I’m a pretty massive fanboy of Anker products, as they’re one of those companies who make a whole ton of accessories I use, and ever single one of them have been great. While I’ve never needed to use their customer support, their products also come with absurd warranties (Like their Lightning cables have lifetime warranties???) and they’ll just swap ’em out if you have problems. So, when you combine great stuff, good prices, ridiculous warranties, and good customer service… That’s how you turn me into a customer for life (and consequently the same reason I buy everything possible from Costco).
As hardware manufacturers continue with their silly obsession with making all electronics as thin as possible, external battery packs have basically become a required accessory for any power user. I’ve got a ton of them, and seem to constantly be picking up new ones because their capacity regularly increases while their weight decreases. (I was cleaning a few days ago and found my super old Mophie battery and that thing is a brick.)
Two neat batteries worth checking out from Anker these days that seem worth highlighting for be a bit more special than your typical battery pack is their new PowerCore+ 19000 PD. This is a hybrid charger, which is something I had never heard of before. Basically, instead of just having a USB-C ports and a few normal USB ports that just deliver power, this particular battery goes a step farther. If you (for instance) plug it into your MacBook, or other USB-C device, then hold down the button that you would normally just press to check the charge level, it switches modes to also act as a USB hub.
This is pretty huge, as I love any device that’s a multi-tasker, particularly as I try to reduce the amount of junk I have in my bag as much as possible. As cool as USB-C and modern MacBooks are, carrying around some form of dongle to plug in regular USB stuff is still a necessity. The fact that this battery can pull double duty of charging all my stuff and letting me plug in normal USB devices into my computer is seriously just ace.
Next up in Anker’s hybrid battery lineup is their PowerCore Fusion line of batteries. I’ve got their new PowerCore Fusion 10000 which has been sold out for weeks now, but the older, lesser capacity 5000mAh is only $25 on Amazon right now. This thing is ridiculously cool, because you can use it the same way you would use a normal USB power adapter, but it also has a battery onboard. The new PowerCore Fusion 10000 has a USB-C port, but if you don’t care about that the previous model is still awesome. The new USB-C functionality has allowed me to quit carrying around my MacBook charger, and just use this instead. Then, when I unplug, it can keep supplying me with a bit of power while I’m on the go. I also like the logic these devices use when charging, as they’ll deliver 100% of the power to the device you have plugged in, then when that’s full, it will begin recharging yourself.
Anyway, Anker makes awesome stuff, and just because you have an external battery pack you might be happy with still makes it worth looking at new products they have as they somehow consistently manage to make the batteries you’re using now feel old and busted compared to their new stuff.
