When it comes to power banks, there are generally two options: small, lightweight, and perfect for traveling, or large, powerful, but hard to find room for in your bag.
Smaller models usually have smaller batteries and lower power output, meaning they can only charge things like phones and headphones. Larger models, on the other hand, can usually charge laptops too, but their size and weight mean they're not practical for most travelers.
UGreen Latest Nexode 100W 12,000mAh Power Bank Trying to bridge the gap: It's small and light enough to fit in a carry-on bag, but has enough power and capacity to squeeze in a few extra hours of work on a plane.
Or at least that's the theory. How does it work in practice?
To find out, I’ve been traveling with these headphones over the past few weeks, charging my phone on a 16-hour train in Kazakhstan, charging my laptop while working in a coffee shop in the UK, and charging my headphones midway through an overnight flight to Vietnam because they unfortunately ran out of battery.
The circumstances under which it disappeared are as follows.
Design and packaging contents
I didn’t expect a lot of goodies in the box for something like this, and UGreen didn’t do anything to change that expectation. Besides the power bank itself, all that came in the box was a tiny USB C to C cable and a bunch of less-than-helpful instruction manuals.
When picking up the power bank, two thoughts immediately came to my mind: it's noticeably larger than I expected, and it's also significantly lighter than I expected.
Measuring 4.5 x 1.8 x 1.8 inches, it's not something you can just throw in your pocket and forget about. I mean, yes, it does fit in the back pocket of my jeans, but that's about it. I certainly wouldn't leave it there while wandering around London all day.
Still, the unusual tall, narrow design does have its uses: It's easy to hold with one hand, and it fits easily into the side pocket of my backpack, where I usually keep small drink bottles.
Although Anker 533 The model I reviewed last month weighed just 3.5 ounces (100 grams). That's not a big deal, but considering it's a more practical, full-featured device, the 10.9-ounce total weight is enough for me.
The power bank seems pretty solid, though after three weeks of use, I'm a little disappointed that it didn't come with some sort of travel bag in the box. There are already small scratches on the display from rubbing against something in the backpack, and they're only going to get worse over time.
Speaking of the display, it's pretty basic but functions pretty much as you'd expect. Press the power button on the side and you'll get an accurate count of the remaining capacity (0-100%), which changes in real time as capacity increases or decreases.
After 20 seconds, the display switches to cute icons that change based on the battery level. I don't find them particularly useful, but there's nothing wrong with them. The screen dims after one minute and turns off after three minutes.
Both USB ports are located on one end of the power bank, with the USB C PD socket capable of outputting up to 100W, and the USB-A maxing out at 22.5W. The USB C port is also the port you charge the power bank with, and if you have a good charger you can charge the power bank via a wall socket at up to 65W.
Holding the power button for three seconds switches both ports to trickle-charging mode for smartwatches and other low-power devices, while holding it for six seconds turns the power bank off completely.
test
Since I was traveling, I didn’t have my usual USB power tester with me. I’ll update this review with exact results when I get back, but for now, let’s stick with a more subjective approach.
As you might expect, whenever I plugged my phone (a Google Pixel 6a) into a USB C port, it reported “fast charging.” There was no such notification on the iPhone, but the speed at which the battery percentage on my partner’s iPhone 12 rose told me that it was also charging at top speed.
Starting at 20%, the Pixel captured:
- 29 minutes to charge from 20% to 50%
- 40 minutes to charge from 50% to 80%
- Charges from 80% to 100% in 47 minutes
Overall, it took a little over an hour to charge from 20% to 80%. That's normal for this phone: the so-called “fast” charging isn't that fast compared to other phones on the market.
As with all phones these days, charging speed drops dramatically after 80% in order to preserve battery health, so it's no surprise that it takes quite a while to fully charge: it's the same with a wall charger.
When the phone is fully charged, the power bank itself still has 69% of its power left.
After I finished using the Pixel, I plugged in my iPhone, which was at 20% battery. Here are the stats:
- 18 minutes to charge from 20% to 50%
- Charge from 50% to 80% in 26 minutes
- 83 minutes to charge from 80% to 100%
When the iPhone finally charged to 100%, the power bank still had 51% of its charge left.
To sum up, if you have a small or medium-sized phone, this power bank can fully charge it at least twice. The same is true for phones with larger batteries: you can fully charge it more than once, but probably not twice.
So far, so good, but quickly charging your phone isn't why you'd buy this particular model. There are about a million similar power banks that do the same thing in a smaller and/or cheaper package, so what really makes it interesting is the laptop charging potential.
To do this, I drained the battery of my Lenovo Thinkpad X1 to 15%, plugged in a fully charged power bank, and let it run.
The laptop was set to not enter sleep mode, the screen brightness was adjusted to two-thirds, and it took 20 minutes to charge to 40%, and 48 minutes to charge to 72%. At this point, the power bank ran out of power and automatically shut down.
That's exactly the same charging rate as the 70W wall charger I normally use, and the extra battery is more than enough: for context, this laptop typically gets 7-8 hours of use on a full charge, so the power bank gave me about four more hours of work.
The USB-A port undoubtedly has lower charging speeds, but my phone and headphones still charged fairly quickly as long as that was the only port in use.
It's a different story when two cables are connected, however: while it's possible to charge from both ports simultaneously, I wouldn't recommend doing so unless you're really in no rush.
With two cables connected, charging speed drops significantly: you can't charge a laptop this way, of course, and even if you connect two phones, it's faster to charge each one separately than to charge both at the same time.
On the bright side, as I mentioned before, the fast charging on this power bank isn’t one-way: Using a good wall charger, it doesn’t take long to get a full charge. Starting from empty, using the same 70W charger, it took 45 minutes to get two-thirds full, and 71 minutes to get 100 percent full.
This is more useful than you might think, especially when traveling. Since the power bank charges faster than my phone, I found myself simply plugging it in quickly at a hotel or airport and then using it to charge my phone at my leisure.
I've seen some reports online about overheating issues with this power bank, especially when charging a laptop, but this wasn't an issue for me. The power bank did get warm to the touch after a while of use, but never exceeded that temperature.
My monitoring software showed that my laptop stopped charging for a minute while connected to the power bank, but it restarted immediately. I didn't notice any glitches or slowdowns while charging two phones.
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in conclusion
If you’re like me and need to charge a variety of devices while out and about, then this UGreen Power Bank is appealing. It’s a great way to quickly charge a variety of devices, including phones, headphones, tablets, and laptops, and it’s a great size and weight for travel.
It's not perfect: the lack of even a basic soft case feels like an oversight, at least based on the scratches that have appeared, and the low power output when using both ports means that realistically you'll only be using one at a time.
Its size and weight seem good for travel in my opinion, but if you’re just heading out for the day with a backpack or purse then these aren’t as big of an issue.
For the price, it’s far from the cheapest 10-15,000mAh power bank you can buy, but the other specs are what matter. Being able to power most laptops for a few hours of extra runtime is a big deal for a portable battery of this size, and fast charging is always useful when traveling.
Is this the ideal power bank for all situations? No, it isn't: If I only needed to charge my phone once or twice, and didn't mind how quickly it charged, I'd carry a smaller, lighter model in my pocket or bag, saving space and weight.
Likewise, if I am off the grid for several days, or have a lot of power-hungry devices that need to be charged, the battery capacity will not be enough to carry me through the trip. 20,000 and 30,000 Model.
But for that middle ground where size, weight, and charging speed are all important, and I still need to be able to charge my laptop from time to time, this is the one I'll take.
All images courtesy of the author
