Why Power Banks Never Deliver Their Advertised Capacity
1 min read
Summary
Power banks generally underdeliver when it comes to storing and supplying the charge they claim to via their lithium batteries.
Voltage conversion inpower banks results in some energy being lost, thus reducing the amount of charge that can be supplied to devices such as phones.
Power banks allocate a sizeable proportion of their battery capacity towards preventing overcharging and over-discharging, which means less energy is available to users.
Cheaper power banks also tend to have poorer thermal management capabilities, which leads to additional energy losses, thus reducing capacity further.
Battery degradation over time also reduces the actual capacity of a power bank.
To estimate a power bank’s actual capacity, look for those that provide an estimate of how many charges it can provide for specific phone models, and look for ones that are above 60% of the advertised capacity.
