Extreme HLX-E6NH should perform better in cold conditions, though we were unable to test this.

Once our batteries were thoroughly tested and completely flat we needed to charge them up, here there was again a bit of a difference between the two. It took two and half hours to fully charge up our Canon LP-E6NH, while the HLX-E6NH was fully charged after just 1 hour 51 minutes. However, this is perhaps unsurprising given that the Canon lasted for longer in our tests.

Hahnel also claims the HLX-E6NH is built from high-quality Li-ion cells with a high energy density ratio and good voltage stability. They also claim it is capable of more than 500 charge and discharge cycles and due to its extra insulation will perform better in cold conditions.

One issue with third-party batteries that's worth mentioning is that you might have anxiety that you're not using an OEM part. Many years ago when I shot on Nikon, I had a bunch of brilliant 3rd party batteries for my Nikon D800 which were much cheaper than Nikon's cells. However, when I upgraded to a newer Nikon D500 my 3rd party batteries refused to work with it and I had to buy the first-party batteries to ensure they would work correctly. Now, while I should reiterate this wasn’t found to be a problem with the Hahnel on test here, it is a problem I have in the back of my mind, worrying if something is suddenly going to stop working as intended after a firmware update or upgrading to a newer camera body - this is an anxiety you simply don't get when buying first-party products.

Hahnel Extreme HLX-E6NH: Final Verdict

Hahnel’s Extreme HLX-E6NH is almost half the cost of Canon’s proprietary LP-E6NH, plus has all of the niceties of its silicone injection process for enhanced cold-weather performance and 3m drop resistance, as well as having a bright orange design that makes it easier to find in your kit bag.

Our biggest gripe is that the new battery hasn’t been rebranded so it’s a bit confusing as to which model you’re buying online, whether that’s the older 2000mAh or newer 2400mAh (though the packaging has a new yellow sticker). Plus in our tests, despite claiming to have a notably higher capacity than Canon’s 2130mAh LP-E6NH at 2400 mAh, the Hahnel simply couldn’t keep pace and delivered a poorer performance ranging between 25-30% lower mileage for RAW stills and 4K video.

Why this was the result, we can't say for certain. But you can't argue with the facts: the OEM Canon battery despite costing much more and claiming to have a lower maximum capacity, delivered a much stronger performance.

That being said, the Hahnel Extreme is still a very good option for Canon shooters, recording about 20,000 RAW files or an hour and forty minutes of 4K video from a full charge in our tests, and at half the price of Canon’s LP-E6NH that’s a compromise we can see many being willing to take. We just wish Hahnel's marketing and branding was a bit clearer.

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One of the biggest frustrations for content creators is woeful battery life in devices, especially when it comes to processor-intensive tasks like recording video. Power banks have been a good solution for this, although until recently have involved attaching trailing wires or slow wireless charging speeds. Anker has now launched a range of charging devices that it hopes alleviate these issues.

Mobile World Congress, better known as MWC 2024, is happening right now in Barcelona, with tech companies from around the world revealing some of their latest and greatest phones and gadgets. Apple, as ever, has chosen to sit this year's show out, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some cool new tech for iPhones being revealed on the show floor.

Anker is one of the world’s leading companies when it comes to charging solutions for various devices, but none more so than the iPhone. This week, Anker unveiled its latest chargers and power banks for the iPhone that take advantage of Apple’s latest 15W MagSafe charging technology to wirelessly charge iPhones faster than ever before – the company is calling this range the Anker MagGo.

The MagGo series of devices is currently best for iPhone, although, in the future, there is the potential that Qi2-certified devices from other manufacturers will also be compatible when the standard is rolled out to more devices.

The range consists of several new chargers and power banks, the most exciting for iPhone creatives on the go are the Anker MagGo Power Banks in 6,600mAh and 10,000mAh sizes. 

The 6,600 mAh sized power bank features a pretty unique and interesting clamshell design, which allows the device to be angled at any orientation from flat to around ~75º.

The slightly larger power bank in 10,000 mAh device is more of your standard power bank fare, however features a small LCD screen on the side of the power bank that displays real-time battery statistics. The power bank features a kickstand, but the angle is far less versatile for shooting and charging.

