The last battery with the QC3.0 port has spoiled me for others. No QC3 port - no deal. Besides this one is lower capacity and more expensive. The last one was $9 for 12,000 mAh with QC3.
@cengland0 and it is currently serving me well in France. I can use it to charge my phone during breakfast or dinner then charge it overnight. Plus have plenty of power for wife’s phone, tablet etc. too…
@joelmw I understand. It was such a good deal that they limited the purchases to 1 per person and even if you tried to open a second account, they would detect that and deny the purchase there too.
Not to rub salt, but some of us who didn’t dilly-dally got two (I’m guessing a few folks even got three if they wanted three) before @dave locked it down…
I dillied not
Neither did I dally
But verily I was screwed
/giphy fuck ye
It would have been one thing if my order had not gone through. But it did. That’s on them. Turns out they pulled that shit with the socks I ordered recently too.
You better fucking expect me to get salty. Honestly, well played; my response is a sign of respect and more-or-less obligatory.
@raccoon81
Two for $20 + $5 shipping from meh.com = $12.50 / power bank, versus two for $19.98 + free shipping from eBay.com = $9.99 / power bank yields a saving of $5.02 from the eBay seller.
/giphy one paper Lincoln two zinc Lincolns
@rickwhoo FYI it looks like these are the older version that doesn’t have the built in wall charger that @woodyzimdiscussed below. That icon on the right side of the box is not on the one pictured on the eBay listing.
Well. The c cable is what my Samsung S9 uses instead of an Android, so, as much as I wanted to pass, just couldn’t do it… lo l. Meh, you’re killing me Smalls.
@rmeden
In my experience, USB A is never used to provide power to a device. All the USB power cables I’ve used have the A going to the power source and a mini or micro providing the power to the device.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@RedOak good point… I do see lots of USB A power ports on kiosks, cars, and airports. I still think it’s not worth taking up a precious built in cable, but I can see others having a different need.
@RedOak@rmeden I could totally see plugging this into your laptop to charge instead of the wall when you travel in order not to forget and leave it behind.
Good company, quality stuff. I’ve have one of their 1st Gen models (without the fold-able wall plug) for 3 years now & it perfect for my long bike rides & camping trips. It’s much thinner than other batteries, so it takes up less space in my bicycle’s seat pack, & the cable’s built in, so I never forget to pack it. The fold-able wall plug would make it even nicer (I wouldn’t have to bring along a brick to charge it). I use mine for charging my phone, wireless headset, & flashlights (all of which are USB C).
@gominosensei no. It only delivers 5v through the USB-C connector, not the USB power delivery spec. I’m not sure if there is a battery pack that does that, but I’m willing to bet if there is that someone will let us know about it below.
@gominosensei I was wondering that too since my wall plug is 87, yet this was pictured with a MacBook in the product photos. Would be a cool idea to have something charged up and in the camera bag, but it figures it’d be too good to be true.
@djslack@gominosensei There are a few USB-PD battery packs that can a) trickle charge or b) semi-normal charge a MacBook Pro.
MacBook 12" (and iPad Pro 10.5/11/12.9) can accept up to 30W of charging via USB-PD.
MacBook Pro 13" and 15" can use 61W and 87W of charging via USB-PD
USB-PD battery packs range on average 18W (9V/2A), 30W (15V/2A or 20V/1.5A), or 45W (15V/3A or 20V/2.25A). I believe there might be some that can hit 60W but haven’t really checked it out.
So you can probably use a 30W/45W USB-PD battery pack on a MacBook Pro, as long as you’re not using discrete graphics. Basically a MacBook Pro (with basic web browsing) would use integrated graphics, so it probably wouldn’t go above 30W of actual usage. But if you’re video editing or gaming, then you’ll probably hit 60W+ of usage and the USB-PD battery pack won’t keep up.
I am sure somewhere out there is an wngineer who wanted to help smart phone users and a marketer saying it was the greatest thing ever! And we believe the marketer.
Even though I got the larger non-cabled one recently this will be useful for an upcoming UK trip when we will use usb-c Fi phones- especially since my wife’s is my old Nexus whose battery doesn’t hold a charge well now.
