BatteryBench Tests of Nitecore and Anker Portable Battery Chargers

With needs that vary greatly and in a rapidly changing market, a “best” portable battery charger simply does not exist. Furthermore, if it did (on paper), its crown will dissolve in a relatively short amount of time. That means a consumer can spend an enormous amount of money making sure they own the best PBC at any given time. That is a fool’s game. Instead, buy the most capable PBC you can afford now and use it as long as you can. Our landfills are full enough of electronic waste.

Interestingly enough, Nitecore has release Gen 2 of their NB10000.

@Breau – when you say “released” do you mean “announced”?  I have not been successful in locating a Gen2 NB10000 for actual sale.  The Nitecore store does not have them and shows the Gen1 as out of stock.

@JCH I do. I haven’t purchased one or found it for sale.

So, if I’m looking at the picture of the business end of the Nitecore and wondering if I would be able to remember how to work that at then end of a long day, the Anker 10000 isn’t that much heavier for just a touch less power?

It’s not hard to operate. You plug stuff in and hit the button. If you want to charge a low power device you press and hold the button until it turns white. It’s pretty easy. YMMV

I’ve had trouble with a past one charger, no one of these brands, so I might be overly concerned. You have to have the cord exactly right to get a connection and hit the single button the right number of times. I find it confusing.

Seems like way too many charts.

Some of he charts indicate that 2 Anker 10000s are better than 1 Anker 20K

What is the chemistry of the Nitcore?

In addition to the NB10000 Gen2, Nitecore will also release the new NC10000 PBC this summer. Slightly lower energy density than the NB10000, but different form factor that might be more attractive to some. USB-C only (1 port). Built-in flashlight. And automatic low power device detection.

It’s not that hard to figure out how to use the Nitecore 10000 even when tired. Actually, you can turn low power mode on before you set out and it will keep that mode. I almost always use low power mode with the Nitecore because my iPhone gets quite hot with the “normal” power mode.

Regarding remembering how to use Nitecore (and other) products, I download the .pdf version of the user manuals to my phone.

Right, but as mentioned in the article, if your phone has no power, it doesn’t matter what you have loaded on it. Obviously, you should never deliberately let your phone get to zero power for many reasons, but if it ever does, that’s when you need the charger most.

Anyone else noticed their NB1000 won’t charge devices when it’s temperature is 32-40F? It will light up as if it’s delivering a charge but the device being charged-regardless of it’s temp. won’t actually be charging. Had my warmish iPhone plugged into NB1000 that sat under vestibule at 32F. After 45min my iPhone increased charge by 0%.

So, part of this test really caught my attention, because I need to replace a worn-out unit with something newer and I need it to work at cold temps:

There is no need to sleep with these PBCs in above-freezing temperatures.

What about below-freezing temps?  PBCs are something that I don’t know a lot about, to be honest; does cold – like, legit-cold – impact them significantly?  I was going to get an Anker 525, but now I wonder if I need to do more research.

Anecdotal evidence only:

Visiting Urbana IL several winters ago, I left the house with my phone at 100% charge.  Being a lifelong Floridian, I put the phone in my front pants pocket as usual.  The high that day was 16F.  Within 3 hrs the battery was at 15%…in my pocket…unused.  My wife and daughter’s phones, in their purses, were dead.  I suspect the little bit of warmth my thigh provided accounted for the difference.

Granted, this experience with the battery in the iPhone may or may not be applicable to PBCs, but I suspect it could.  I always carry my PBC buried deep within my clothing layers when temperatures are below 30F.

I’ve never had that trouble with a phone in my front pocket. My leg generates enough warmth. But the battery will drain pretty quickly if I use my phone in that kind of weather. Fortunately, Pittsburgh doesn’t really get the midwestern cold winter.

For many years I’ve owned two PBCs that were given to me. One is 4,000 mAH and the other is 10,000 mAH.  That’s good enough for my car camping/hunting uses.  I never take them backpacking B/C I carry  extra batteries for my camera, GPS and rescue beacon. (3 batteries total) which weigh a lot less than my 10,000 mAH PBC.

Fantastic work, thanks.
I have 2 Nitecore NB10000 (2 of them weight less then 1 Nitecore NB20000!) and NB20000 itself. Also I had Anker 20000.
I used Nitecore for several long and cold hikes from November 2021 and can share some experience.
1. Never use Nitecore for overnight charging. I lost all power in one unfortunate night forgetting turn off my Samsung S22 (save battery mode on) , it sucked all in 1 night.
2. Always use low power mode for things like Garmin watches, head lamps, Inreach Mini etc.
3. Nitecore banks are wasting power being in storage much faster then Anker
4. Nitecore has very low humidity resistance.
5. I completely bricked NB20000 in my last hike in Peru using a standard Samsung USB charger in a hostel due a overheating (the both USB outlet charger and the unit became very hot in several minutes). The reason is still unclear: fault unit, fault design or using in cold and humid. Try to check your charger before the trip.

What is “humidity resistance” ???

Thanks to previous articles I have stopped charging all devices at night due to wasted energy. With this testing of low power mode not wasting much if any-I will try this out. Thanks Rex.

With this testing of low power mode not wasting much if any-I will try this out.

Never mind, I realized low power mode stop power wasting on small devices-earbuds, etc. not phones.

Nitecore just released their Gen 2 10000 mAh charger lowering the weight from 5.3 oz to 5.29 oz.  While I’d skip on the weight savings, maybe there’s some other improvements?

Meanwhile I’ll keep lugging my 6.8 oz Anker with The Rolling Stones cover tune “Beast of Burden” going through my head..

https://youtu.be/761yzGz4HzQ

Just ordered one. Just for the LED update alone.

Well got my hands on the NB10000 Gen 2. The LEDs  very easy to read now. I also like the yellow outline around both ports. Weight is the same. Mine came above spec at 155g. What has not improved and maybe has gotten worse is the accuracy of the LEDs. I drained the bank-made sure of it. Plugged it into my 20W Anker Nano(511) using USB-C to USB-C. Within 20 minutes the first LED was solid and the second was blinking. At 40 minutes in the second LED was solid and the third blinking. Finished charging at 3h 20minutes. I have a hard time believing it was at 66% capacity in 40min.

I have never seen Anker have out of whack status LEDs like this. Anyone else notice this?

you could measure it

after you charge it to “66%”, quit charging and then plug something in and measure how much power it delivers.  Repeat with 100% charge.

They do charge quickly to something like 66%, then a lot slower to charge the rest of the way