The benefit to both these chargers though is in the MagSafe design, as they can remain magnetically stuck to your iPhone while you shoot either handheld or using a tripod without really getting in the way too much, allowing you to extend your shooting time even further.

Finally, after a long day of shooting, if you want to charge your phone as well as other Apple devices like AirPods or an Apple watch, Anker’s 3-in-1 foldable travel charger is one of the smallest and lightest options for throwing in a bag, and setting up anywhere. Powered by a single USB-C port, the charger has a 15W MagSafe pad, a regular wireless pad, and a built-in Apple Watch charging puck cleverly folded underneath.

All products are available right now for Anker directly or from Amazon. The Anker MagGo 10K Power Bank costs $89.99 / £89.99, the Anker MagGo 6.6K Power Bank $69.99 / £69.99, and the Anker MagGo 3-in-1 charging station $109.99 / £99.99.

Check out our top picks for on-the-go charging with our guides to the best iPhone power bank and the best iPhone wireless charger.

Gone are the times when an extra battery pack was something a heavy user might have to top up their phone. OK, not gone – far from it – but power banks are now available in a much greater range of capacities, some of which can bring electricity on the road (and off it). 

Chinese company Anker makes some of the best compact power banks, and it has cheerfully innovated into larger capacity devices which are also capable of acting as the hub of a small solar farm – a solar generator. (Anker, incidentally, is closely related to security camera company Eufy, another brand which has impressed us over the last 12 months (not least with its solar-charged security cameras, so we know they have the expertise.)

So, the Solix C1000 can store 1,056 watt-hours and deliver it through USB-C or USB-A sockets (as you'd expect with any power bank), a car-style 12V socket, and in-built inverter to provide AC power through 4 mains sockets (these are supplied to match the market you buy the device in – I'm testing in the UK, so they are three-pin). The device also has sockets for input from AC electricity – including a high-speed charging option – and solar panels.

If you work off grid and the noise of a gas (petrol) generator (as well as the long-term environmental shame) is an issue, then a battery power station seems a logical upgrade. Together the device offers an alternative to a fuel-powered generator which (especially with solar charging) is far more sustainable, not to mention quieter. The question is, is this the right choice for charging your gear (especially cameras and drones) on the go?

Anker Solix C1000: Build and handling

One thing we're all learning is that battery technology isn't lightweight. The C1000 is no exception to that rule, weighing in at nearly 12.9kg (nearly 29 pounds) it's something you'll want to carry in a car or RV. That said, you can also move it around the home easily enough – in that regard, it's a good balance. While I was testing it, I had a power cut, I had no trouble carrying it to my fridge-freezer and plugging it in, but I wouldn't want to carry it with me to a remote camping location.

In terms of build, the device looks like a smart version of an old desktop computer; there is a hint of the PowerMac G4 in the handle design – no bad thing. The design's arrangement is supremely logical, with all the power output on what we'll call the 'front' next to a clear display of the remaining power which also delivers an estimate of hours remaining at the (forgive the pun) current load.

The quality is high-end too. The plastics are convincing, with a pleasing texture applied to the top and nice detailing with a consistent electric blue on the vents and switches.

The sockets are reasonably powerful too; up to 30W a piece for the USB-A, 100W for the USB-C and the 12V socket can handle the load of traditional camping gear like a 12V fridge. The AC outlets (4 x 240V in the UK, 6 x 120V in the USA) are very useful, and four/six is more generous than many equivalent devices. The outlets have a single switch at their top-right, so you can disable the whole cluster if you choose. Similarly, the 12V can be switched off without unplugging.

If a display isn't enough, you can also have the information relayed to your phone via Bluetooth or wi-fi; this is also the means of reaching some of the more obscure control features (and the option to throw caution to the wind when it comes to charging speed).

At the end to the left of the outputs is the side with the inputs. These are a standard 3-pin socket for the mains and a smaller solar-panel socket. At the opposite end is a cover for a socket which can attach to an extended battery. The remainder of the space at these ends is consumed with vents (there are fans inside to prevent the batteries from getting over-warm).

