Beware This Marketing White Lie When Shopping for Power Banks

The truth about mobile power capacity: the huge gap between advertising capacity and actual capacity

The capacity advertised by mobile power manufacturers is often about 40% higher than the actual available capacity. This is because the mobile power supply needs to consume a portion of the power to maintain its own operation.

Capacity misunderstanding: Battery capacity and rated capacity

The mAh value advertised by the manufacturer usually refers to the battery capacity (or battery pack capacity), rather than the rated capacity. The battery capacity refers to the total mAh of the battery unit inside the mobile power supply, representing the theoretical maximum battery life time of the battery. This is usually a reliable indicator in non-charged devices, for example, a 4000mAh smartphone has a battery capacity that represents its maximum battery life.

However, the situation with the power bank is different. They need to consume a portion of the power to convert voltage to match the voltage of the charged device, and the loss during the energy conversion process will further reduce the available capacity. Therefore, the rated capacity of a mobile power supply (actually available charging capacity) is usually nearly 40% lower than the battery capacity.

For example, to fully fill a 4000mAh smartphone, you need a mobile power bank with a battery capacity of 5600mAh. This explains why your power bank seems to be "underperforming", but it's not a problem with the power bank itself, but a misleading way of marketing.

How to estimate the rated capacity?

Almost all mobile power manufacturers only promote battery capacity and do not disclose rated capacity information. Apart from Anker, few manufacturers will mention this issue.

You can usually find rated capacity information on the box or in the details of the power bank itself. If you are buying online, this will be inconvenient. But if you are in a physical store, be sure to check it before purchasing.

The easiest way to estimate is to multiply the battery capacity by 0.6 (60%). Anker provides a more accurate conversion formula on its support page, but the result of this formula is always 60/40.

Manufacturer's "Strategy"

Manufacturers advertise battery capacity is not illegal, but they are not really honest with consumers unless they are listed at the same time.

Larger numbers can obviously lead to higher sales, but this does not reflect the actual user experience of consumers. This approach is unlikely to change unless relevant regulations are introduced (which is unlikely). But once you understand the tricks, it is difficult to turn a blind eye.

This does not mean that the power bank itself is of poor quality, it just works so. The current popular 10,000mAh battery capacity mobile power supply, its 6000mAh capacity rated enough to meet the charging needs of most devices. Power banking is still an effective tool for extending the battery life of the device.

It should be noted that the higher the battery capacity of a mobile power supply, the greater the gap between its rated capacity and battery capacity. Although the percentage remains unchanged, you still lose more available power. For example, the rated capacity of the mobile power supply with a battery capacity of 20,000mAh is 12,000mAh, and so on. This gap will be particularly noticeable at high capacity, even if the total rated capacity of three 10,000mAh power bank power banks is comparable to that of a 30,000mAh power bank.

I hope this article can help you better understand the truth about the capacity of the mobile power supply. Please apply this knowledge with a more responsible attitude than the manufacturer.

If you are looking for the right power bank, you might as well check out our recommended quality power bank.

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