Anker Astro Slim2 4500mAh Power Bank Review

Anker Astro Slim2 4500mAh Power Bank Introduction

Are you tired of your phone’s battery dying during the middle of the day, and finding an outlet can possibly be a chore? Does your tablet need some extra juice to get through the day? Well, Anker is at it again; releasing their newest slim line power bank, named the Astro Slim2. This slim power bank boasts a cool 4500mAh Li-Ion battery, which will help you recharge your gadgets throughout the day, should you need a little jump.

This lightweight, very slim, seemingly easy to use power bank can be had on Amazon for $27.99 shipped. That sounds like one great deal for a convenient way to give your gadgets a little more power during the day.

Taking a quick look at the outside of the packaging, the front and sides don’t really show you much.

When you look at the rear, you’ll notice plenty of information in regards to the power bank’s features. We’ll get into those features in a bit, but you can find the tech specs about this power bank below.

Anker Astro Slim2 Specifications:

• Capacity: 4500mAh
• Output: 2x DC 5V / 1A
• Input: DC 5V / 1A
• Weight: 113g (3.9oz)
• Size: 4.88 x 1.34 x 0.39in
• Unit Recharge Time: 4-5 hours (via USB)
• MTBF: 500+ charges
• Warranty: 18 months

When I popped open the box, everything was in there all nice and neat. I was actually quite deceived by the wording “Accessory Bag” on one of the small boxes, so I feel it necessary to point out. I thought there would have been a small pouch inside with the cables and adapters, but they were all just loosely fitting in the small box. No big deal, but it was a poor choice of words on the box.

The accessories that are included are the Micro USB cable, Mini USB adapter, and a 30-pin Apple connector.

With an 18 month warranty, this should help with your buying decisions, as you know you are getting a quality product.

A Closer Look at the Anker Astro Slim2 Power Bank

Anker states the finish is a grippy surface, but in all honesty it doesn’t really do that. It’s a matte plastic that has a slight grip to it, but it isn’t rubberized. If it were rubberized, I would say this power bank would be darn near perfect! The finish on it may or may not mess with the finish on whatever you rest it against. In my case, I did not notice any new scratches on my Galaxy S3 after having the power bank and it in my pocket for a couple days.

A quick tour around the Anker Astro Slim2 Power Bank, up top you’ll see four LEDs (left hand side of the below picture). These LEDs are a white in color and represent 25% increments for the battery charge. When you’re down to the last 5%, the last LED will begin to blink. While charging this power bank, the appropriate LED will blink, indicating where it is at in its cycle. I would strongly recommend putting this face down if you charge this in your bedroom at night, as the LEDs are pretty bright, but not “ultra bright LED” bright.

On the flip side, you won’t see much more than the labeling for input and output.

Taking a look at one of the sides, you’ll battery specifications, letting you know that there are dual 1 amp outputs. The object on the right hand side is something that I’ll get to in a moment.

The opposite side houses the full sized USB output. In all honesty, this is the only other flaw that I could find with the design of this power bank. This should have been placed on an end, not on a side. Now when you want to charge via this port, you have to contend with the width of the power bank plus the USB end sticking out beyond it a couple inches. Talk about not cool!

Alright, remember that mystery object that I mentioned just a moment ago? Well, when you pull this out, this is the integrated Micro USB cable. Yes, this too is rated at 1 amp output, which is ideal for quickly charging your device.

When you pair it up with a device like the Samsung Galaxy S3, you will indeed see how nicely they hold hands and play nice. The short integrated Micro USB cable is very nice, so you know you won’t have a huge cable sticking out of your pocket.

Fortunately if you don’t have a device that has a Micro USB charging port, you’ve always got the full sized USB port to plug in a cable of your choice.

Read on to check out what I found in my brief testing and just a recap of what was said here.