Anker Solix C1000: Performance

In terms of power, the beast of a brick can deliver 1,800 watts of continuous power. Atop that, the system has a trick for handling devices with motors or heating elements that draw a lot more power as they get going – it has a 'Surge Pad' which can nudge the wattage up to 2,400W by allowing the voltage to dip slightly.

When it comes to capacity, the 1,056Wh is already a big win since the device arguably competes with a lot of devices which are nearly, but not quite, 1,000Wh (just as the Pioneer 500 we looked at was 461Wh).

The rapid-charging feature, called 'HyperFlash', allows charging via AC input from 0-100% in, Anker says, 58 minutes and I was able to get something very close to this. That said, this feature is disabled by default and I'd suggest leaving it this way. The battery charges reasonably swiftly without pushing it to a point which is likely to reduce the promised 3,000-cycle battery life.

I did find that, with some of my devices that don't draw a great deal of power, I wasn't always sure that the brick was detecting and charging them. It was good to get confirmation that it was (and that they simply didn't want much power) using the app. This didn't make life easy for the 'how long will the battery last', but as a guide, the number of hours didn't seem too far.

I mentioned that, soon after I received the device for testing I had a power cut and chose to use it to keep the fridge running? Did Anker damage the local substation so I'd realize how good the C1000 was? – probably not! But it did the trick. My large home fridge freezer was kept running all night – we didn't even turn off the ice-maker.

Having something like this around the home as a backup seems very appealing though obviously with a thermostatic device like a freezer the current draw will vary, which can't make life easy for the remaining power time estimator. On the plus side, there is always the app to check in on things.

Anker Solix C1000: Overall Verdict

Anker has thought of everything with the Solix C1000 – and implemented it well, for a competitive price. The battery slightly beats the 1KWh category in capacity, has a better array of connectivity than most, and yet still offers the option of extending it with another kilowatt hour of power.

The fact you get four AC sockets, four USB sockets (two of each), and a 12V means it's pretty difficult not to be able to use this device, and for plenty of scenarios, it's all you'll need. Expandability is a great touch with the extra battery block, and the fact it'll work as an uninterruptible power supply (and did so in my pulling-power-from-wall test) to boot makes it supremely versatile.

The rapid-charging feature, called 'HyperFlash' is enabled via the app, which (given it's pretty fast anyway) I think shows a brilliant balance of responsibility and flexibility. That brilliance is repeated across the design, in build quality, and (at least in my testing) performance.

Alternatives

How I tested the Anker Solix C1000

I tested the battery by keeping it for several weeks and using it to charge a number of devices with a variety of power consumption levels. To test the device with low-power charging devices, I used Sony Playstation controllers, while I also charged my DJI Mini 3 Drone (using the charging hub), my Sony camera, my MacBook Pro, and assorted other gadgets. 

I was also 'lucky' enough to have a power cut (to be fair it was not long after I'd charged the battery, which forced me to test the device on my fridge freezer). For my final test, I'll be connecting to an EV 'granny charger' (a charger designed for charging an electric car from a normal mains socket). This allows me to monitor the load to ensure the delivery is as fast as promised.

MagSafe is one of the most genuinely useful smartphone innovations of recent years, solving the issue of aligning wireless devices with a wireless charging coil that for so long has held back the more widespread adoption of wireless charging over more cumbersome wired connections.

MagSafe has unleashed a wave of new chargers and power banks that can lock onto an iPhone using powerful magnets. From desktop or bedside table charging docks to portable power banks, Ugreen, and other manufacturers have been trying to invent new, smaller, or more powerful devices to take advantage of MagSafe.

Ugreen has a strong history of varied power banks offering different things from the biggest capacities, to the fastest charging speeds. This MagSafe power bank for Ugreen adds all those ingredients together to make one of the highest capacity and fastest portable wireless power banks currently available. But can you have too much of a good thing?

Ugreen MagSafe Power Bank: Specifications

Ugreen MagSafe Power Bank: Price & Availability

The Ugreen Power Bank is at the time of writing $60 / £60, although is frequently discounted or has money off coupons from Amazon, so the price you see fluctuates a lot so might be worth waiting for a sale. This is around the same price as closest rival Anker’s 10,000mAh MagSafe Power Bank, although again, both see near-constant discounts and coupons. There are cheaper options out there, although when buying potentially dangerous high-capacity lithium batteries, my best advice would be above all to buy from a reputable brand.