@MWPollard As someone who has helped work on a few battery packs (professionally as an engineer), I can easily say that almost universally, you will find that anything using USB plugs for power delivery will be done in 5V ratings. And for most phones and tablets (save for a very select, but growing handful of Qualcomm quickcharge models or similar), 2.4A is the maximum that the devices will allow. By the standard equation of P=V*I, this is pushing exactly 12W, which not only maxes the devices, but also what you would likely want from such a portable lithium battery system as well, due to the heat constraints to charging and discharging, the complexity of a BMS for that battery design, and especially at anywhere near this price. Will this be useful for charging larger devices, like laptops? Not at all, again because of the total power - not a factor of voltage. It also wouldn’t last long with such a small capacity either, truthfully. And as it has been pointed out, it isn’t recommended for use as a pass through point (power from the wall in at the same time as charging any device), which would indicate a simple BMS design.
@arosiriak@MWPollard USB-C with PD maxes out at 100 watts. The Power Delivery specification allows negotiating the voltage up to 20.0 volts, in tenth of a volt steps. This is possible with microprocessor controlled switching power supplies. Some versions of the USB-C connector can handle up to 5 amps. USB-C PD cables contain a chip that the microprocessor can read to learn the cable’s current rating.
A common battery management system is just more code in the microprocessor.
To get battery life like in a good electric car requires active thermal management. If you think about it, a Tesla Semi is an experimental mobile power bank. The charge rate is more than 0.3 megawatts now, and I expect that to reach a megawatt as they refine the technology. The capacity is also being improved through hardware upgrades. That could easily exceed a megawatt hour in the production models, if the customers are willing to pay for it. Tesla has demonstrated far larger fixed installations. The Tesla charging connector also supports negotiating voltage and current levels, but at this time it is not compatible with USB-C.
Remember, you don’t carry a Tesla power bank, a Tesla power bank carries you.
@arosiriak@hamjudo
Samsung (and Verizon) chargers (not battery packs) are 24w. I have a number of them, Yes, they use Qualcomm Quick Charge, but that’s used by most phones on the market now. I realize battery tech will have additional thermal concerns, but it clearly should not be an issue that requires Tesla to overcome.
And since I want my phone to charge in a reasonable timeframe, that’s a feature I consider extremely important.
@goldnectar@therealjrn@xEBRONx Not as long as there are he’s and she’s… [and as long as the he’s think size matters]- which I have no opinion on…, but many she’s do…
/giphy size matters
Too small. But it does look like you can charge the power pack while it’s charging something, but in the picture that shows that, it also looks like it’s charging a laptop.
/image low power capacity
@eonfifty I think the laptop picture is showing pass-through charging. I need something like this for my car (where my car’s USB ports only output 5-7W), but I can rely on the power brick to output 12W for me. Decisions decisions…
Decent design, but $10 for 5000mAh, too expensive! $10 for 10,000mAh, yes. $5 for 5000mAh, yes. $10 for 5000mAh, not a chance. Go for the USB-C plug, the wall plug, and drop the extraneous USB-A plug and cut the price.
I bought 2 of these and when i got them they were in bad condition. They were filthy and both were bent in different areas. One of them was used, very dirty around the power button. The boxes were crushed and dirty, my hands actually got dirty from handling the boxes. I was under the impression that these were new items that was sold on this site. Now i have to wast my time and energy trying to send these things back.
The last battery with the QC3.0 port has spoiled me for others. No QC3 port - no deal. Besides this one is lower capacity and more expensive. The last one was $9 for 12,000 mAh with QC3.
@cengland0 and it is currently serving me well in France. I can use it to charge my phone during breakfast or dinner then charge it overnight. Plus have plenty of power for wife’s phone, tablet etc. too…
@cengland0 Some of us bought one of these but found out later they were sold out.
@joelmw I understand. It was such a good deal that they limited the purchases to 1 per person and even if you tried to open a second account, they would detect that and deny the purchase there too.
