Few battery packs live up to their advertised power — here's the exception
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AmazonA compact portable battery is great for getting just enough juice to make it home, but if you’ve got some traveling ahead of you, it’s worth investing in a bigger power bank. There’s no shortage of options along those lines, but Monoprice’s 16,000mAh Select Series charger hits the sweet spot between fast, reliable power and, at $30, affordability.
This is a 16,000mAh unit, which is enough power for about a half dozen phone charges or a couple of tablet charges. Cheaper batteries like this tend to fib about how much of their advertised power they actually use, but in our testing, Monoprice’s pack does get genuinely close to its promises. You probably won't complain.
It’s got two ports — one set at a basic 1A and another at an impressively speedy 2.1A — as well as a handy battery indicator that tells you how long the unit has before it needs to be recharged. That recharge time could be shorter, but it’s about what’s expected for something this big. There’s also a little built-in flashlight, if you ever need it.
If we have one issue — outside of it not having two 2.1A ports — it’s that this thing is big. Some of our other favorites, like the Anker PowerCore, have shown it’s possible to slim down without sacrificing juice. Still, it’s tightly put together, and its smooth white finish doesn’t feel cheap.
Like we said, there are almost too many portable batteries out there. What sets this one apart is how it blends the usefulness of bigger name chargers with the price of no-name ones. The better packs around 16,000mAh tend to cost a little bit more, while the cheaper models often have sketchy customer support, inaccurate charge estimates, and various reports of lemons. Monoprice is a known entity with a history of selling nice things for cheap, and the 1-year warranty it has here is bankable, on the off chance something goes haywire.
Put it all together and you have a good value. Whether there's a road trip on the horizon or you just never feel like getting up to charge your iPad, the Select Series is worth the money. And if you’d prefer something smaller, it has options there too.
Monoprice Select Series Power Bank (16,000mAh), $29.94, available at Amazon.