Ugreen MagSafe Power Bank: Design & Handling

This MagSafe power bank fits in seamlessly with Ugreen’s design language for its devices and will feel very familiar to any previous users of Ugreen’s tech. The power bank uses the same dark gunmetal design, bordered by a shiny metallic strip running around the outside of the power bank. To break up all the grey, there is a small pop of purple to mark out the interior of the USB-A port.

I really like the design of Ugreen’s accessories, they have a premium feel to them, without the premium price tag. They also offer something materially different from what Anker, Belkin, and others are putting out. 

The MagSafe on the power bank works exceptionally well. I found it absolutely effortless to quickly snap my phone onto the magnetic portion of the power bank, with the magnets in the power bank and my iPhone lining up flawlessly the first time.

With 10,000mAh’s worth of batteries, this was never going to be a small or light power bank, but the biggest downside is how the power bank sits when attached to a phone. Even on the largest iPhone – the iPhone 15 Pro Max – the battery still pokes out of the bottom of the phone, and is big, bulky, and awkward to hold. This is compounded even further when using smaller iPhones.

The power bank works much better when not used as a portable bank, instead flicking out the built-in kickstand and leaving your phone to charge on your desk. In landscape mode, iPhones fall into their clock display mode, or can be used to watch movies and TV, or in portrait mode, you can watch vertical video, or just keep an eye on incoming notifications. Even when the power bank was out of juice, I still found myself using the power bank as a viewing stand.

Ugreen MagSafe Power Bank: Performance

Keeping my phone topped up with power every time it dropped too low – when attached to my iPhone 15 Pro Max, the Ugreen power bank managed to keep me from running to find a wall charger for around two full days, recharging the phone's full capacity around one and a half times. 

With twice the battery capacity as an iPhone, this might be surprising, but the phone also draws and uses power while recharging as well as wireless not being the most efficient method. You will get different results depending on your iPhone model, smaller iPhones like the regular iPhone 15 model will get a few more charges. 

The power bank can also be used to charge any other device via USB-C PD output, although tops out at 20W of power delivery which is quick but below the top charging speed of many phones and other devices, and will be no good for laptops, although is great to have backup power in a pinch.

I also tested the MagSafe power bank with a Pixel 8 Pro and a MagSafe-equipped case, which worked really well, although non-iPhones will be limited to slower charging speeds, but it is a good stop-gap until the Wireless Power Consortium finally gets its act together and releases the QI MagSafe spec for all.

Ugreen MagSafe Power Bank: Verdict

The landscape of MagSafe power banks is vast and varied, but if you're eyeing one product that boasts a comprehensive set of features, look no further than this MagSafe power bank from Ugreen. 

Packing a punch with a hefty 10,000mAh battery, 15W MagSafe charging capabilities, and an additional 20W PD USB-C charging, it's a triple threat. Moreover, its integrated kickstand provides the added convenience of hands-free video watching. 

Yet, the catch lies in its bulkier size, making it less pocket-friendly, and the potential inconvenience of wielding a slightly more cumbersome phone.

Alternatives

Duracell Rechargeable AA and AAA batteries are from a highly respected brand. From flashlights to flashguns, remote controllers, toys and all sorts of other gadgets, anything that runs on batteries is completely useless if the batteries don’t work. Rightly or wrongly, when people need to count on their kit working in critical situations, they often prefer to stick with a famous brand. And for batteries, they don’t come much more famous than Duracell. The company has been a leading manufacturer of high-performance batteries, all the way back to the 1940s.

Duracell is best known for its alkaline single-use batteries but it also makes rechargeable batteries in a wide range of sizes, with a darker shade of that iconic copper top. For the ever-popular AA and AAA types, we’re reviewing the highest capacity Duracell options currently available, which are 2500mAh for AA and 900mAh for the smaller AAA size.

