thegasguru

h15t0r1an

In an Anker charger, is more mAh always better ?

I'm looking at an Anker 15000mAh that looks like it will cope with my various sub-laptop gadgets. Somewhere around I'm sure I saw an Anker 20000mAh or even 22000mAh is this necessarily better?

My laptop requires a 170W charger to charge (big Thinkpad). Am I right in thinking there just isn't a portable charger that will go anywhere near charging my laptop as well?

Following feedback on this forum have pretty much settled on Anker but wondering which one gets me most recharge for longest. I'm pretty tolerant and accept light luggable as well as portable. Would appreciate the advice of the experts on this forum.

pseudoswede

More mAh = bigger size. You need to determine what is the best size that you'd be willing to lug around. It also depends on your needs of just how long (measured in days) you will be away from a power outlet and how many devices you need to charge. (The longer you will be away, the bigger battery you will need; same with number of devices.)

I'm not aware of any portable charger that would be able to power that much of a laptop, but I'm sure ScottC does.

chx1975

Think of the mAh rating as the size of the hot water tank and the W rating as the size of the pipe. Your laptop needs a wide pipe, irregardless how much water there is. But also because you are using a wide pipe you'll need a huge tank otherwise the water runs out quick. 15 Ah? 20 Ah? Are you kidding me? Try ten times as that and even those monsters are not always capable of handling such a huge laptop. I would look http://www.thebatterygeeks.com/Exter...ablets-s/1.htm here. For example, they have a "walking outlet" that uses a standard car 12V output and then provides an inverter (yesss!) so you can plugin anything.

This http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic...=94554#p628488 forum post mentions, however, that when the monster is off then even a 65W charger will do. Someone tried to use 90W adapter to power the monster, no dice. So you are quite a pickle trying to porta-power that.

ScottC

I use this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ag=prd_idnr-20

It will CHARGE your massive laptop, but it won't charge and power. In most cases, you'd need to shut it down to charge it with this. That said, it outputs 19V/3A and I am pretty sure all Thinkpads are 19V charge.

Thankfully, Amazon will take it back if it doesn't work, so at $100 it may be worth trying out.

h15t0r1an

Thanks ScottC for the tip that there’s a chance a 19V output might recharge the ‘monster’ aka the Thinkpad, but only if it was powered off !

Thanks chx1975 for the great illustration about the water pipe and wattage. Also for the links to the Thinkpad forum and – fantastic! A link to a battery site for geeks. Yum. I can’t wait to dig in to those.

Thank you pseudoswede for stating that the tradeoff I have to make is what, if any, additional size and weight beyond the Anker 15000mAh sizing am I prepared to lug in order to cover an infrequently occurring need to charge a monster 19V laptop when there's no electricity supply. Thinking about all you guys have said, since the laptop is mostly for production and the tablet mostly for consumption, I think I can live with just charging the tablet so it's the Anker 15000mAh.

Thanks to all.

chx1975

Note what ScottC said is the same as what the forum claims -- namely, any random 19V 65W charger will charge the laptop which makes quite a lot of sense -- if you don't need to actually power the laptop, any size pipe will fill up the tank inside the laptop just a thin pipe will take a (lot) longer.

mrisoli

I've been looking for a low price, small charger for an iPhone to help out during travel(one extra charge a day I'd say), I am not sure how much mAh I'd need for that, but most important is that its portable enough(pocket suitable) and cheap as it gets, I have looked at those chinese knockoffs on Aliexpress but I am not confident they are safe or good enough.

Can someone recommend me one? I checked the Hyperjuice and it looks like a good pick(plus I would import them on Brazil and it gets taxed if its over 50 USD, so hopefully I can get a quality product under that price).

gfunkdave

A friend has the Anker Astro Mini (3000 mAh) and loves it. It will charge an iPhone from flat once, with maybe a little left over. It's slightly larger than a tube of lipstick.

http://www.amazon.com/Astro-Mini-Ult...keywords=anker

Here's the updated model, with 3 times the power capacity: http://www.amazon.com/9000mAh-Extern...keywords=anker

thegasguru

mrisoli: I agree with gfunkdave that, based on what you're saying, the Anker Mini is your best bet. It's the smallest you're gonna get, very pocketable, and Anker products have always been reliable for me. I have gone thru at least 3 other brands of "lipstick" sized mini batteries, and I can tell you: the Anker is the best of that size. I recently switched over to the Hyperjuice Expand, partly because it recharges faster (altho I'm not sure how important that really is to me, since I recharge my external batteries overnight while I sleep anyway), and mostly because I could switch to a larger sized battery if I need one, which actually happens on occasion (3000 mAh is fine to recharge a phone, but not an iPad).

mrisoli

Well thank you both for the input! I'll look for the Anker mini although I can't buy from amazon considering they overtax every product shipped to Brazil, I'll check ebay or may aliexpress.

CApreppie

The Anker and New Trent products get good reviews on Amazon. Selection depends on how big you want to carry and how many mAh you need.

mapletree

Just bought the Anker Mini for Mrs Mapletree and Anker 2 for myself. Thanks for the advice!

infamousdx

While Anker puts out some good products, the vast majority of their reviews are paid for through their Power User program.

ScottC

My recent Anker 12,000mAh battery packs have all sucked. Drain very quickly, and have not delivered the capacity promised. The smaller Mophie packs have proven to be much more reliable.