When it comes to power banks and travel, there’s always a trade-off between size and capacity. The smaller it is, the fewer times you have to charge it, but the more room you have in your bag for other stuff.
That’s a different story if you know you’ll be off-grid for a few days, but for any other trip, 10,000mAh is the best choice: enough power to fully charge almost any phone multiple times, but not so big or heavy that it’s cumbersome to carry or put in a day bag.
There are about 11 million different power bank manufacturers in the world, most of which you’ve never heard of and exist primarily as uncommon letter combinations in Amazon listings.
Perhaps the relevant news mentioned that there are still many mobile power banks on the market whose capacity does not meet the advertised level, they become unusable after one or two months of use, or the charging speed is very slow.
That’s why I’m very specific about the power banks I recommend on this site. Today, only a few companies meet the criteria; of those, Anker’s products are the ones I buy and use the most.
Today I’ll take a look at it 533 PowerCore 30Wa 10,000mAh power bank with a few extra features that, at least on the spec sheet, give it a leg up over the competition. It turns out to be a decent power bank in many ways, but there’s one weird charging issue that keeps it from being my top choice.
Design and packaging contents
As with most budget products, Anker didn’t do much to improve the unboxing experience. I received a plain white box with little to no branding, which contained the power bank, a short USB C to USB C cable, a soft travel pouch, and a short instruction manual.
The power bank itself looks pretty nice as far as these things go, and comes in a variety of colors. I got the boring black (not the official name), but there are more interesting blue, white, purple, and green versions available.
Each color comes in two versions, with or without a built-in USB C cable. Mine is the version with a built-in USB C cable, so the cable is in the box; it’s usually a little cheaper, but you might also want this if you want to never accidentally leave a cable behind.
Assuming you choose the same model as I did, you’ll get three USB ports on one end: two USB C and one USB A. The two USB C ports are identical, outputting up to 30W PD, but the USB-A port isn’t far behind, with a theoretical maximum output of 22.5W.
The USB C output is enough to quickly charge almost any phone or tablet, and can even slowly charge a laptop, depending on the model. This is better than most similar-sized power banks on the market.
There’s a digital status screen on the top that activates whenever you plug in a cable or press the power button on the side. The marketing materials make a lot of mention of this screen, but as useful as it is, it’s limited in what it can display.
When the cable isn’t connected, you get a percentage of the remaining battery capacity. With your device plugged in, you’ll also get an estimate of how long the power bank will last at the current charge rate. Start charging the power bank itself and you’ll get a rough idea of how long it’ll take to charge to 100%.
In terms of size, the 533 measures 3.9 x 2.1 x 1.0 inches and weighs 7.4 ounces, which is about average for a 10K power bank. It fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, is narrower than a deck of cards but taller, and can slide into the top pocket of my backpack without any problems.
There’s not much to say about the travel pouch: It’s made of the same soft mesh that Anker uses for most of its power banks, with a drawstring at the top. It keeps keys and other metal objects from scratching the case, but there’s no drop protection.
The same goes for the USB C cable: It’s three feet long, black, and a regular cable. But since it’s from Anker, you know it’s probably not going to break anytime soon.
test
I generally test power banks in two ways: when I first get them, testing them on a bench with a variety of different phones, tablets, laptops, and chargers; and in the real world over a long period of time while traveling and hiking.
For now, this review is mainly focused on the test results, but I have a multi-month trip coming up and this will be the only power bank I take with me when I travel. I will update this post later this year if there is anything new or interesting to report!
USB charging
After charging the power bank to 100%, I plugged it into a USB power tester and connected it to six different mobile devices. In each case, I waited several minutes before taking a reading.
| equipment | Power Output |
|---|---|
| Apple iPhone 12 | 14.4W |
| Google Pixel 4a | 13.9 W |
| Google Pixel 6a | 14.6 W |
| Apple iPad (10th generation) | 27.3W |
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon | 24.3 W |
| Apple MacBook Pro 14 | 24.1 W |
Those are pretty good results. Regardless, none of the phones were able to handle more than 20W of power, which was enough to quickly charge an iPad and charge a laptop, which is beyond what I would expect from most power banks of this size. As you would expect, power output is lower when using multiple ports at the same time.
I can only push a maximum of 7W of power out of the USB-A port to any phone or tablet, and I can’t use it to charge a laptop. That’s fine for older devices or people who don’t care about charging speed, but otherwise I’d use USB C ports whenever possible.
For low-power devices like smartwatches, there’s also a trickle charging mode: just double-click the power button to enter this mode, and double-click again to exit.
Even when used for a long time, the power bank does not get particularly hot.
Wall charging
Remember when I said there was one problem with this power bank that made it hard to recommend? Let’s talk about that now.
According to the specs, the 533 can draw up to 18W of power from a quality USB C wall charger when you charge it. I have several of these chargers on hand, with outputs ranging from 30 to 70W, so this should be a quick and easy test.
but it is not the truth.
The power bank often seemed to fail to reach its maximum charge rate. I tried five different chargers and three different cables, but none of them could deliver more than 7W of charging power to the power bank.
That’s not great, because according to the built-in display and my own testing, it means it’ll take you a little over five hours to fully charge the power bank. If you only need to charge it overnight, that’s fine, but if you’re in a hurry, it’s far from ideal.
I double checked which Power Delivery protocols the power bank supports and compared it to each wall charger. They all support at least 5, 9, and 12 volts, so that’s not the issue.
Just when I thought there was something fundamentally wrong with the power bank charging, it suddenly decided to start drawing about 17W of power from any higher capacity wall charger, and it stayed that way for the rest of the day.
I don’t know exactly what changed, but it cuts the time for a full charge to under two hours, which is more like it.
I thought the initial slow charging was just a weird glitch, but it reappeared the next day. I switched to different chargers, cables, and ports, plugging and unplugging everything endlessly: it still wouldn’t go past 6.5W.
As of this writing, I haven’t seen charging speeds that fast again, and reading the support forums and Amazon reviews, it doesn’t seem like this is an isolated issue. There’s no apparent fix, and even a warranty replacement had the same problem, so I think it’s just inherent to this model.
The (very small) plus is that the time estimate shown on the display was at least fairly accurate in my testing: When it said it would take 5 hours and 49 minutes to fully charge, it took just under 6 hours to get to 100 percent.
Get the latest news on travel tech and remote work
News, reviews, recommendations and more from here and around the web
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to submit the form
in conclusion
In most respects, Anker 533 PowerCore 30W A power bank that’s got it all. It’s the perfect size, weight and capacity for travel, with plenty of useful ports, an essential protective pouch and the ability to quickly charge your phone, tablet and more.
It could potentially even charge your laptop in an emergency, and a small display on the top gives a quick readout of remaining capacity and how long it will take to complete a charge.
The problem, of course, is that it charges itself. This would be a fantastic little power bank if I could reliably charge it at top speed. However, not knowing whether it would take two, three, or five hours to fully charge is frustrating.
Depending on how you use your power bank, the slower speed (at times) might not bother you, but it does make me hesitate when I’m recommending it to everyone. At least it’s worth considering before buying!
All images courtesy of the author