Specifications

Type: NiMH
Size: AA / AAA
Voltage: 1.2V
Capacity: 2500mAh (AA) 900mAH (AAA)
Charge held: 80% after 1 year
Recharge up to: Hundreds of times

Key features

For us, a key feature of any NiMH battery these days is that it holds its charge. Put the clock back a few years and we’d often find that we’d fully charge a set of Ni-MH batteries, only to find that they’d gone flat all on their own by the time we wanted to use them a few weeks later. Nowadays, we expect NiMH batteries to hold their charge for months or even years, and the Duracell AA and AAA are no exception. Indeed, you can charge them up and they’ll still have 80 per cent of their capacity available after being stored for a whole year. And Duracell claims that they can be stored for 10 years and will still work.

Size for size, the actual capacities of these Duracell AA and AAA cells is a close match to Panasonic Eneloop Pro. The2500mAh of the AA size battery is identical, and the Duracell AAA battery isn’t far behind, at 900mAh compared with 930mAh for the Eneloop Pro. That said, there are plenty of higher capacity Ni-MH batteries on the market, from the likes of EBL, HiQuick and Powerowl, which boast capacities of 2800mAh for AA and 1100mAh for AAA.

For the number of times that you can use and recharge the batteries, Duracell doesn’t give an exact guide figure. For other makes, it ranges from 500 times for Eneloop Pro to 1200 times for some of the other makes we’ve mentioned. Duracell simply says that its Ni-MH batteries can be charged ‘hundreds’ of times. Still, if you take 500 times as a reference point, that still means you’d be able to drain them and recharge them every single week for 10 years.

Unlike older Ni-CAD rechargeable batteries, there’s no dreaded ‘memory effect’ with Ni-MH. You therefore don’t need to fully drain the Duracell batteries before recharging them. That’s good news in that you can easily top up the charge as and when you want to.

Performance

A key performance factor of NiMH batteries is that they maintain a relatively constant voltage over their entire discharge period. Even when fully charged, they only give 1.2V compared with 1.5V for an alkaline battery, but the voltage of alkaline batteries starts dropping off as soon as you start using them.

To test how this works in real life, we put a fully charged set of the Duracell 2500mAh Ni-MH batteries in a Nikon Speedlight SB-700 flashgun. After a full-power flash, the SB-700 recycled in 2.4 seconds, and the recycle speed stayed pretty much identical even after 270 full-power flashes. It slowed to 3 seconds after 280 flashes and the batteries were exhausted after 295 full-power flashes. That’s way ahead of alkaline performance. With a fresh set of alkaline batteries, recycle speed started at 3.2 seconds, dropped to 6.5 seconds after 50 flashes, 9.2 seconds after 75 flashes and the batteries ran out after just 117 full-power flashes. So basically the Duracell AA batteries have 2.3 times the staying power, with much better performance in the later phase of their usage period.

For the AAA batteries, we put a set of Duracell AAA 900mAh rechargeable batteries in a high-power flashlight. They lasted for just over an hour of constant use. Alkaline batteries only lasted for 40 minutes so, again, the Duracell rechargeable batteries were way ahead of their alkaline siblings. The only downside is that when Ni-MH batteries come to the end of their discharge period, they drop off very suddenly rather than dimming down, which can catch you out when using them in a flashlight.

For outright stamina, the Duracell AA and AAA batteries proved a close match to the equivalent Panasonic Eneloop Pro cells in our tests. The Duracell batteries also gave very similar performance and staying power for other makes of NiMH battery, with higher nominal capacities of 2800mAh for AA and 1100mAh for AAA. The only real sticking point is that the Duracell batteries are about two to three times the price of competitors from EBL, HiQuick and Powerowl.

Verdict

In the world of advertising, the famous Duracell bunny leaves other toys in its wake, powering ahead when others have run out of juice. But that’s based on alkaline cells. Nowadays, anything that’s ‘single-use’ is second-best. Rechargeable batteries can be used hundreds of times, making them much more eco-friendly. Packs of Duracell Rechargeable 2500mAh AA and Duracell Rechargeable 900mAh AAA Ni-MH batteries have very good (although not class-leading) stamina and worked flawlessly in our tests. However, they’re pricier than many competitors and not the best in terms of value for money.

The Energizer Recharge Power Plus AA and AAA batteries are of the new breed of Ni-MH batteries. As such, they’re not only free of the ‘memory effect’ for which older Ni-CAD batteries were notorious, but also hold their charge for many months or even years. That’s a major plus point for using popping these batteries into gadgets that you might only use once in a while.

