iCharge-it Power Bank Review – 5000mAh Fast Charging
iCharge-it Power Bank Has The Charms
We were recently asked by +[iCharge-it!]- to take a look at their new power bank that was designed to work with both iPhones and Android devices. This 5000 mAh capacity battery pack is different than most as it magnetically attaches to the back of your phone or phone case. The slim design of the battery pack allows the phone to be used while charging and there are micro USB and lighting cables built-in.
The 5000 mAh capacity is enough juice to charge your phone fully one or two times and the power bank should last for over 500 uses. This power bank is priced at $39.99 shipped, so you are looking at about cost per charge of $0.08 USD if it lasts exactly 500 charges.
There are 16 different versions of this power bank as there are 16 unique charms that hold the magnet on the battery pack!
We were sent out a sample of the +[iCharge-it!]- Turtle Power Bank to review!
+[iCharge-it!]- Power Bank Specifications
- Battery: 5,000 mAh
- Total Power Output: 10W
- Ports: 2
- Dimensions: 135.0 x 70.2 x 13.8 mm
- Weights: 124 grams or 0.27 Pounds
Inside the box you’ll find the power bank, two alcohol cleaning pads, black and white steel discs with 3M adhesive tape pre-applied, micro USB to USB Type-C adapter, USB Type-A to micro USB charging cable and the instructions. The instructions are also available online, so feel free to take a look at them.
Here is a look at the two built-in USB cables popped out with the optional Type-C adapter on the micro USB cable.
The micro USB charging port is on the side of the battery pack.
Putting the steel plate on the back of the iPhone was simple and we placed ours lower for the battery not to block the camera. The on button is on the side of the phone. There are four battery indicator lights on the front of the battery pack that show if you have 25/50/75/100 percent battery life. The Lithium-ion battery inside is from PHD Energy in China.
It charged our phone without any issues, but we did notice that the battery would ‘twist’ due to the tension of the cable when you weren’t holding it straight. Not a big deal, but something worth pointing out as we didn’t expect that. You also can’t see the charm when it is installed on your phone.
+[iCharge-it!]- Power Bank Testing
This fast charging battery pack is designed for 5V/2.1A (~10W) output, so we fully charged the battery pack and did a full drain test. For this we pulled a constant 2.10A charge on the +[iCharge-it!]- Power Bank.
This 5000mAh or 18.5Wh battery lasted for 14.96Wh on this test. Legit Reviews shared these results with iCharge-it! and was told that the numbers looked about right. We were told that the battery packs overall system efficiency is about 80%. There are about 20% in losses due to the switching circuitry stepping up battery voltage as well as losses in the cable and connector.
The next test that we did was to time how long it took to fully charge the iCharge-it! power bank. It took it 2 hours and 33 minutes to fully charge this power bank and used 0.027 KWh of power doing so. So, you are talking about a total power cost of around $0.003 to fully charge this power bank. 500 charges over the life span of this power bank adds up to about $1.75 in power usage at $0.13 per kWh.
Final Thoughts and Conclusions
The iCharge-it! power bank proved to be a pretty good battery pack capable of fast charging (2A) for both the input and outputs. Our testing showed that it was about 80% efficient when 2A fast charging through the micro USB port. Dual charging is not advertised as a feature, but we were able to charge two phones at the same time.
Pricing on the iCharge-it! power bank is $39.99 with free shipping and it is backed by a 30-day warranty. That price point is pretty steep considering what you get. The best selling power bank on Amazon is the INIU 10,000mAh triple 3A power bank at $13.71 shipped with a 3-year warranty. It doesn’t stick to your phone or have built-in cables, but can charge three devices, has faster 3A charging, twice the capacity, and a longer warranty.
At the end of the day the iCharge-it! power bank delivered okay performance at a premium price point.