And note that that's quite a bit of power.

Huh, there's a limit?

Or is this something new?

I just took a 16,000 mAH in my camera bag and a 11,000 mAH on my carry on roller in April.

Unless it's changed the limit is per battery pack not the total of the packs you have with you though individual airlines may have different limits.

Both are legal. I have carried a 13,000 mAh internationally, nobody cared.

So has anyone shopped for battery packs lately?

I still have old ones which are fine for iPhones and even iPads. I haven't stressed them, only use for a couple of hours at the most and they seem to charge my iPhones about as fast as the wall chargers. Now I got an iPhone 8 Plus and I'm aware it supports quick charging of devices.

I also have a Nintendo Switch, probably the first of many devices which could use USB-C Power Delivery ports.

The situation with USB-C Power Delivery chargers and batteries seem to be very unsettled. In fact, I would think more products will be announced at CES.

However, I have a trip coming up in late January, probably not in time for any new products to ship by then.

The one thing that gets me about the packs I have is that they take forever to charge. I have an Anker one (16,750 mAh) that takes over 24 hours to go from empty (flashing one LED) to full (4 LEDs).

It looks like I would need a USB-C PD port to for instance charge my Nintendo Switch while playing it. Right now, with the USB chargers and battery packs I have, they only prevent the Switch from discharging when I am using it.

One thing that's intriguing is that now, there are bundles which come with QuickCharge or USB-C Power Delivery wall chargers so that these 20,000 mAh and larger packs can be fully charged in 4-5 hours they claim.

However, these are expensive, starting around $60 and going up to $100 for the Anker PowerCore PD 20000 mAh pack with a USB-C PD wall charger.

That would be the best feature, just being able to recharge these packs in a few hours instead of the better part of the day or longer.

I don't suppose older packs would recharge faster with these USB-C or QuickCharge wall chargers either.

For $100, you're getting into MacBook Pro charger territory and those are rated at 87 watts. Most USB-C PD wall chargers don't go anywhere near that high. They claim to recharge the MacBook Pro, including the 15-inch models, but my guess is that if you're using the laptops while connected to these lower-power chargers, they'd only prevent the laptop from drawing down. They wouldn't build up the charge unless you put it to sleep.

I have two USB-C PD battery packs, a RavPower 26800 mAh 30W and a ZeroLemon 20100 mAh 45W (bought the latter on a Lightning deal for $40, great value!). Both have no problem charging the Switch while playing (not just holding the charge), and the ZeroLemon puts out the full 45W to charge my Dell XPS 13 as well. Also will charge at 45W with the USB-C input, so an excellent device. No problem quick-charging my iPhone 8 Plus and X with the Apple USB-C to Lightning cable (though that is not tremendously faster than just a standard 12W USB-A charge). I'd pair it the battery packs with something like the Anker PowerPort+ 5 wall charger (or a smaller version if needed) and it should take care of all your devices.

Thanks for the data points. Do you try to recharge those packs using the USB-C ports for the fast charge?

I can't help you on the USB-C packs, as I'm holding off on going to USB-C for another year or so, but I have one of the Anker 26,800 mAh packs, but it has dual USB INPUTS so charging time is much more reasonable when you pair it with one of Anker's multiport chargers. Even though my phones support QC, I went with the non-QC pack for efficiency reasons. If I'm running on battery, it's because 110v/230v isn't available, so I'll gladly take slower charging for more overall usable mAh. After Hurricane Irma, I was very happy with this decision since we were without power for 4+ days and someone tried stealing our generator on the 2nd night. It also is still better for battery health to charge them slower.

I'm not sure how old your battery pack is, but it shouldn't take 24 hours to put 16,700mAh into it. I'd suggest getting a quality cable and quality USB charger which can put out at least 2A per port. Figure 16,700/2000 = 8.4 hours, not including inefficiencies, so ~10 hours for a full charge. Using a Quick Charge charger won't make a difference unless your battery pack has the QC chipset built into it.

BTW, iPhones still don't support QC Quick Charging.

Yes, I've recharged using the USB-C input for the ZeroLemon recently (don't recall if I tried the RavPower one), works great, and is significantly quicker than charging via micro-usb.

Greetings, I am starting to travel a lot more and am in the market for a new battery. So far I have had a lot of luck with my 32,000 mAh battery and love that it has a variable voltage output so I can charge my surface pro with the correct adapter but now that I am starting to travel internationally I know it will come under scrutiny for the large capacity. I recently got a cheap 13000 mAh battery at MBK while in Thailand (so far it hasn't exploded) but it doesn't have a variable voltage output. I also recently purchased a Razer phone (no, not a Motorola razr) which has USB C and quickcharge 4.0. I would love to find a battery with that as well.

TLDR:
* 20,000 mAh (maybe down to 15,000 mAh)
* Variable voltage port for charging things like surface pro 3
* USB C
* USB A
* Quickcharge 4 (or 3)

I care less about the length of time it takes the pack itself to charge though.

I can't recall seeing variable voltage on the usual packs. Everything else, I'm pretty sure Anker's latest offering covers. (And it uses USB-C charging so recharges at a reasonable speed.)

I think I found something that suits my needs but I have to give up USB C to make it work. Basically I want a battery capable of charging a laptop which means it needs a round DC plug output to handle 100W.

https://www.amazon.com/aceyoon-20000.../dp/B0745CZDDL

I'm not very techy, so forgive my ignorance, but...Is the Anker 20100mAh portable charger under the 100Wh required for airline travel? Amazon mentions 5V output which, if used in the calculation, would be just over 100Wh, but I think I read somewhere that it is actually rated for 3.7V, which would put it under the 100Wh limit. Does anyone know for sure? Is it actually written on the product anywhere?

Yeah, it's actually at the voltage of the internal cell, not the 5V of the output. That's why you see so many packs at the odd value of 26,800 mAh--that's just under the 100Wh limit of what can fly without restrictions.

Thanks!