As you’d expect from a battery manufacturer of Energizer’s pedigree, the ‘Recharge’ range includes many popular sizes including AAA, AA, C, D and rectangular 9V batteries. We put 4-packs of the ‘Power Plus’ 2000mAh AA and 700mAh AAA batteries to the test. Here’s how we got on.

Energizer Recharge Power Plus: Specifications

Type: NiMH
Size: AA / AAA
Voltage: 1.2V
Capacity: 2000mAh (AA) 700mAh (AAA)
Charge held: 1 year
Recharge up to: Hundreds of times

Energizer Recharge Power Plus: Key features

These Energizer batteries follow a trend set by Eneloop, subsequently acquired by Panasonic. As such, and like almost all modern designs of Ni-MH batteries, they’re engineered to have a low self-discharge rate. That’s good news as far as we’re concerned, as it avoids the frustration of fully charging a set of batteries only to find that they’ve gone flat in storage when you come to use them a few weeks down the line.

Unlike some manufacturers, Energizer doesn’t specify how much charge will be retained when the batteries are stored for long periods. Instead, they only say that they’ll stay charged for over a year. Both of the AA and AAA sets of Energizer batteries that we bought certainly had a lot of charge in them when they arrived. That’s not the case with some competitors, which are only charged to about 20 per cent of their capacity when manufactured and shipped.

The capacities of the batteries themselves aren’t particularly generous, at 2000mAh for AA and 700mAh for AAA. That’s exactly equal to the standard Panasonic Eneloop AA and a little down on the competing 800mAh AAA. It’s worth noting that while the Energizer batteries are less expensive to buy than the Panasonic Eneloop and higher-capacity Panasonic Eneloop Pro, they’re also pricier than EBL, HiQuick and Powerowl batteries, all of which have class-leading capacities of 2800mAh for AA and 1100mAh for AAA.

A key feature for the eco-conscious is that the Energizer AA batteries are advertised as the world’s first to be made with 15 per cent recycled materials, and that’s bumped up to 22 per cent for the AAA batteries. Energizer has also avoided the use of blister packs or any plastic in the retail packaging, which is made entirely from easily recyclable cardboard.

Energizer Recharge Power Plus: Performance

From a performance standpoint as well as an ecological consideration, an important factor is how many times you can use a rechargeable battery and charge it up again, over its lifetime. Some manufacturers of high-capacity Ni-MH batteries claim that you can recharge them up to 1200 times. Energizer quote a figure of 1,000 times for some of its batteries but for the ones on test, they only claim a more vague ‘hundreds of times’ for the AA and 700 times for the AAA. Even so, that should keep you going for a few years, and Energizer quote a maximum lifespan of 5 years under ‘typical usage patterns’.

For testing the AA batteries, we put a fully charged set of four in a Nikon Speedlight SB-700 and fired a series of full-power flashes over a few hours. Recycling speed between flashes started off very fast at 2.2 seconds, ahead of the 2.5 seconds we often experience with Ni-MH cells. The speed dropped to a more usual 2.5 seconds after 150 flashes, and the batteries ran out after 250 flashes. For higher-capacity AA batteries, we’re used to seeing a total number of full-power flashes of around 300. And even so, the Energizer rechargeables last more than twice as long as alkaline single-use batteries, which tend to last for around 115 full-power flashes in the same testing conditions.

Next up, we put a set of fully charged Energizer 700mAh AAA batteries into a high-power flashlight and ran it constantly. The batteries lasted for just under 55 minutes, whereas EBL, HiQuick and Powerowl 1100mAh AAA batteries lasted for around 85 minutes. Again though, the Energizer rechargeables still lasted longer than a set of single-use alkaline batteries, which kept going for 40 minutes.

Energizer Recharge Power Plus: Verdict

These rechargeable Ni-MH AA and AAA batteries come from a big and trustworthy name, and Energizer has gone the extra mile to make them even more eco-friendly than most. They’re very nicely turned out and perform well, although the outright stamina falls short of some of the more high-capacity competitors on the market, which are also cheaper to buy. Even so, they performed well in our tests and are pretty good value at the price.