@cengland0 @joelmw
Not to rub salt, but some of us who didn’t dilly-dally got two (I’m guessing a few folks even got three if they wanted three) before @dave locked it down…
@RedOak Meaning: Exactly to rub salt in their now freshly re-opened wounds…
/giphy salt-in-wounds
@RedOak Crap, timed out while looking for right
/giphy rub-salt-in-wounds
@RedOak Yes I know but I wasn’t bold enough to rub it in like you did.
@PhysAssist @cengland0 @dave @RedOak
I dillied not
Neither did I dally
But verily I was screwed
/giphy fuck ye
It would have been one thing if my order had not gone through. But it did. That’s on them. Turns out they pulled that shit with the socks I ordered recently too.
You better fucking expect me to get salty. Honestly, well played; my response is a sign of respect and more-or-less obligatory.
/giphy salty
@cengland0 @dave @PhysAssist @RedOak @joelmw
Apparently Giphy doesn’t quite get “fuck ye”.
I suppose I could buy these just to add to my existing collection of “never charged when I need them” powerbanks
This is one of those “do i need this” situations until I read the comments and realized no one does.
The 12,000 mah juice bar selling during the recent Mehathonn for 9 bucks with a 3 amp output was the one not this one tonite no value
@mellowirishgent
@mellowirishgent +1
@mellowirishgent waitwaitwait , recent mehrathon?
@mellowirishgent @thechinglish 1st of April.
The reply space below reserved for @rickwhoo’s list of better deals with free shipping…
@djslack FREE Shipping, https://www.ebay.com/p/ZipKord-Rockz-5000mah-Battery-Backup-Integrated-Apple-Lightning-Micro-USB/1284999241?iid=222548332221&chn=ps
Let me know when you see this… But I would not trust them. No reviews yet
@rickwhoo Not bad! It’s not USB-C but other people need other connectors.
Credit where credit is due, you came through.
/giphy clap
@djslack @rickwhoo So… Ummm… 2 pack? So basically this would be $19.98 from ebay (not usb C) or 14.98 for 2 here… failing to see savings.
@raccoon81
Two for $20 + $5 shipping from meh.com = $12.50 / power bank, versus two for $19.98 + free shipping from eBay.com = $9.99 / power bank yields a saving of $5.02 from the eBay seller.
/giphy one paper Lincoln two zinc Lincolns
@raccoon81 look a little on your own… They sell them with the C, Micro and Lightening connections. Where do you see $14.98 for 2???
@rickwhoo Ah, very good. Somehow I saw price on meh at $10, not sure. Good find then!
@rickwhoo FYI it looks like these are the older version that doesn’t have the built in wall charger that @woodyzim discussed below. That icon on the right side of the box is not on the one pictured on the eBay listing.
@djslack @woodyzim Some have it, and some don’t…
From the front page:
What happens when an English major writes about technical shit.
@RedOak mah is like the knockoff of meh, yes?
@RedOak mAh measures charge, not power.
@jleedev
'Still drinking the Easter wine?
@RedOak 5000 Magnesium Hydride! Oh, no, that would be MgH, there is no “Ma” in chemistry. No “Pa” either. The periodic table is an orphan.
@nolrak @RedOak I think it’s the subjunctive pluperfect…
Twofer Monday?
Who cares about the product, mad props for the Pete and Pete reference
Is it Tuesday? I’m so confused. Wait this is Earth Day, right? Maybe all the 420 is messing me up.
No power delivery/quick charge, no clicky on buy
Well. The c cable is what my Samsung S9 uses instead of an Android, so, as much as I wanted to pass, just couldn’t do it… lo l. Meh, you’re killing me Smalls.
@Mandamm Any battery with a standard USB port would work with any USB-A to USB-C cable.
@Mandamm By “Android”, you mean microUSB?
@cengland0 @Mandamm Any USB battery with a USB-A to C cable will work just as slowly.
“PD” for “Power Delivery” is a requirement for reasonable speed with a USB-C charger.
Why idiot designer thought a USB A cable would be a smart move when it already has 110V in? Micro USB or lightning would have been a better choice.
I love my power pack with the built-in cable, but this one is a fail.
@rmeden
There might be several scenarios where the USB A charging makes sense. No additional cable required.
USB A ports are more and more common in various places like cars and airplanes.
You might have a multi-USB A port charger and no spare 110 VAC receptacles.
@rmeden
In my experience, USB A is never used to provide power to a device. All the USB power cables I’ve used have the A going to the power source and a mini or micro providing the power to the device.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@RedOak good point… I do see lots of USB A power ports on kiosks, cars, and airports. I still think it’s not worth taking up a precious built in cable, but I can see others having a different need.
@RedOak @rmeden I could totally see plugging this into your laptop to charge instead of the wall when you travel in order not to forget and leave it behind.
@rmeden
I’ve regretted a lot of Meh purchases, but battery packs have never been one of them.
@allen721 Plus they ALWAYS work as backup gifts in case you want/need to gift someone you don’t know that well…
I bought some shitty battery packs from Meh, and I regretted it. They wouldn’t work properly…
@robson That sounds about right.
@goldnectar @robson bought 2 of these, came used and dirty.
How is there still a market for these things?!?
@shahnm people must still have empty space in their refrigerators…
@shahnm you can’t afford to NOT buy them
Good company, quality stuff. I’ve have one of their 1st Gen models (without the fold-able wall plug) for 3 years now & it perfect for my long bike rides & camping trips. It’s much thinner than other batteries, so it takes up less space in my bicycle’s seat pack, & the cable’s built in, so I never forget to pack it. The fold-able wall plug would make it even nicer (I wouldn’t have to bring along a brick to charge it). I use mine for charging my phone, wireless headset, & flashlights (all of which are USB C).
@woodyzim Quite the sales pitch. I’d probably bite if I camped…like, at all. I should go camping.
Thanks, but no thanks! Pretty sure I bought one from you not too long ago…not so sure I like this one.
Close, but not quite.
I do like the integrated wall plug, but the integrated cables actually argue against, in my case.
A Qi pad would be nice.
And, yeah, uninspiring output. For $5 maybe, but not for $10.
Would this do a MacBook Pro any good?
@gominosensei no. It only delivers 5v through the USB-C connector, not the USB power delivery spec. I’m not sure if there is a battery pack that does that, but I’m willing to bet if there is that someone will let us know about it below.
@gominosensei I was wondering that too since my wall plug is 87, yet this was pictured with a MacBook in the product photos. Would be a cool idea to have something charged up and in the camera bag, but it figures it’d be too good to be true.
@djslack @gominosensei There are a few USB-PD battery packs that can a) trickle charge or b) semi-normal charge a MacBook Pro.
MacBook 12" (and iPad Pro 10.5/11/12.9) can accept up to 30W of charging via USB-PD.
MacBook Pro 13" and 15" can use 61W and 87W of charging via USB-PD
USB-PD battery packs range on average 18W (9V/2A), 30W (15V/2A or 20V/1.5A), or 45W (15V/3A or 20V/2.25A). I believe there might be some that can hit 60W but haven’t really checked it out.
So you can probably use a 30W/45W USB-PD battery pack on a MacBook Pro, as long as you’re not using discrete graphics. Basically a MacBook Pro (with basic web browsing) would use integrated graphics, so it probably wouldn’t go above 30W of actual usage. But if you’re video editing or gaming, then you’ll probably hit 60W+ of usage and the USB-PD battery pack won’t keep up.
Do you think this is Meh’s way of wishing the universe a Happy Earth Day?
I am sure somewhere out there is an wngineer who wanted to help smart phone users and a marketer saying it was the greatest thing ever! And we believe the marketer.
Will we ever learn Lucy moves the ball?
Even though I got the larger non-cabled one recently this will be useful for an upcoming UK trip when we will use usb-c Fi phones- especially since my wife’s is my old Nexus whose battery doesn’t hold a charge well now.
“Built-in USB-C Cable: 5V 2.4A”.
Thanks, but no. 9v at 2.4A maybe. 12v at 2a sure. But 5v at 2.4A? Sorry, I need a charger that charges my phone faster than it drains.
@MWPollard As someone who has helped work on a few battery packs (professionally as an engineer), I can easily say that almost universally, you will find that anything using USB plugs for power delivery will be done in 5V ratings. And for most phones and tablets (save for a very select, but growing handful of Qualcomm quickcharge models or similar), 2.4A is the maximum that the devices will allow. By the standard equation of P=V*I, this is pushing exactly 12W, which not only maxes the devices, but also what you would likely want from such a portable lithium battery system as well, due to the heat constraints to charging and discharging, the complexity of a BMS for that battery design, and especially at anywhere near this price. Will this be useful for charging larger devices, like laptops? Not at all, again because of the total power - not a factor of voltage. It also wouldn’t last long with such a small capacity either, truthfully. And as it has been pointed out, it isn’t recommended for use as a pass through point (power from the wall in at the same time as charging any device), which would indicate a simple BMS design.
@arosiriak @MWPollard USB-C with PD maxes out at 100 watts. The Power Delivery specification allows negotiating the voltage up to 20.0 volts, in tenth of a volt steps. This is possible with microprocessor controlled switching power supplies. Some versions of the USB-C connector can handle up to 5 amps. USB-C PD cables contain a chip that the microprocessor can read to learn the cable’s current rating.
A common battery management system is just more code in the microprocessor.
To get battery life like in a good electric car requires active thermal management. If you think about it, a Tesla Semi is an experimental mobile power bank. The charge rate is more than 0.3 megawatts now, and I expect that to reach a megawatt as they refine the technology. The capacity is also being improved through hardware upgrades. That could easily exceed a megawatt hour in the production models, if the customers are willing to pay for it. Tesla has demonstrated far larger fixed installations. The Tesla charging connector also supports negotiating voltage and current levels, but at this time it is not compatible with USB-C.
Remember, you don’t carry a Tesla power bank, a Tesla power bank carries you.
@arosiriak @hamjudo
Samsung (and Verizon) chargers (not battery packs) are 24w. I have a number of them, Yes, they use Qualcomm Quick Charge, but that’s used by most phones on the market now. I realize battery tech will have additional thermal concerns, but it clearly should not be an issue that requires Tesla to overcome.
And since I want my phone to charge in a reasonable timeframe, that’s a feature I consider extremely important.
Not bad. Just a little on the small side
@xEBRONx TWSS
@therealjrn @xEBRONx
When is that “joke” going to die?
@goldnectar @therealjrn @xEBRONx Not as long as there are he’s and she’s… [and as long as the he’s think size matters]- which I have no opinion on…, but many she’s do…
/giphy size matters
@goldnectar I think your reply unfairly painted a bit broadly with that brush… @xEBRONx was correct.
Specs
What’s in the Box?
2x 5000mAh powerbanks
Price Comparison
$59.90 (for 2) at Amazon
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Monday, July 13th - Thursday, July 16th
Too small. But it does look like you can charge the power pack while it’s charging something, but in the picture that shows that, it also looks like it’s charging a laptop.
/image low power capacity
@eonfifty I think the laptop picture is showing pass-through charging. I need something like this for my car (where my car’s USB ports only output 5-7W), but I can rely on the power brick to output 12W for me. Decisions decisions…
@eonfifty the manual says “Do not charge the Power Bank and an electronic device at the same time. This will shorten the life of the battery.”
Decent design, but $10 for 5000mAh, too expensive! $10 for 10,000mAh, yes. $5 for 5000mAh, yes. $10 for 5000mAh, not a chance. Go for the USB-C plug, the wall plug, and drop the extraneous USB-A plug and cut the price.
decorative-spotty-fold
I bought 2 of these and when i got them they were in bad condition. They were filthy and both were bent in different areas. One of them was used, very dirty around the power button. The boxes were crushed and dirty, my hands actually got dirty from handling the boxes. I was under the impression that these were new items that was sold on this site. Now i have to wast my time and energy trying to send these things back.
I just charged one of these up for the first time and the battery had swollen up. Has anyone else experienced this issue with any of theirs?